Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley by Keith P. Griffler (review)

Keith R Griffler. Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the Forging of tbe Underground Railroad in tbe Obio Valley. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004. 169 pp. ISBN: 0813122988 ( cloth), 35.00. ional Underground Railroad August 3, 2004, the NaFreedom Center officially opened its doors in Cincinnati to the public . Advertised as the nation' s next great monument, this facility has the daunting task of educating all interested citizens about the origins, development,impact,and legacy of the Underground Railroad move- * tltent and its various pert-nutations. Keith R Griffler's study seeks to fulfill the same lofty goal, but on a smaller scale. In Front Line of Freedom , Griffler moves away from the Hoosier state, and the ratification of the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. The author next turns to a discussion on how African Americans in various river citiessuch as Madison and Rising Sun in Indiana, Covington, Kentucky,and Chillicothe, Cincinnati, and Ripley in Ohiowere forced to create a political and social space to wage a war fc, r their own liberation, espeV 4 8 cially through their activities associated with the Underground Railroad movement. ( 31) Here both famous and littleknown figures are highFRONT LINE OF lighted such as William Anderson, FREEDOM Henry Boyd, James Bradley, John African Americans and the Curtis, Arnold Grayston, Gabriel Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley Johnson, John Mercer Langston, i.. dic. z John Mason, . John R Parker,and Frances Jane Scroggins. However, Griffler also notes that although black Americans " carried the main burden of the front]ine struggle, they were assisted greatly by many dedicated progressive whites, including Isaac Beeson, James G. Birney, .]() lin Brown, Salmon R Chase, Levi Coffin, John Fairfield, Laura Haviland,John Rankin, and Gerrit Smith. Griffler' s book ends with an analysis of the critical role that the Underground Railroad movement in the Ohio Valley played in the national campaign to end enslavement throughout the United traditional interpretation of the Underground Railroad that placed white activists at the center of this campaign to a more complex arrangement where African Americans were central to the development and operation of the Underground Railroad." xi) The author further argues that the struggle for freedom along the Ohio River " played an important role in the combination of many complex factors that ended American slavery ( p. xi). Griffier first shows how the Ohio Valley became a region characterized by racial hostility and violence as a result of demographic changes and interventions by the state and national governments. Specifically , the movement of thousands of new settlers, both black and white, into the Ohio Valley greatly contributed to the creation of a region that prohibited the full participation of African Americans in any level of government, as did the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the enactment of Ohio's first series of Black Laws in 1804,Indiana' s attempt to ban African American migration to the SPRING 2005 j f 87 BOOK REVIEWS States. Specifically,the author notes that despite the heavy toll sustained by many Underground Railroad operatives, this freedom crusade,which rested on the works of numerous community activists,helped lead to the Civil War and eventual destruction of African American enslavement. Front I. ine of Freedom presents a muchneeded perspective on the history and legacy of the Underground Railroad. Professor Griffier should be commended on his masterful use of new oral histories as well as a wealth of various other primary sources. Without question, this lucidly written book covers countless topics and subjects that have received only scant attention from scholars, such as the essential and fundamental involvement of free African Americans in assisting fugitives as well as the struggles of local Black Americans to maintain their communities in the face of insurmountable odds. The author,however,could have added more to his brief discussion of the impact of the Underground Railroad movement in the Ohio Valley on emerging divisions between the North and South during the 18505. Despite this minor problem,Griffier' s book makes a great contribution to the field of African American history and the study of race relations in the United States. Eric R.Jackson Northern Kentucky University George and...