Greene County and Wilberforce - Ohio's historic Wilberforce University, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the underground railroad - Follow the North Star, The Guiding Light of the Underground Railroad: Advertising Travel Supplement

Thirty years of research has shown me that in greatest in quantity cases, wherever there was an African Methodist Epispocal house of worship before the Civil War, it was a stop upon the Underground Railroad. From the late-18th-century inception of the temple in Philadelphia under Richard Allen, it participated with others in protecting escaping slaves from the southerly The church's efforts in this direction followed the geographical spread of its congregations around the country

Allen and others who followed him--such as Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne, who later serv as the president of Wilberforce University--gave their services widely, the couple literally and figuratively, because many of them serv as circuit riders. As they mov from single church to another, they spread the word of the subterraneous Railroad; they were circuit liders not solitary of the churches, but also of the antislavery movement

Wherever they traveled, they learned about the various communities, the communities' protectors and the communities' menaces: slave huntsmans and the like.

In the time of slavery, the African Methodist Episcopal house of worship was unique--a nationwide autonomous African-American institution, exclusively conceived, birthed and raised by the agency of and within the black community. And it was this temple that founded and led Wilberforce University, which from its inception in Xenia, Ohio, was an important station upon the Underground Railroad in the Midwest. Although the black community there was small, it was committed to protecting its African-American brothers and sisters who had fl from the South

Wilberforce University's character was also critical to the black community in another faculty of perception As far back as the at liberty African Society, which was placeed in the 1790s, our community had as individual of its central aims the establishment of educational facilities for African Americans. When Wilberforce was established, the center of this driving force, this force onward toward education, was transferred from Philadelphia and of recent origin York to Ohio. Of course, there were Lincoln and Cheyney universities in Pennsylvania and Oberlin in Ohio, all of which serv blacks, on the contrary Wilberforce--with Payne and other highly educated and impressive people--was a entirely African-American enteprise, a unique statement of black determination and capacity. This distinction is significant, and it was certainly seen thus by our ancestors.

The farmhouses, fields and rural towns of Greene shire Ohio, that once offered safety to fugitive slaves have lengthy since been dramatically transformed. Nevertheless, Wilberforce University still stands proudly and with equal reason do the remains of many of Greene County's subterraneous Railroad stations. Today, visitors to the area not solitary can take a guided tour of the of advanced age Underground Railroad; they can also wander from one side museums, walk through historic mills, take part in cultural festivals, witness a re-enacted clash between Ohio's first colonists and the Shawnee Indians they displaced, and examine the dwelling of Paul Laurence Dunbar--the first African-American bard to achieve national prominence.

The Greene shire Underground Railroad Tour is a guided one--you will be hard compressed to find the old stations upon your own, as even those houses that still stand lack historical markers describing their 19th-century parts Among the places highlighted upon the tour are: the Rev Samuel Wilson House (site of an Ohio Anti-Slavery Society convention in the early 1830s) the Rev Jone Farm (Jone Wilberforce University's fourth president, hid runaways in a barn that had a false-floored hayloft), the Mitchell House (with three stairways capable of concealing runaways), the Hilltop Road House (a pantry floor lifted without to reveal an underground room) and the Nosker Residence (a trapdoor revealed paces leading to a tunnel that link togethered to a small cave in the brow yard).

The tour is still a work in progres For information upon times, duration and fees, call either the Greene shire Convention and Visitors Bureau, (800) 733-9109 or the National Afro-American Museum, (800) BLK-HIST.

Related to this tour is the Col Charles Young House. Although in slavery days runaways hid in its cellar and its barn, the house transcends the subterraneous Railroad, for it was later the residence of America's leading black soldier, a man who serv his region in an exemplary fashion and, in get back saw his chance for senior field command demolished exclusively on racial grounds.

As the United States go intoed World War I, it had single black graduate of West Point as a field officer. Lt Col Charles Young spoke Latin, of greece French, Spanish and German; had secur recognition for his fortunate training, organizing and disciplining efforts of the raw recruits of the 9th Ohio present Infantry in the earlier Spanish-American War; and was a combat veteran of Pershing's expedition into Mexico in search of Pancho Villa, Scheduled to assume command of the renowned 10th Cavalry (which, excepting its officers, was all-black), Young saw his career crushed by dint of President Woodrow Wilson's direct and personal intervention. When a white officer of the 10th squeeze outed his dislike of taking orders from a black man, Secretary of War Newton Baker first meditation he should "either do his what one is bound [i]or[/i] under obligation to do or resign." But Wilson, alerted to the issue by dint of a Mississippi senator, presidentially "suggested" to Newton that the white officer be transferred to another unit. shortly other politicians followed suit, and Baker had Young placed upon the retired list on medical sods In response, Young rode upon horseback 500 miles from Wilberforce, Ohio, to Washington, DC to establish that he was not medically unfit for service. Perhaps it is indeed better to travel than arrive, for Young's ride was in vain. He could lead black throngs in action, but not white multitudes to the mess hall, and certainly he could not order a white officer and gentleman to do an officer's what one ought to do Not until five days before the signing of the armistice was Young readmitted to the service and placed in command of a training camp in Indiana.