Tales of Ohio's Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a macabre dance between good and evil, and in the upside-down world of pre-Civil War America, the law was firmly on the side of evil. In Ohio, communities of scofflaw abolitionists guided freedom seekers by the use of beacons and signals, constructing tunnels and secret rooms and creating the popular song "Darling Nelly Gray," which was sung by both Union and Confederate troops. Ohioans also played a role in giving the Underground Railroad its name. Many heroes, both Black and white--from John Parker, William Mitchell and Sally Hudson to John Rankin, Levi Coffin and John Mahan--risked and sometimes sacrificed their lives for the cause. Join the father-and-daughter writing team of David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker as they explore secret tunnels, hidden rooms, coded messages and other truths, half-truths and outright lies about the "Upperground Railroad," as Frederick Douglass argued it should be rightfully called.
What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
YOU CAN KICK THE BOY OUT OF THE BAND... Some fifty years after Zack Black & the Blues Attack broke-up, the surviving members of the band still hadn't come to terms with it. For Wes Kennedy and Evan Bishop, the wounds still hadn't healed. But things were different for Will Black even since he met Audrey Taylor, Zack's beautiful and wealthy widow. You might say his life had landed "jelly side up." Although he was ready to move on, the past just wouldn't let him. BUT YOU CAN'T KICK THD BAND OUT OF THE BOY!
Original Ohio: Dreamsville, The Magic City & Other Historic Ohio Communities
Every community begins with a dream - a dream of a better life. Home to thousands of settlements extending as far back as 13,000 years ago, Ohio has seen most of its architectural history fall to the wrecking ball. But there is still history all around if we know where to look. Located south of Dayton, SunWatch is the best-known Fort Ancient Indian village in the United States. On the other side of the state, Marietta is the oldest permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory. About fifty miles southeast of Cincinnati, antebellum Ripley grew to prominence as a bastion of abolitionism. Dennison, also known as Dreamsville, was born virtually overnight thanks to the railroads. Authors David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker reveal twenty-one communities where the Ohio story can still be seen.
OHIO ECCENTRICS
Ohio has produced more than its share of eccentric men and women, whose peculiar ideas, bizarre behaviors, and outlandish antics have served to make the world more interesting. Among them are a Native who accurately predicted a solar eclipse in 1896, a failed merchant who convinced people the Earth was hollow in 1818, sisters who fell out of favor with the women's rights movement in the nineteenth century because they were too scandalous--or perhaps too progressive--and a minister who became convinced in 1908, that the Garden of Eden was in Southern Ohio. From John C. Chapman and Annie Oakley to Rahassan Roland Kirk, authors David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker illuminate Ohioans who took the road less traveled and sometimes one that wasn't even there.
BUCKING THE TIGER: The Life and Times of John Alexander, The Black Prince of Gambling
John Alexander was the greatest African American gambler of the 19th century and a folk hero to his race. But that wasn't half the story. Could he and his childhood playmate, not to mention future President of the United States Benjamin Franklin, have share a grandfather...former President William Henry Harrison?
Not too warm to die: the LIFE AND TIMES OF MARY F. MCCRAY, BORN AND RAISED A SLAVE IN THE STATE OF KENTUCKY
In Thomas K. Doty's introduction to the autobiography of Evangelist A.J. Foote, he wrote that Mrs., Foote was "guilty of three crimes" -- she was Black, she was a woman, and she was an evangelist. Had he written an introduction to Fannie's story, he could have said the same, before adding she was born into slavery, illiterate, a wife, and mother. While never a celebrity in Evangelical circles, she endeavored to do God's work in her own, quieter way. This is an account of her extraordinary life.