The Underground Railroad / Black Conductors of Columbus
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.
Black Conductors of Columbus.
Early legislators did not want slavery In Ohio, nor did they
want Blacks to settle here. Declaring people of color a menace,
they passed the Black Laws. Outside the Statehouse, Blacks
went unnoticed. The turnover of black waiters and porters at
the Buckeye House aroused no suspicion. White customers overlooked barbers James Poindexter and Andrew Redmond. No one
saw John T. Ward, clerk at Zettler’s. These men were invisible
to all but the desperate faces secreted in attics, barns, smokehouses, and in wagons traveling northward at night to Clintonville.
Teamsters Louis Washington and his son Thomas were drivers.
“The UGRR was actually going on here in Columbus when I
came in 1828,” recounted James Poindexter. Conductors David
Jenkins, NB Ferguson, and John Bookel were all members of
Poindexter’s Antislavery Baptist Church.
In 1842, John T. Ward began assisting Shepherd Alexander
to convey runaway slaves through Columbus. William Washington,
William Ferguson, Jeremiah Freeland, and others were involved
as well. “Some one or the other of us was with Alexander
on every trip,” stated Ward.
Marker is on 3rd Street south of Broad Street (U.S. 40), on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
