The Crossing at Scioto County / The Underground Railroad
Historic Underground Railroad Site
The Crossing at Scioto County (front)
The Ohio River was a formidable obstacle for escaping slaves. Many runaways from Kentucky were aided by James Poindexter, an African-American barber and local resident, who picked up fugitives in Kentucky and rowed them across the Ohio River to Portsmouth. After arriving on the Ohio side, they were sometimes hidden by another man of color, John Adams, in his home on Chillicothe Street near Eleventh.
Riverboat captain William McClain, whose principal route was between Cincinnati and Portsmouth, picked up runaways on the Kentucky side of the river and delivered them safely to the Portsmouth stations of Joseph Ashton and Milton Kennedy or northeast to J. J. Minor in South Webster.
Because slave catchers also crossed the Ohio River at this place, runaway slaves more often than not were taken as swiftly as possible to the next station north of town.
The Underground Railroad (back)
The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad, but a system of loosely connected safe havens where those escaping the brutal conditions of slavery were sheltered, fed, clothed, nursed, concealed, disguised, and instructed during their journey to freedom. Although this movement was one of America's greatest social, moral, and humanitarian endeavors, the details about it were often cloaked in secrecy to protect those involved from the retribution of civil law and slave-catchers. Ohio's history has been permanently shaped by the thousands of runaway slaves passing through or finding permanent residence in this state.
Marker is at the intersection of Chillicothe Street and 2nd Street (U.S. 23), on the right when traveling north on Chillicothe Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
