Beyond the River brings to brilliant life the dramatic story of the
forgotten heroes of the Ripley, Ohio, line of the Underground
Railroad.
From the highest hill above the town of Ripley, Ohio, you can see five
bends in the Ohio River. You can see the hills of northern Kentucky and
the rooftops of Ripley's riverfront houses. And you can see what the
abolitionist John Rankin saw from his house at the top of that hill,
where for nearly forty years he placed a lantern each night to guide
fugitive slaves to freedom beyond the river.
In Beyond the River, Ann Hagedorn tells the remarkable story of the
participants in the Ripley line of the Underground Railroad, bringing to
life the struggles of the men and women, black and white, who fought
"the war before the war" along the Ohio River. Determined in their
cause, Rankin, his family, and his fellow abolitionists--some of them
former slaves themselves--risked their lives to guide thousands of
runaways safely across the river into the free state of Ohio, even when
a sensational trial in Kentucky threatened to expose the Ripley
"conductors." Rankin, the leader of the Ripley line and one of the early
leaders of the antislavery movement, became nationally renowned after
the publication of his Letters on American Slavery, a collection of
letters he wrote to persuade his brother in Virginia to renounce
slavery.
A vivid narrative about memorable people, Beyond the River is an
inspiring story of courage and heroism that transports us to another era
and deepens our understanding of the great social movement known as the
Underground Railroad.
