Above; Harriet Tubman leading slaves to Freedom. Photo from PhotoBucket.com
Steve Edison, of the Abolition News Network, spoke on Thursday, January 21, 2016 at Friendship Village Sunset Hills. The Abolition News Network, ANN, is modeled on CNN, the cable news network. ANN does news interviews of historic figures related to the abolition movement in the United States before the American Civil War. Other topics related to abolition and slavery covered by ANN include:
• The transatlantic slave trade
• Slavery
• The underground railroad
• Indentured servants
• Opinions on slavery by religious leaders
• Opinions on slavery by literary figures
• The Constitution and slavery
• The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
• Dread Scott
On Thursday, Steve presented on the underground railroad featuring three prominent figures from the time:
• John Parker, underground railroad conductor
• Levi Coffee, underground railroad station master
• Eliza, underground railroad passenger, that is, an escaped slave
See three videos below from YouTube on the Underground Railroad
The interviews of these historic figures are available as videos on YouTube. The videos are below for your convenience.
John Parker, underground railroad conductor
Underground railroad conductor, John P. Parker, an iron foundry worker by day ferried a skiff every night across the Ohio River at Ripley, 50 miles southeast of Cincinnati, from 1846 to 1860, carrying escaped slaves to the home of underground railroad stationmaster John Rankin which was the beginning of the Underground Railroad to Canada. He tells a reporter how he enjoys outwitting dumb slave catchers and bounty hunters and never got caught. His home is now a museum on Front Street in Ripley Ohio. This is also where Eliza in Uncle Toms Cabin crossed the Ohio River from Dover, Kentucky in the winter of 1838 in the ice. See our video on the Real Eliza.
Levi Coffin, station master
Levi Coffin, President Underground Railroad
The Real Eliza Story of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
More about Steve and ANN
Steve Edison is the founder of the Abolition News Network, a nonprofit, and he has been producing the video interviews for about 20 years. He does the research, the writing, and the production work. He works at a pace of approximately 3 videos per month.
For more information on Abolition News Network please visit: http://abolitionnewsnetwork.org or call Steve Edison at 314-426-7519.
“Bonus” video
Rev Moses Dickson of the African Methodist Church, St. Louis, MO, Dec 15, 1872
Moses Dickson is the namesake of the Father Dickson Cemetery on Sappington Road, just south of Big Bend Road and north of the Sappington House.
With this video, Abolition News Network introduces a series of videos on the subject of the viewpoints that major Christian denominations took on the abolition of slavery in the United States from the 18th century up to the Civil War as told by their ministers. Discussions include not only their personal viewpoint on keeping slaves but what the Bible says by chapter and verse on the subject, and what they feel that God’s position is on slaves and slavery which they find is considerably buried in the Holy Scriptures.
