Tagged: Underground Railroad

Ripley may seem like just another sleepy town on the Ohio River, but there was a time when it was a filled with secrets and controversies. In the days of slavery, this was part of the Borderlands that slaves crossed in order to make their way north to freedom in Canada. Ohio was always free, but slavery flourished just across the river in Kentucky.

An Ohio group is offering fresh flags to identify Underground Railroad stops that once helped slaves escape to freedom.

A volunteer group that publicizes Ohio's Underground Railroad history distributed flags that could be displayed to identify former stations in the state.  Now the group, called the Friends of Freedom Society, is offering new flags to replace those that are tattered and torn.

The Columbus Dispatch reports more than two dozen documented Underground Railroad stations have survived in central Ohio, and most are privately owned.  Three are run as museums.