Synopses & Reviews
Beyond the River brings to brilliant life the dramatic story of the forgotten heroes of the Ripley, Ohio, line of the Underground Railroad.The decades preceding the Civil War were rife with fierce sectarian violence along the borders between slave and free states. The Ohio River was one such border. Here in the river towns of Ohio and Kentucky, abolitionists and slave chasers confronted each other during the "war before the war." Slave masters and bounty hunters chased runaway slaves from Kentucky into Ohio, hoping to catch their quarry before the slaves disappeared on the underground path to freedom. In the river town of Ripley, the slave hunters inevitably confronted John Rankin and his determined, courageous colleagues.
One of the early abolitionist leaders, Rankin began his career when he wrote a series of letters denouncing his brother's recent purchase of a slave in Virginia. The letters were collected and published as Letters on American Slavery and influenced William LloydGarrison, among others. Rankin, a Presbyterian minister and a farmer, bought property on a high hilltop overlooking Ripley and the Ohio River. His house was visible for miles into Kentucky, and he hung a lantern at night to help guide runaways. He and his fellow abolitionists, both black and white, formed the front line of freedom, and some of them paid a high price for it.
In 1838, abolitionist John B. Mahan, a colleague of Rankin's, was lured into a trap and transported to Kentucky for one of the most celebrated trials of the era. Charged with breaking Kentucky laws, even though he had not been in the state for nearly twenty years, he was imprisoned in a windowless cell for three months, shackled at his wrists and ankles. At his trial, slaveholders tried in vain to identify and break the Ripley line "conductors."
Another celebrated conductor on the Ripley line, John Parker, a former slave himself, was regarded as the most daring of the Ohio abolitionists. He made dozens of trips across the river into Kentucky to bring out slaves trying to escape, risking his life and his own freedom every time.
Ann Hagedorn moved to Ripley from her home in New York City to research and write this book. Ripley's historic area is little changed from antebellum days, and Rankin's house still stands high on the hill behind the town. With this enthralling and compelling book, she has restored John Rankin and the Ohio abolitionists to their proper place in American history as heroes of the Underground Railroad.
Review
Carl Westmoreland
Senior Advisor, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
With firm, powerful language and with well-documented historical accuracy, Ann Hagedorn allows us to expand the definition of abolitionist heroes to include women, youth, and people of African descent, and to understand that the most heroic were those who had been enslaved and had made the most difficult part of the journey with the help of other enslaved people.
Review
Staughton Lynd
author of Intellectual Origins of American Radicalism
History worth remembering is likely to have been made by men and women who cared about ideals and took risks for them. Nothing in the history of the United States more closely approaches this notion of history worth remembering than the Underground Railroad.
Synopsis
The decades before the Civil War were rife with sectarian violence along the borders between slave and free states. The Ohio River was one such border, separating the slave state of Kentucky from the free state of Ohio. Here, often closely pursued by slave chasers, runaway slaves tried to make the dangerous crossing into freedom. Waiting to help them achieve their goal was preacher and farmer John Rankin and his associates in Ripley, a town known in Kentucky as "that abolitionist hellhole, " on the free side of the Ohio.
One of the early leaders of the abolitionist movement, Rankin's mesmerizing story began with a series of letters he wrote to persuade his brother in Virginia to abandon slavery. He succeeded, and his letters, collected and published as Letters on American Slavery, became one of the most famous and influential abolitionist documents. (Famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison called Rankin his "anti-slavery father.") Rankin and his associates (who included free blacks) were the front line of the anti-slavery movement, passing fugitive slaves along the road to freedom farther north. A sensational trial in Kentucky in the 1830s -- described in this book -- threatened to expose the Ripley line conductors, but Rankin and his large family continued to rescue runaways, even risking their lives to face down slave chasers.
In this inspiring work of history, author Ann Hagedorn, who moved to Ripley to research and write this book, restores John Rankin and the Ohio abolitionists to their proper place in American history, alongside Harriet Tubman, as heroes of the Underground Railroad.
About the Author
Ann Hagedorn was born in Dayton, Ohio. An author and journalist, she has written for several newspapers, including
The Wall Street Journal, The San Jose Mercury News, and
The Washington Post. She has taught at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. She is the author of two previous books,
Wild Ride: The Rise and Tragic Fall of Calumet Farm, Inc., and
Ransom: The Untold Story of International Kidnapping. She currently divides her time between Ripley, Ohio, and Chicago, Illinois.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface: A Double Life
Part I: THE WAR BEFORE THE WAR
1. The Kindling and the Spark
2. Visions and Ideals
3. On the Wings of His Words
4. River of Anguish
5. "My Dear Brother"
6. The Lantern in the Window
7. 1831
8. Speak Truth to Power
9. Family
10. Agitation
11. Mobocracy
12. The Seventy
13. Two Abductions and a Murder
Part II: 1838
14. Waves Break on Either Shore
15. "Mercy Enough?"
16. The Trap
17. "The Matter Is Highly Mysterious"
18. Exposing the Chain
19. "These Men Are Dangerous"
20. The Unappeasable Spirit
Part III: MIDNIGHT ASSASSINS
21. A New Season
22. Double or Nothing
23. By Fire and Sword
24. "Thus Have I Been Attacked"
25. "A Victim of the Slave Power"
26. Parker's Ferry
27. With Spur and Rein
28. Neighbors
Part IV: BEYOND THE RIVER
29. Prison Doors
30. The Quickening Flow
31. Broken Vessel
32. Echoes
Acknowledgments Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index