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“Beyond the River brings
to life the story of John Rankin and the forgotten heroes of
the Ripley, Ohio, line of the Underground Railroad during the
fierce "war before the war" between abolitionists
and slave chasers along the banks of the Ohio River.
“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
captivating 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. All
these events were swirling around the Woodsmalls in Oldham,
Jefferson and Shelby Counties.
"Eliza"
from the famed book called "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
crossed the Ohio River into safety. The story within the book
was based upon a true incident which involved a runaway slave
who escaped and crossed the Ohio River into Ripley and made
her way to freedom.
"Filming
began July 21, 2003 in Ripley, on the film Brothers of the
Borderland. This film will be shown on an
ongoing basis at the new National Underground Railroad Freedom
Center now under construction in Cincinnati, Ohio."
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