The Freedom Center

NOTE: Special thanks to Audrey and Rod who keep bringing me to McDonald's to update my blog! :-)

Also, I will keep trying to keep pics updated to the blogs each time - they take SO LONG to load. You may have to check back to previous posts to see updated pics. :-)

Saturday
Distance Travelled via truck: 1100km
Distance Travelled via bicycle today: 16km
Distance Travelled via bicycle TOTAL:  76km

Went to Cincinnati and to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Museum. Very interesting to learn about the woman who wrote the second best selling book ever – Uncle Tom’s Cabin. (The best selling book is the Bible).

National Underground Railroad Museum - Wow! What an amazing place. My words and pictures won’t even come close to doing this place justice. It was extremely well done and laid out in a chronological timeline of events and how the Underground Railroad worked and was able to help people.

One of the most upsetting exhibits for me was the slave pen. It was an ACTUAL slave pen taken from a man who lived in Maysville, OH. He had the pen built inside his Tobacco barn, which was why it was more or less still preserved. What a haunting place. There were two floors (men on the top floor, women on the bottom). There were rings drilled into the floor that the men were chained to. And it was about the size of a large bedroom on both levels but at times it housed up to 75 people!! The man who owned the slave pen, dealt with buying/selling slaves and he made the modern day equivalent to $800,000 a year.

Will write more about the museum tomorrow.

Audrey and I went back out on our bikes when we returned from the museums and had a short ride of about 16km. Tomorrow will be a longer ride, we plan to travel from Williamsburg, OH (just about where we are currently staying) and then to Milford, OH.

National Underground Railroad - Freedom Center



Freedom Center - outside of slave pen.



Inside the slave pen. You can see the second floor and the rings in the floor with the loops for chains to chain the slaves to the floor. This is an ACTUAL slave pen - it was moved here for the museum.

Harriet Beecher Stowe - Family Home Museum

Harriet's father's study. He was the president of the university down the road. The high prestige of this appointment meant that his family lived in this lovely home.



The living room mantel.



Many people felt that Beecher Stowe's book was entirely a work of fiction (mostly southerners trying to dispel the notion that slavery was bad) - she then wrote this book which detailed her facts and sources for her book.

Front hall - staircase - actual suitcase and boots of the Stows!