Paving the Way for Freedom -- Ohio Before the Civil War: Underground Railroad, Race Riots, Abolitionists; Historical Collections of Ohio; Reminiscences of Levi Coffin

Years before the first shot was fired at Fort Sumner, Ohio was playing a leading role in the drama that in retrospect seems to have been inevitable. Ohio historian Henry Howe, traveled the state before and after the war, in 1846 and again in 1886, and from his vivid first-hand accounts we have gleaned tales of fugitive slaves, underground railroads, race riots and abolitionists, in and out of public office. To this we have added some first hand accounts of Ohio's Underground Railroad from Levi Coffin. We've compiled the information in this NEW spiral-bound 71-page booklet, comprised of excerpts from: Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio (1896 edition) and Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, published in 1899. The booklet is printed on 8.5" x 11" paper. The front cover is protected by a vinyl sheet. Pro- and Anti-slavery sentiments were expressed in many quarters long before the Revolutionary War, but the pot really began to boil during the three decades before the fall of Fort Sumner. Stirring the pot were the abolitionists, and these came in many varieties, from intellectuals, authors and out-spoken preachers, to undercover engineers on the Underground Railroad and martyrs and extremists destined for the gallows. Contents include: Abolitionists Lyman Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, Congressmen Giddings and Wade, John Brown, Edwin Coppock, and Samuel P. Chase, Cabinet member; The Underground Railway, Robert Fee and the Kidnappers, Rev. John Rankin of Ripley, Levi and Catharine Coffin, Eliza Harris's Escape (Uncle Tom's Cabin), The Margaret Garner Case, Richard Dillingham, Court Cases & Fugitives, The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue Case, Capture and Suicide Case, Riots/Hatred Destruction of the Philanthropist Newspaper, Race Hatred in Waverly, Granville Riot, Getting Close to War, Four votes for Lincoln, Ohio's First Volunteer, and tales of passengers on the Underground Railroads. This is one of three Civil War booklets on Ohio that we have compiled largely from Henry Howe's invaluable work. The other two ("Ohio's Forgotten Episodes of the Civil War" and "Ohio: Leading the Yankees to Victory in the Civil War") are also available. …