Freedom Crossing and the Legacy of Hope

Cincinnati, Ohio was an important city in 1800's America. For most of that century, the Queen City was the largest city west of the Appalachian Mountains. The young and upcoming who's who in America came or resided here. It was also a contentious place, as slaves that crossed the Ohio River would be safer in Ohio on pursuit of freedom in Canada but also subject to the Fugitive Slave laws that required a slave's return to his/her master.

John A Roebling helped create a link between the slave south of Kentucky and the path to Freedom that lie in Ohio. Originally Charles Ellet had been asked to build a suspension bridge between Ohio and Kentucky at Cincinnati. Ellet was in the midst of a similar bridge crossing the Ohio river at Wheeling, Wv., but a windstorm collapsed part of the bridge. Ellet was ditched in favor of John A. Roebling, who created the marvelous bridge (above right, click to enlarge) that today connects Covington, KY with Cincinnati.

The John A Roebling Bridge was finished prior to the end of the Civil War but was not opened for traffic until 1865 and the war's end for fear of a mad rush of slaves trying to escape from the chains of bondage. Symbolically, the point today where the bridge crosses into Ohio is one of the most incredible museums in America, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (left, click to enlarge). It is at a balcony overlooking this bridge that your guided tour starts with aforementioned story.

The museum is a intertwined experience of audio, visual and hands on history of not just the story of slavery in America, but the fight for freedom throughout the ages right to current times. On the same level where you can gaze at the 140+ year old bridge you can listen to the stories of over-sized displays that bring history to life.

A two-story quilt (right, click to enlarge) weaves the story of Africans in America through the eyes of the Columbus artist who made it. It also tells the story of Ohio's place in the battle for the end of slavery with examples of a depiction of Black Codes passed immediately after Ohio's Constitutional ratification and the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation at the Ohio Statehouse.


A second over-sized mural shows the legacy of slavery in hues of black and white, each square telling a different tale (left, click to enlarge). Striking in its size and for its artistry, it sits directly in front of a slave pen.







The slave pen is an authentic structure from slavery days in Kentucky (right, click to enlarge). A barn was built around this slave pen and the pen was used to dry tobacco leaves through modern times. The nicotine in tobacco was a preservative and the slave pen is in pristine condition. A photo series shows the original pen and the story of bringing it to Cincinnati.


The pen was a two-storied structure where the bottom level housed female and young slaves, unbound but locked inside. The second story had a series of iron anchors in the wood where male slaves were chained along the center of the room, allowing about six feet of lateral movement. Windows were simple square openings with iron slats (left, click to enlarge).



There is a unique theater makes you feel as if you are sitting on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River looking across the river at Ripley, Ohio (right, click to enlarge). The short movie segments helps create the feeling of your daring escape across the river with the help of Reverend John Rankin (history here, past photo-blog here) and his boys.

The different wings of the museum trace the history of slavery in America from the Spanish arrival (right, click to enlarge) to the legacy of King Cotton in the 1800s (left, click to enlarge).


Beyond the ending of slavery at the conclusion
of the Civil War, there is a multi-media room that
projects images conjuring the fight for freedom in
many forms, from Civil Rights to Labor Movements
to modern fights across the planet for freedom.
(left, click to enlarge)



The museum addresses the issue
of slavery in a straight forward
approach, right down to what
should those of African decent
be called (left, click to enlarge)?
It may not be the best
stopping point for the young
school agers, who will not
understand the messages nor
the messengers. But few
museums offer this type of
experience in such a poignant
and lasting way.

- J.