The Role of Washington County, Ohio in the Success of the Underground Railroad
Gone, gone, --sold and gone
To the rice-swamps dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters, --
Woe is me, my stolen daughters!"
(Whittier in Hamilton, pg. 105)
Families torn apart, humans sold on auction blocks, using humans for animal labor. These tragedies along with the words of the Quaker poet John Whiittier are just the beginning when trying to explain the motivation for abolitionists helping to free slaves.
The Underground Railroad was a path to safety and freedom for thousands of slaves before the Civil War. Escaping from the chains, confinement and abuse of slavery was no easy task and it took the cooperation of many people to make escape possible. The anti-slavery movement created this path to guide and protect escaped slaves on their way to Canada, the freedom land. Many slaves traveled through Ohio on their journey and were assisted by Ohio residents. My research paper will answer the question: What role did Washington County, Ohio, play in the success of the Underground Railroad?
Limitations and Delimitations
While there were many states, slaves and abolitionists involved in the Underground Railroad, certain restrictions must be placed on the research. The research in this paper will only cover four stations and their conductors from Washington County, Ohio. The paper will take you on a trip through this county from a slaves point of view. Although the history and origin of slavery will not be covered in this paper, the feelings and thoughts of the slaves on their journeys will be depicted.
Fugitive slaves, or runaway slaves, were fleeing a life of hardship and confinement for a life of h...
... middle of paper ...
...hat even bloodhounds will not scent out (Cosner, pg. 85).
WORKS CITED
Hamilton, Virginia. Many Thousand Gone . New York: Scholastic, Inc, 1993.
Blockson, Charles L. The Underground Railroad . New York: Prentice Hall, 1982.
Cosner, Sharon. The Underground Railroad . New York: Venture, 1991.
DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk . New York: Penguin Books, 1989.
Burke, Henry R. Journeys on the Underground Railroad . Marietta, OH: The Underground Railroad Research Center, 1995.
Douglas, Fredrick. Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas, An American Slave . New York: Penguin Classics, 1986.
"Underground Railroad." World Book Encyclopedia . 1992 ed.
"Underground Railroad." Encyclopedia Americana . 1972 ed.
Burke, Henry R. Personal Interview. 22 October 1996.
Burke, Henry R. E-mail to Author. 18 November 1996.
Douglass, Frederick. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave: Written by Himself (ed. John Blassingame) Yale University Press, 2001.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. Professor David Hennessy, 1845.
“That the strong might not injure the weak, in order to protect widows and orphans.” First Hammurabi was the ruler of Babylonia for 42 years. In addition he created 282 laws with the god of justice Shamash. He created these laws to keep order to Babylonia. Hammurabi's code is just because of the personal injury laws and the property laws.
“Off with the hands” said Hammurabi. This happened because a surgeon has killed a patient with a bronze lancet. Hammurabi had stated his rule only ruling Babylon he ruled this city-state for 30 of his 42 years in rule. Later he took victories in Mari and Larsa in order to have a giant kingdom. Then in his 38th year of rule he created his code which consisted of 282 laws which were carved on a large pillar like stone. Hammurabi’s code was not just as it explains in Family law, Property law, and Personal Injury law.
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
These laws promote the welfare of his people, their land and property, much like many governmental structures around the world today. Hammurabi states that he created these laws to maintain an equal balance to insure “that the strong might not oppress the weak.” King Hammurabi strongly believed that he was chosen to by the gods to bring “justice to the oppressed.” This is much like the role of Moses in The Book of Exodus, who was also summoned to provide justice and protection. By creating these laws in a way he tried combat violence with fear. If the individuals know what will happen if they break these rules, they will become hesitant to commit the crime. While his consequences may seem inhumane and cruel today, this historic document allows us to view what life might have been like in the city-state of Babylon during this time and made way for varies other types of governmental structures that formed in the following
Douglass's narrative is, on one surface, intended to show the barbarity and injustice of slavery. However, the underlying argument is that freedom is not simply attained through a physical escape from forced labor, but through a mental liberation from the attitude created by Southern slavery. The slaves of the South were psychologically oppressed by the slaveholders' disrespect for a slave’s family and for their education, as well as by the slaves' acceptance of their own subordination. Additionally, the slaveholders were trapped by a mentality that allowed them to justify behavior towards human beings that would normally not be acceptable. In this manner, both slaveholder and slave are corrupted by slavery.
Douglass, Frederick. “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987.
Many have always questioned if bottled water or tap water is better for themselves and the environment. Bottled water has many conveniences and is needed, or even wanted, by many people in the United States and all over the world. Water bottles is just not a want for some, it is a necessity. This essay will convince you of the reasons why bottled water is superior to tap water. Not only will you find out why it is superior but why it is important to always have bottled water available to everyone.
Americans use a lot of water, in fact the average American uses 90 gallons a day. (SF) Then it is not too surprising to learn America also has one the cleanest water reserves in the world. (CDC) A surprising statistic, however, is one-third of the American population drinks bottled water on a regular basis, when the majority have clean drinking water at home. (NRDC) This might be because the bottled water industry has promoted itself as a healthier and more portable alternative to tap water. However is it really any safer or better than tap water, or is it only a misleading and expensive gimmick to bring in money for large companies?
Conversations often turn into arguments when the topic of bottled water versus tap water comes up. Many say that tap water is simply unsafe while others argue that the chemicals in the plastic bottles release toxic or harmful substances into our bodies as well as the environment. However, some humans consume water from public water systems, personal wells, or even bottled water; whichever is most convenient for each particular lifestyle. Some of many reasons why tap water is the more logical choice are that it is cost-effective, suitable for the environment, and healthier for human consumption.
The Underground Railroad despite occurring centuries ago continues to be an “enduring and popular thread in the fabric of America’s national historical memory” as Bright puts it. Throughout history, thousands of slaves managed to escape the clutches of slavery by using a system meant to liberate. In Colson Whitehead’s novel, The Underground Railroad, he manages to blend slave narrative and history creating a book that goes beyond literary or historical fiction. Whitehead based his book off a question, “what if the Underground Railroad was a real railroad?” The story follows two runaway slaves, Cora and Caesar, who are pursued by the relentless slave catcher Ridgeway. Their journey on the railroad takes them to new and unfamiliar locations,
Hammurabi’s code was a just law system that used the influence of gods and harsh punishments to scare people away from crime to maintain the order of his society. Hammurabi was an 18th century BCE king in Babylonia, in addition to his big title he was famous for the creation of a 282 law code. His laws were very exact in that there was a law for any situation. These laws are famous for the harsh punishments Hammurabi allotted for crimes committed by people living under his rule. The question asked when looking at his laws are were they just? But if you look at the categories of family, property and injury it is clear that they are.
Some people may think that bottled water just goes through filters that get rid of the chemicals that are contained within it, and while they are not wrong they are, however, still uniformed. Bottled water is not only taken from streams and filter but “40% of all bottled water is taken from municipal water sources [a.k.a tap water]” (Bottled Water Pros and Cons. 2014. Para. 9). People drink bottled water so that they do not have to drink tap water when in reality they most likely are drinking some tap water that is mixed into their bottled water. On top of that not only has the bottled water been filtered but it has been found that “22% of tested bottled water brands contained chemical contaminants at levels above strict state health” (Bottled Water Pros and Cons. 2014. Para. 9). In other words, though the water may not have the same weird taste as tap water is does have chemicals in it that are at levels that are not safe to be consuming. When it comes to tap water which contains normal amounts of chemicals, bottled water is not safer to be
The abolition movement brought up new ideas and feelings towards events that were going on like slavery, freedom of religion,and etc. . This essay will talk about some of the original abolitionist and what there involvement to everything was. It will discuss the northwest ordinance and what it did to prevent slavery. Lastly the essay will discuss the underground railroad and its founding mother Harriet Tubman and the impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” had on the removal of slavery.