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Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad
 
 
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Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad (Paperback)

~ (Author) "There was a time when fierce passions swept this little town, dividing its people into bitter factions..." (more)
Key Phrases: John Rankin, Brown County, Mason County (more...)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
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Customers buy this book with His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad by John P. Parker

Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad + His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although the title suggests otherwise, this book could serve as a biography of John Rankin, one of Ohio's most active "conductors" on the Underground Railroad. Rankin (1793-1886), a Presbyterian minister and abolitionist in Ripley, where the Ohio River separated the free state of Ohio from the slave state of Kentucky, was equally well-known among the enslaved and their enslavers. To runaway blacks, Rankin's house was a gateway to freedom atop Ripley's highest hill. To slaveholders in Kentucky, Rankin was a formidable force in the borderland war with Ripley, that "abolitionist hellhole," on the other side of the river. One of the earliest leaders in the antislavery movement, Rankin published his Letters on American Slavery in 1823, which became standard reading for American antislavery advocates. Hagedorn (Ransom: The Untold Story of International Kidnapping) brings to life the story of Rankin, his family, free blacks and the other forgotten heroes on the front line who assisted hundreds of blacks on the trek to freedom. Rankin's story is inspiring, but often not as captivating as those of the other heroes who are secondary characters here. The author brilliantly chronicles threats of midnight assassins, riots in Cincinnati and a pivotal trial in Kentucky in the 1830s, and a slave woman's nighttime escape across the icy river with her two-year-old (and the woman's risky return across the Ohio three years later to rescue her daughter and seven grandchildren from a Kentucky slaveholder). Hagedorn's decision to relocate to Ripley during the book's completion no doubt inspired her immediate and vivid prose, bringing these historical figures to a wider audience.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Booklist

The town of Ripley, located on the Ohio River between the slave state of Kentucky and the free state of Ohio, was the site of clashes between abolitionists and slave hunters long before the start of the Civil War. Hagedorn brings to life lesser-known activists in the abolitionist movement who led double lives in a small town torn up over the issue of slavery. She focuses on the Reverend John Rankin, spurred by religious fervor to become a leading abolitionist, helping escaped slaves travel on to Canada during the early 1820s. Using historical documents, newspapers, and letters, Hagedorn captures a fervent era, when the Missouri Compromise, the invention of the cotton gin, and growing slave revolts all set the stage for roiling debate on slavery. Rankin and his family were part of a network of abolitionists that included Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Parker, a free black man who ventured south to guide slaves to freedom. Readers interested in the history of the abolitionist movement in the U.S. will appreciate this look at unsung heroes of the era. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 333 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 3, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0684870665
  • ISBN-13: 978-0684870663
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #568,816 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Ann Hagedorn
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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There was a time when fierce passions swept this little town, dividing its people into bitter factions. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
John Rankin, Brown County, Mason County, Front Street, Red Oak, New York, Adam Lowry, Eliza Jane Johnson, Clermont County, East Tennessee, Highland County, William Greathouse, Alexander Campbell, South Carolina, American Anti-Slavery Society, John Parker, Richard Calvin, Ripley College, New Orleans, James Gilliland, Ohio Valley, Ripley Anti-Slavery Society, The Castigator, William Lloyd Garrison, Isaac Beck
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4.7 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Celebrating the people of the Underground Railroad, February 9, 2003
By Carl Westmoreland (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Beyond the River: A True Story of the Underground Railroad (Hardcover)
I have read and reread Beyond the River by Ann Hagedorn. I have found the book to be compelling and believable. Ms. Hagedorn takes us beyond where most Americans are comfortable when it comes to examining the history of slavery, race, gender and class in America. With firm, powerful language, and with documented historical accuracy, she allows the reader to understand that Abolition was more complicated than the hiding of helpless people of African decent by the good Whites in the North and the bad Whites in the South. Ms. Hagedorn makes us understand that most Whites in the North did not support Abolition, and most Abolitionists did not support what we would today call integration.
She immerses the reader in the physical, political, and cultural landscape of Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky and the America of the 1830s-1860s. Her depiction of the "face off" between the sons of John Rankin, their mother (Rankin was out of town during the incident), and an armed group that attempted to burn the Rankin barn places the reader in the middle of the action.
When a man can pass on a noble idea to his sons and daughters, as well as to his neighbors, he has left a legacy. Sons and daughters often run from the awesome weight associated with their parents' "Moral Crusades." John Rankin's son Lowry resisted his father's urgings to become a "Major" in the war against slavery until hi witness the sale of a Black woman docked at Ripley (the Kentucky border extends north to the low water mark of the Ohio River) to a young man. The young woman was to serve as a mistress, a "sexual toy," to her new owner and in the tradition of the day she had no say in the matter. Ms. Hagedorn's description of the physical examination of the Black woman who was reduced to physical intrusions reserved for prostitiutes, felons and farm animals confronts the reader with a major unspoken element of slavery, sexual exploitation.
Interracial cooperation between Black and White Abolitionists did not occur on a widespread basis in America, but in the region which includes Ripley,Ohio a few partnerships of longstanding existed between Rev. John Mahan (Sardinia, Ohio), John D. Hudson (Gist Settlement), Moses Cumberland, and several other Black people who in the Gist Settlement became involved in several violent confrontations with those who assisted the "Slave Regime". During one confrontation in the Gist Settlement during wich time a group of 18 'vigilantes' were attempting to take Moses Cumberland into custudy the Black residents, John Mahan and his supporters rallied to his support. In the violence that followed John Hudson's sister Sally was shot in the back. Un-armed, Sally Hudson scratched, kicked, bit, fought, outfought Grant Lindsey, and another man on Sunday, April 30, 1839. Breaking free, Sally ran towards her home only to be shot, her spine severed: two weeks later she died.
Ann Hagedorn's pen has revived Sally Hudson's brave story, she has rescued Ms. Hudson from obscurity, and the trite images too often reserved for women. She captured Sally's fire, she has given Sally Hudson's passion for freedom, life and Sally's spirit is as big as that of any man who has walked thi earth. Ann Hagedorn allows us to legitimately, and with historic accuracy, expand the definition of Abolitionist Heroes to include women, youth, people of African descent, and to understand that the most heroic were those who had been enslaved and most of the time made the most diffucult part of their journey with the help of other enslaved people.
Using the larger than life images of John Rankin, and John Parker as a palette, Ms. Hagedorn celebrates the secret weapon of the Underground Railroad, people of conscience, and good will.
Carl Westmoreland, Senior Advisor, National Underground Freedom Center
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Telling the real story beyond reproach!, April 5, 2003
By Alvin C. Romer "The Jackal" (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews
  
This review is from: Beyond the River: A True Story of the Underground Railroad (Hardcover)
Lest we forget, the celebrated links that make up parts of history are rooted with the ties that bind and the legacy in which they are allowed to preserve that history. One such entity is the Underground Railroad and the product that fueled it - runaway slaves. This underground path to freedom forged a way not only for escaped slaves to reach freedom, but gave certain status to those that deserve a proper place in American history as heroes, both unsung and noted. Beyond The River is author Ann Hagedorn's gift to historic content embellishing such a storied and misunderstood part of a young nation coming to grips with "the war before the war". In it, she details with facts a well-documented historical accuracy. These are the stories and mindsets of those whom would dedicate their lives to the abolishment of slavery, and the harboring of the slaves fleeing it.

What give this book direction and a pervading sense of identity are the incumbent figures that are tantamount to its success. With this in mind, it could very well serve as a biography of John Rankin, one of Ohio's most active "conductors" on the Underground Railroad. Rankin (1793-1886), a Presbyterian minister and abolitionist in Ripley, where the Ohio River separated the free state of Ohio from the slave state of Kentucky, was equally well known among the enslaved and their enslavers. Hagedorn tries to bring to life the story of Rankin, his family, free blacks and the other forgotten heroes on the front line who assisted hundreds of blacks on the trek to freedom with other analogies that tend to make her efforts uneven. Rankin's story is inspiring and albeit, may have a place among the legacies that make legends of people, but tend not to be as captivating as those of the other heroes who are secondary characters in the book. One of the more poignant stories is that of a slave woman's nighttime escape across the icy river with her two-year-old (and the woman's risky return across the Ohio three years later to rescue her daughter and seven grandchildren from a Kentucky slaveholder). And there are others. The author brilliantly chronicles threats of midnight assassins, riots in Cincinnati and a pivotal trial in Kentucky in the 1830s, along with other detail descriptions of survival angst of the period. Hagedorn's relocated to Ripley to insure the book's completion, in my opinion was wise and led to the inspiration for the vivid prose, and wherewithal to bring these historical figures to a wider audience.

If you're a history buff and a bibliophile to this type of collecting, this book should find its place among the others for legitimacy. The gift of research and meticulously giving reference to time and place makes this an enjoyable read. I recommend it for yet another documentation of a process to understand that the most heroic were those who had been under bondage, making the most difficult part of a journey with the help of other enslaved people. Undoubtedly, this will always be an interesting sidelight to other historical content, but will be specific for readers willing to take a chance on this book.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A unique and facinating perspective, December 3, 2003
By J. A Magill (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Beyond the River: A True Story of the Underground Railroad (Hardcover)
Ann Hagedorn offers the reader a captivating perspective on America's struggle with slavery in her work, "Beyond the River." The uniqueness of her work eminates from two particular aspects of her work, both of which begin with the way she takes her subject out of the macro world of politics and economics into the smaller world of the lives of the people effected by the souths 'peculiar institution.' Looking slavery through the eyes of individuals, the reader gains a far greater appreciation of the suffering, torment, and most of all, the fear generated by those who stood in opposition.

Interesting also is the location the author focuses on, the Ohio River where on one side men are free and on the other live in chains. Most texts present slavery at great distances, like The Carolinas an and New York. Here we see just how intimate the slavery and the abolitionist could be and the blood spilled by both sides.

Most importantly, Hagedorn writes in a cool clear voice that is enjoyable and informative. She delivers facts and passion in the same sentence without ever becoming melodramatic or shrill. Readers who enjoy this fictional work may also want to look at "Cloudsplitter," Richard Bank's novel on The Brown family's war on slavery.

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 		 Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond the River
Author Ann Hagedorn, who moved "on location" to complete her research and add inspiration to her writing, offers a rarely seen individual account of the underground railroad. Read more
Published on July 28, 2007 by Robert W. Kellemen

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond the River earns 'Notable Book' designation
Beyond the River was just named one of the American Library Association's Notable Books for 2004. The annual list is highly regarded and identifies 25 very good, very readable... Read more
Published on February 26, 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book that Makes You Think
This is a great read, suspenseful and thoughtful, one of the best page-turners I have read in a long while. Read more
Published on November 3, 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Miss this Gem!
So you think you know all about the Underground Railroad, the secret network that fugitive slaves used to escape bondage? Try this quiz:

1. Read more

Published on October 13, 2003 by Stephanie L. Reed

4.0 out of 5 stars Bringing heroes to life
As a child growing up in Cincinnati, I often heard vague stories about the Underground Railroad, about houses along the Ohio River's edge which had secret cellars and tunnels,... Read more
Published on September 18, 2003 by AfroAmericanHeritage

3.0 out of 5 stars Beyond the River
This is a fascinating piece of work about human endurance. It demonstrates that major events can occur in small places. I noted one lapse in historical accuracy. Read more
Published on May 24, 2003 by Michael R. Cassady

5.0 out of 5 stars popular history at its best
By reaching back to pre-Civil War newspapers, letters and court documents, Hagedorn paints a vivid picture of what it felt like living on the knife edge between slavery and... Read more
Published on March 19, 2003 by Meg Cox

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down
What a compelling story of the heroes of the underground railroad movement along the Ohio River! I am not usually a reader of history, but this book was an enjoyable read. Read more
Published on March 3, 2003 by Jane Zachman

4.0 out of 5 stars Living History
Ann Hagedorn's new book, Beyond The River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad has taken a story people in this area already know and given it flesh and... Read more
Published on February 2, 2003 by Dr. Martha D. Bone

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