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Anti-Slavery Collection

The Union Township Public Library’s Anti-Slavery Collection contains materials that document the struggle to end slavery, and highlight Ripley’s unique history as an Underground Railroad site. While some documents in the Anti-Slavery Collection are for research only, many materials are available for circulation. The following is a selected list of items from the Anti-Slavery Collection that feature the Underground Railroad.


Abrams, Alan.ed. Black and Free. Sylvania, Ohio: Doubting Thomas Publishing, LLC, 2001.

Adams, Alice D. The Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery in America. Williamstown, Massachusetts: Corner House Publishers, 1973.

Allis, Marguerite. The Rising Storm. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1955.

Andrews, Daryl L. Masonic Abolitionists: Freemasonry and the Underground Railroad in Illinois. Chicago Illinois: Andrews Press, 2011.

Barker, Gordon S. Fugitive Slaves and the Unfinished American Revolution. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2013.

Benton, Thomas H. Thirty Years in the U.S. Senate, Vol. 1. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1854.

Bigglestone, William E. They Stopped in Oberlin.Oberlin, Ohio: The Bodnar Printing Company, 1981, 2002.

Birney, William. James G. Birney and His Times. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.

Bogger, Tommy L. Free Blacks in Norfolk, Virginia. Virginia: The University Press of Virginia, 1997.

Bordewich, Fergus M. Bound for Canaan. New York, New York: HaperCollins Publishers, 2005.

Brennan, Denis. The Making of an Abolitionist. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2014.

Brown, Maxine F. The Rise of Free Blacks in Indiana’s Underground Railroad. Corydon, Indiana: Leora Brown School, INC., 2001.

Buchanan, Thomas C. Black Life on the Mississippi. United States: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

Calarco, Tom. Places of the Underground Railroad: A Geographical Guide. ed. Cynthia Vogel, Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2011.

Campbell, Stanley. The Slave Catchers. New York: The University of North Carolina Press, 1968, 1970.

Cheek, William F and Aimee Lee. John Mercer Langston and the Fight for Black Freedom (1829-1865). Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1996.

Cockrum, William M. History of the Underground Railroad. Oakland, Indiana: J.W. Cockrum Printing Company, 1991.

Coleman, John Winston. Slavery Times in Kentucky. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1940.

Coon, Diane Perrine. Southeastern Indiana’s Underground Railroad Routes and Operations: a project of the State of Indiana Department of Natural Resources , Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology and the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Louisville, Kentucky: Perrine Enterprises, 2001.

Corum, G. L. Young Ulysses, The Underground Railroad Roots of Hiram Ulysses Grant, Pt. 1.United States: G.L. Corum, 2012.

Dumond, Dwight L. Antislavery, The Crusade for Freedom in America. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1961.

Durham, Walter T. The Underground Railroad in Tennessee to 1865. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives, 2008.

Fairbank, Calvin. How the Way was Prepared. Chicago, Illinois: Patriotic Publishing Company, 1890.

Fairbank, Calvin. Rev. Clavin Fairbank During Slavery Times. Chicago, Illinois: R. R. McCabe & Co., Publishers, 1890.

Fedric, Francis. Slave Life in Virginia and Kentucky.Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2010.

Fee, John G. An Anti-Slavery Manual. New York: Arno Press & The New York Times, 1969.

Hager, Christopher. Word by Word.United States: First Harvard University Press, 2013.

Harrison, Lowell H. The Antislavery Movement in Kentucky. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1978.

Harrold, Stanley. The Abolitionists & the South, 1831-1861. Kentucky: The University of Kentucky Press, 1995.

Hinks, Peter and McKivigan, John.ed. Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition, Volumes 1-2. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2007.

Gaddis, Maxwell P. Sr. Foot-Prints of an Itinerant. Cincinnati, OH: Hitchcock & Walden, 1880.

Galbraith, Rev. R. C. Jr. The History of the Chillicothe Presbytery. Chillicothe, OH: H. W. Guthrie, Hugh Bell and Peter Platter, 1889.

Gardner, Elder M. The Autobiography of Elder Matthew Gardner. Dayton, OH: Christian Publishing Association, 1874.

Goodall, Hurley C. Underground Railroad. Indiana: Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, 2000.

Grimke, Archibald H. William Lloyd Garrison, The Abolitionist.ed. Carlos Martyn, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1891.

Hart, Albert B. Slavery and Abolition. New York, New York: Haskell House Publishers, 1968.

History of Pennsylvania Hall. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1838, 1969.

Howard, Victor B. The Evangelical War Against Slavery and Caste, The Life and Times of John G. Fee. London, England: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1996.

Hudson, J. Blaine. Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in the Kentucky Borderland.Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2002.

Jackson, Phyllis W. The Story of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Victorian Cinderella. New York: H. Wolff Book MFG. CO., 1947.

Jay, William. Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization, and American Anti-Slavery Societies. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1838, 1969.

Jeffrey, Julie. The Great Silent Army of Abolitionism. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.

Johnson, Eric E. Ohio’s Black Soldiers Who Served in the Civil War.Bellville, Ohio: Ohio Genealogical Society, 2014.

Johnson, Oliver. William Lloyd Garrison and His Times; Sketches of the Anti-Slavery Movement in America, and of the Man Who was Its Founder and Moral Leader. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1881, 1879.

Johnson, Reinhard O. The Liberty Party, 1840-1848. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2009.

Julius, Kevin C. The Abolitionist Decade, 1829-1838. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2004.

Kashatus, William C. Just Over the Line: Chester County and the Underground Railroad. University Park, Pennsylvania: Peen State University Press, 2002.

Knepp, Gary L. Freedom’s Struggle: A Response to Slavery from the Ohio Borderlands. Milford, Ohio: Little Miami Publishing Company, 2008.

Langston, John M. From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol. North Stratford, New Hampshire: Arno Press, Inc., 1969.

LaRoche, Cheryl J. Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad. Illinois, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2014.

Lesick, Lawrence Thomas. The Lane Rebels: Evangelicalism and Anti-Slavery in Antebellum America. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1980.

Lu, Marlene K. Walkin’ the Wabash. Indiana: Indiana Department of Natural Resources, 2001.

Lubet, Steven. Fugitive Justice. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press, 2010.

Lucas, Marion Bruson. A History of Blacks in Kentucky. Frankfort, Kentucky: Kentucky Historical Society, 1992.

Martin, Asa E. The Anti-Slavery Movement in Kentucky. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1918, 1970.

Mellon, James. Ex-Slave Narrative. United States: Trade Paperbacks, 1998.

Miller, Caroline R. Grape Vine Dispatch: The Voice of Anti-slavery Messages. Milford, Ohio: Little Miami Publishing Company, 2011.

Miller, Caroline R.ed. Slavery in Mason, County, Kentucky Volumes 1-2: A Century of Records (1788-1888). [n.p.]: Maysville, Kentucky: National Underground Railroad Museum, Inc., 2001.

Miller, Caroline R.ed. Slavery in Newsprint, Central Ohio River Borderlands. [n.p.]: Maysville, Kentucky: National Underground Railroad Museum, Inc., 2003.

Miller, Caroline R. Arthur and James Thome: Abolitionists of Augusta’s “White Hall”. Brooksville, Kentucky: Standard Quick Print, 2003.

Mills, Randy. Report to Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Indianapolis, Indiana: Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, 2001.

Morris, Benjamin F. The Life of Thomas Morris. Cincinnati, Ohio: Moore, Wilstach, Keys &Overend, 1856.

Muelder, Owen W. Theodore Dwight Weld and the American Anti-Slavery Society. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2011.

Murray, Andrew E. Presbyterians and the Negro, a History. Philadelphia Pennsylvania: Presbyterian Historical Society, 1966.

Niven, John. The Salmon P. Chase Papers Volumes 1-5 Journals, 1829-1876. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1993.

Nye, Russel. Fettered Freedom. Michigan: Michigan State College Press, 1949.

Perrin, Pat. The Underground Railroad: Life on the Road of Freedom. Carlisle, Massachusetts: Discovery Enterprises, Ltd., 1995, 1999.

Pirtle, Carol. Escape Betwixt Two Suns.Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000.

Proceedings of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Convention. United States: Beaumont and Wallace Printers, 1992.

Quillin, Frank U. The Color Line in Ohio. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The Ann Arbor Press, 1913.

Quinn, Angela M. The Underground Railroad and the Antislavery Movement in Fort Wayne and Allen County, Indiana. Fort Wayne, Indiana: ARCH, Inc., 2001.

Rankin, John. An Antidote for Unitarianism. Cincinnati, Ohio: Weed and Wilson, 1841

Rankin, John. A Practical Work on the Covenant of Grace, as Given to Abraham. Ripley, Ohio: C. Edwards Publishing, 1840.

Rankin, John. Letters on American Slavery. Boston, Massachusetts: Garrison & Knapp, 1833.

Rankin, John. The Reverend John Rankin’s Life Story as Written by Himself in His Old Age. North Carolina: Duke University, letters date 1836, 1833, 1836, 1838, and 1852.

Rankin, R. C. History of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. Ripley, Ohio: J.C. Newcomb, Printer, 1881.

Ripley, C. Peter, ed. The Black Abolitionist Papers Volumes 1-5. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1985-1992.

Ritchie, Rev. Andrew. The Life and Writings of Rev. Samuel Crothers, D.D. Cincinnati, Ohio: Moore, Wilstach, Keys & CO., 1857.

Ritchie, Rev. Andrew. The Soldier, the Battle, and the Victory, a Brief Account of the Work of Rev. John Rankin in the Anti-Slavery Cause. Cincinnati, Ohio: Western Tract and Book Society, 1876.

Rule, Lucien V. Forerunners of Lincoln in the Ohio Valley. Louisville, Kentucky: Press of Brandt & Fowler, 1927.

Shectman, Johathan. Bound for the Future. Santa Barbara, California: Praeger, 2012.

Siebert, Wilbur H. The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom. New York: Arno Press & The New York Times, 1968.

Siebert, Wilbur Henry. The Mysteries of Ohio’s Underground Railroads. Ohio: A.W. McGraw, 1993.

Siebert, Wilbur Henry. The Underground Railroad in Ohio. Ohio: A.W. McGraw, 1993.

Still, William. The Underground Railroad. New York: Arno Press & The New York Times, 1968.

Smith, Peter. Letters of James Gillespie Birney (1831-1857) Volumes 1-2. Dumond, Dwight L., ed. Gloucester, Massachusetts: The American Historical Association, 1938, 1966.

Smith, Peter. Letters of Theodore Dwight Weld, Angelina Grimke Weld, and Sarah Grimke (1822-1844) Volumes 1-2. ed. Gilbert G. Barnes & Dwight L. Dumond, Gloucester, Massachusetts: Permission of Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1934, 1965.

Southgate, Joan E. and Stewart, Fran. In Their Path.Solon, Ohio: Eagle Creek Press, 2002.

Stanton, Robert. Underground Railroad. Washington, D.C.: Division of Publications National Park Service, 1998.

Sterling, Dorothy. Turning the World Upside Down, The Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women. New York, New York: The Feminist Press, 1987.

Stewart, Mark J. The Chillicothe Presbytery in Ohio’s Anti-Slavery Movement in the 1820′s and 1830′s: A Thesis [n.p.] Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University, 1971.

Stivers, ElieseBambach, ed. Sesquicentennial Historical Committee, Ripley, Ohio. Ripley, Ohio: Its History and Families. Ripley, Ohio: Historical Committee, 1965.

Switala, William J. Underground Railroad in Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2004.

Takagi, Midori. “Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction”. Virginia: The University Press of Virginia, 1999.

Taylor, Clare. British and American Abolitionists. Great Britain: Edinburgh University Press, 1974.

Taylor, Nikki M. Frontiers of Freedom. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2005.

Temple, Brian. Philadelphia Quakers and the Antislavery Movement. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2014.

Thomas, Benjamin P. Theodore Weld Crusader for Freedom. New York: Octagon Books, 1973.

Thomas, Thomas, E. Correspondence of Thomas Ebenezer Thomas Especially in the Presbyterian Church (1834-1874 & 1909). Ohio: McGraw, Arthur W., 1997

Thomas, Velma M. Lest We Forget. New York, New York: Brown Publishers, Inc., 1997.

Tobin, Jacqueline. From Midnight to Dawn.New York: Doubleday, 2007.

Torr, James D. Slavery. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Greenhaven Press, 2004.

Turner, Glennette T. The Underground Railroad in Illinois. Glen Ellyn, Illinois: Newman Educational Publishing, 2001.

Warren, Robert P. John Brown, The Making of a Martyr. New York: Payson & Clarke LTD, 1929.

Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery an Autobiography. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1901.

Weld, Theodore Dwight. American Slavery as It Is; Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses. New York: Arno Press, 1968.

Weld, Timothy Dwight. American Slavery As It Is. Salem, New Hampshire: Ayer Company, Publishers, Inc., 1991.

Welsh, E.B. Buckeye Presbyterianism. Ohio: Committee of the United Presbyterian Synod of Ohio, 1968.

Whyte, Iain. Scotland and the Abolition of Black Slavery, 1756-1838. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.

Williams, Heather A. Self-Taught. United States: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

Wilson, Henry. History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America: Volumes1-3. Boston, Massachusetts: J.R. Osgood and Company, 1872-77.

Wright, Paula K. Gist’s Promised Land. Seamen, Ohio: Sugar Tree Ridge Publishing, 2013.

Young, Paul, ed. Passage of the Negro: Volumes 1-2. 2009.

Young, Paul. The Gist Settlement Book. Georgetown, Ohio: Brown County Genealogical Society.

Young, Paul. The Underground Railroad’s Busiest Escape Route. Amelia, OH: BK Braun.


Updated July 2016