SPRINGBORO — Ahead of the Juneteenth Holiday on Monday, News Center 7 is looking at what people in the 1800s had to go through to be free.
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News Center 7′s Kayla McDermott visited Springboro on Friday where historians say the most frequented trail in the state was used.
The safehouse is one of 14 that is still standing in the Village of Springboro and there is a spot for someone to hide in the basement.
Images from Sky 7 show the Village of Springboro and some of the homes hosted runaway slaves or rather Freedom Seekers.
“That’s what we like to say,” said Christine Wellman, Vice President for the Springboro Historical Society. “We were the perfect safe haven for Freedom Seekers.”
McDermott says this includes inside the home of abolitionist Jonathan Wright.
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“Jonathan slept upstairs with the slaves, and he had a straw mattress that went over the trap door,” said Sterling Gardner, the current owner of the house.
McDermott said News Center 7 was the only one allowed to see the hidden compartment that he found in the walls. It could hold one or two people.
“Trust me, if it’s your life, you could hide a lot more,” said Gardner.
He also pointed out one specific detail, fingerprints on the wall from the time of the Emancipation Proclamation.
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Gardner told McDermott hiding for your life was a harsh reality prior to the Emancipation Proclamation but thousands were willing to do so for their freedom.
“This is showing in red all of the escape routes for Freedom Seekers,” said Wellman.
She believes 1,000-3,000 freedom seekers took their route to escape the South.
“We were just right here and what would happen is they would come up this way and go to Lake Erie,” Wellman told McDermott.
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While in Springboro, Quakers like Wright would help keep Freedom Seekers safe from bounty hunters but some did not survive.
“One gentleman we understand was hiding away,” said Wellman. “He had suffered a medical emergency and passed away.”
McDermott says living in a city with such a deep history makes Wellman free proud.
“It puts us on the right side of history,” she said.
Gardner thinks everyone needs to continue to educate themselves on this piece of our nation’s history.
“There was a group of white people who wanted to keep them slaves,” he said. “It’s important that it is brought to the public’s eye that it happened. It was a reality.”
McDermott says the mounds at the site are graves of Quakers who were alive during the time of the Underground Railroad as well as one Freedom Seeker who died out of thousands who escaped here at the Society of Friends Cemetery.
Self-guided underground railroad tours take place at the Springboro History Museum from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. during the Springboro Juneteenth Jubilee now through June 17.
For more information, visit this website.
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