Before the Civil War, many escaped enslaved African Americans made their way to freedom by crossing the Ohio River from Kentucky into the State of Ohio in Cincinnati. Just a block from where hundreds of Blacks crossed there is the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The museum was opened in 2004 and is unique among sites to visit for those looking into the history of the Civil War Era. The 158,000 square foot building was put up for 110 million dollars. More than 180,000 visitors go to the museum every year.
The exterior of the building is made from travertine from Tivoli, Italy. It is located at 50 E. Freedom Way Cincinnati, Ohio 45202. It is between the ball park where the Reds play and the stadium where the Bengals disappoint every year.
The Underground Railroad was important for helping individual African Americans escape from slavery and also because it created an uncertainty in the minds of slaveholders that the human beings they kept in bondage were not entirely under their control. While thousands of slaves went on the run before the Civil War, and millions did not, white Southerners became so obsessed with the escapees that they passed Federal legislation that overrode Northern states prohibitions on returning Blacks to slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act was a major violation of States Rights beginning in 1850. Slaveowners hired armed men to go into Northern states to recapture these Black refugees. Sometimes the attempted recapture sparked violence from the local civilian population and converted many Northerners into anti-slavery activists. The Underground Railroad helped to start the Civil War.
The exterior of the Freedom Center is a modern structure consisting of three floors. The permanent museum is on the third floor. Movies, lectures, and special exabits on on the first two floors as well as a well-stocked gift shop and book store.
The area the museum is build was called Little Africa because Free Blacks built a neighborhood which meant that those slaves who made it across the river could get help.
In the entrance to the Freedom Center there is a bronze statue of a mother and child trying to escape towards freedom. There are several realistic sculpture of both those involved in the slave trade and those who were enslaved. There are also a number of original works of art scattered throughout the museum.
The sculpture reminds us that the families that embarked on the Underground Railroad not only put their own lives in danger, but their children as well. Children could be killed by slave catchers or watch their parents die. If they were captured the child might be tortured or separated from their parents by being sold away.
We were moved by the distress of the child and the attempt by the mother to calm his fears.
The mother only has what she can fit into a bindle for all the years of work that she and her family performed for white slaveowners.
The first museum exhibit tells the story of how the system of race-based slavery came to America, as well as an overview of the abolitionist impulse.
Next is a focus on the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The trade in kidnapped Africans started nearly two hundred years before the United States was founded. It was fostered by Spain, Portugal, France, and England and it brought slaves to most regions in North, South, and Central America, as well as to colonized islands in the Caribbean. The racism constructed during the slave trade still has after effects today.
The panels give a demographic impact of the importation of slaves to the New World.
The first exhibit depicts statues representing both enslavers and slaves as they land in the New World on a Caribbean island. Chattel Slavery involved many countries on three continents. The slavers are from different European countries working out a deal to sell and buy captive Africans on an island just captured from its indigenous population.
Black slaves for sale under the watch of a European guard.
Obviously the bronze statues don’t do justice to the colors of the men, but their faces and bodies are so realistic.
The commercial part of enslavement is highlighted by the extensive displays of shackles and chains to control Africans while they are being transported and sold as slaves. People were chained up even before they left Africa.
While slaves would be used in manufacturing and construction, during the early days of slavery most were used in commercial agricultural pursuits, like growing sugar in the Caribbean, Louisiana, and other places in the Deep South. Below are displayed sugar cones which people bought at stores. Next them is a sugar nipper which was used by the purchaser to snip off sugar from the cone.
While much of sugar production took place outside the United States, it helped bring the new republic in contact with the old colonies in the Caribbean.
Another commercial crop was tobacco. Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina were the heart of the tobacco growing region. Below are tobacco leaves being hung out to dry on a frame.
While the importance of the international slave trade can’t be overestimated, there was also internal slaver trade. As the United States expanded, slaves were brought out west when new territories were acquired.
The museum also shows the development of the Abolition Movement as slavery spread. An anti-slavery press started covering the conditions of slaves and their escape to the North as well as providing theological reasons for ending slavery.
There are also biographies of rising Abolitionists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who became women suffragettes.
Susan B. Anthony from Rochester was a leader in the fight against slavery.
Margaret Garner was an enslaved African American who made her escape from slavery with her family. Slave catchers cornered the family and her husband shot at them but they were captured. Before they could be taken Margaret killed her two year old daughter. The family was returned to slavery.
In 1867 Thomas Satterwhite Noble painted The Modern Medea based on the Garner story. The original painting is on display in the museum. Toni Morrison used the story as a basis for her novel Beloved.
The next scene captured in bronze is a man escaping from slavery. He is still in the South hiding in the woods with a look of fear on his face.
He has a small bundle with some food for his journey.
On the hands of the refugee is a broken shackle.
While there were many crops grown by slaves, the most common was cotton. Cotton made slavery one of the most important elements of the 19th Century’s Industrial Revolution and it united the Northern states, Britain, and other parts of Europe in their dependance on slavery to advance their economies and the wealth of their industrialists.
The museum describes the contributions of anti-slavery activists to freedom. Salmon P. Chase got his start as a lawyer in Cincinnati where he defended runaway slaves.
Chase was honored by the African Americans of Cincinnati for his work for freedom.
Chase was honored for his defense of escaped slave Samuel Watson.
One of several works of art is this sculpture made up of iron shackles.
The horse symbolizes the transfer of slaves to the West where Native American tribes held slaves, or sometimes offered sanctuary for runaways.
The next section looks at popular representations of Black people, beginning with Uncle Tom who went from helping freedom seekers in Uncle Tom’s Cabin to becoming a subservient slave in later plays.
The next part of the freedom struggle involved the Civil War. The museum focuses on the United States Colored Troops who helped liberate thousands of slaves.
The museum displays several armaments including this 42lbs shot.
Uniforms, equipment, swords, pistols, and muskets of the United States Colored Troops are displayed.
As the museum says, it was heroic for abolitionists, runaway slaves, and conductors on the Underground Railroad to confront enslavers, but it took the Civil War to free four million African Americans.
The museum also tells the story of Black men serving in the United States Navy. The navy had allowed some Blacks to join even before the war, but its recruiting was vastly increased after 1862.
There is also attention paid to the medical corps, with Black nurses and support staff including both men and women.
The drum of an African American regiment.
A regimental flag.
A carbine.
Next, Reconstruction is presented.
While the hopes were high in 1865 and 1866, white terrorism quickly took hold under the auspices of the Ku Klux Klan.
From the museum there is a porch where you can see the Ohio River and the slave state of Kentucky. Before the Civil War Blacks called the Ohio the “River Jordan” because crossing over it helped make a Black family free.
Overlooking the river is an eternal flame holding out hope of freedom.
In the Reconstruction pavilion, African Americans who had previously been depicted in rags now have some middle class clothes and accountrements.
There is also a wagon representing conductors who made false bottoms to their wagons to hide Black refugees.
The slave pen has been re-erected in the museum. It was built in 1830 in Mason County, Kentucky and was used to house slaves being stored for shipment to be auctioned off. The pen is two stories high with women being on the first floor and men on the second where they were held until market conditions were favorable for their “owner” to sell them.
The pen, or jail, was a lock-up for several days or weeks.
After spending two hours in the Freedom Center, we went across the river to Newport, Kentucky. Cincinnati had a large German population during the Civil War and many of its leaders were Abolitionists. Many more joined the Union Army when the war broke out. My wife and wanted to try one of several German restaurants and we decided Hofbrauhaus, a large beer garden, for a meal. It is located at 200 3rd St, Newport, KY 41071.
The restaurant is large with tables that can seat ten of more people.
Of course, I had a home-brew.
The beer is brewed behind the bar.
The food is moderately priced, between $20 to $30 and is plentiful.
In the back there is an outdoor garden where you can also get your lunch.
Many people crowd into the Garden in late September and early October to celebrate Octoberfest.
If you like wursts, pork, and beef you will like this place. My wife is a vegetarian and she enjoyed the German salad.
Note: All color photos of buildings in this post were taken by Patrick Young except as noted.
