Running for 664 miles along Kentucky's border, the Ohio River provided a remarkable opportunity for the enslaved to escape to free soil in Indiana and Ohio. The river beckoned fugitive slave Henry Bibb onto a steamboat at Madison, Indiana, headed to Cincinnati, where he discovered the Underground Railroad. Upriver from Cincinnati, a lantern signal high on a hill from the Rankin House in Ripley, Ohio, stirred others to flee for freedom. These stories and more along the borderland of the Ohio River also served as the setting for Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which became an inspiration of human resistance. Author Nancy Theiss, PhD, takes readers on a tour through American history to places of courage and sacrifice.

Prior to the Civil War, thousands escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad. Untold others failed in the attempt. These unfortunate souls were dragged into bondage via the Reverse Underground Railroad, as it came to be called. With more lines on both roads than any other state, the Free State of Ohio became a hunting ground for slavecatchers and kidnappers who roamed the North with impunity, seeking "fugitives" or any person of color who could be sold into slavery. And when they found one, they would kidnap their victim and head south to reap the reward. David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker, authors of Historic Black Settlements of Ohio, reveal not only the terror and injustice but also the bravery and determination born of this dark time in American history.

The Little Miami Rail Road did not exist twelve years since--nor any other railway in the Valley of the Ohio--but now it is here, to take you on your journey with all the speed, comfort and convenience of any such road, in any country; and there are three thousand miles of railway in this valley! Year after year hundreds of miles are added to the number, and where it once took weeks to accomplish a journey, it now takes only hours! What a revolution! But the revolution is not in the gain of time only, nor even money. The great change is in society. Thousands meet now where tens could meet twenty years since. Look through these cars, and you see around, men, women and children going to see friends, or transact business, or seeking pleasure, where they would not have dreamed of going a few years since. Some are going only to the next town; some to the Lakes; some to the Atlantic; some to Europe; --and some, perhaps, will wander through old Jerusalem, or by the banks of Jordan, before they will again return. The Railroad and the Steamboat have made man almost ubiquitous on this little earth, and his fondness for novelty and change is gratified beyond the dreams of fancy. Where will this stop? No where, till this earth is inhabited by one family, dwelling together in peace and unity.