Fleeing for Freedom: Stories of the Underground Railroad As Told by Levi Coffin and William Still ed. by George, Willene Hendrick (review)

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 Willene Hendrick,eds. Fleeing for Freedom:Stories of tbe Underground Railroad As Told by Levi Co# in and William Still. Chicago: Ivan R.Dee,2004. 209 pp. ISBN: 1566635462 ( paper), $ 14.95. nterest in the Underground Railroad has blossomed with the opening of Cincinnati ' s National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and has inspired many recent studies. This one reprints excerpts from two classic sources, Reminiscences of I. evi Co// in and William Still' s The Underground Rail Road. The editors chose these passages because of their respective authors: a white abolitionist from Cincinnati and an African American secretary of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee. Fleeing for Freedom also includes a twentytwo page introduction with a short historical overview of the institution and of the difficulty scholars face in separating fact from fiction. The editors tend to accept some of Wilbur Siebert's less verifiable conclusions,including his listing 1,539 conductors in Ohio. Sjebert' s pioneer study of the Underground Railroad remains useful,as does his correspondence with descendants of abolitionists, but many individuals whom he described as conductors cannot be verified. The editors do not mention slavery in the northern colonies,which even included some slaveholding Philadelphia Quakers. They rightly call attention to the role of individual Quakers in Underground Railroad activity but do not describe differences within the Society of Friends that led Levi Coffin and others to found an antislavery yearly meeting. Many Quakers believed gradual emancipation and purchase of individual slaves was preferable to abolitionist agitation, but the editors did not include Coffin' s discussion of this issue. Their treatment of the famous Eliza Harris story is puzzling. They quote John Rankin, who first helped Eliza , describing how she crossed the Ohio River on slushcovered ice with a child in her arms, but said nothing about her tossing the child f rom one ice flow to another. Harrjet Beecher Stow added OHIO VALLEY HISTORY 88 FLEEING FOR FREEDOM STORIES OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD AS 1'01. 1.) BY 1.EVI (· OFF IN AND WILLIAM S'1' Ill. El)! r*ti WITH N NTRI> litir T{ ON BY that element, and years later Coffin repeated it. The editors do not reconcile the two versions except to include 311 illustration showing Eliza balanced on freefloating ice with her young child in her arms. A careful reading of the Coffin excerpts suggests 1 corrective to future publication. The book also includes Still' s account of a confrontation between local African Americans and slave hunters that ended with the escape of the fugitive,the death of the master,and a charge of treason against some of the rescuers. William Still wrote, published, and sold his book and dedicated k to the men and women who had risked everything to escape slavery. These excerpts add hum. 111 interest tc)a historical drania that many view only abstractly. The source material reprinted in this volume provides 111 introductioti to two of the 11»lore iniportant Underground Railroad...