^{Friends of Justice} 

Black slaves who risked their lives as conductors and lookouts to aide fugitives were extremely important in the abolition movement and the Underground Railroad.

 

Often slaves served as lookouts or risked their lives as conductors, guiding slaves through unfamiliar terrain in the dark and early morning hours. However, it has only been of recent that historians and scholars have recognized the brave contributions of black slaves as freedom fighters.

Local to our Ohio River Valley was a man named Arnold Gragston who was a local conductor and also a slave. His dangerous work will never be forgotten.  As both conductor for the underground railroad and as a slave from Mason County, Gragston recounts in his WPA Narrative his work. 

 

For more information, about the WPA slave narratives, visit the Library of Congress.

 

^{the Rev. John Rankin, Presbyterian minister and abolitionist leader, provides significant insight to the philosophy of the "then" anti-slavery activist. His plea was made to "friends of justice", whites and free blacks that believed slavery was immoral and unjust.  "Suffering humanity" references not only whites, and free blacks but the slaves who risked their lives as well, to serve as conductors for the UGRR. The efforts of every individual - regardless of race, creed, color or class - would eventually destroy slavery. Before the Civil Rights era, before the blood had been shed during the Civil War, Rankin and his supporters in the "Borderland" were supported a community of truth - believers of equality - freedom fighters for liberty and justice for all.} 

Rankin House - National Underground Railroad to Freedom Network