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Learning history in school sometimes seems nothing more than memorizing a few dates and forgetting everything you learned as quickly as possible. Figures in history are so removed from today, especially to students who believe that all the important “stuff” remains theirs alone. Reading boring books about long-dead people seems downright silly.
Two Ohioans demonstrate that history doesn’t automatically force a reader into a numbing nap. Historian Henry Burke and writer Dick Croy have combined to produce an admirable achievement called The River Jordan: A True Story of the Underground Railroad (Watershed Books, $14.95 paperback). In a foreword, Burke observes that the realization of The River Jordan took ten solid years of study and careful research. Burke has become one of the foremost authorities in the topic of underground railroads, the system by which slaves in the South were carried to freedom in the North with the help of whites and others who despised the system of slavery. That foreword also includes a brief mention of Burke’s own family, his ancestors whose stories first enticed him into researching the Underground Railroad. The Ohio River city of Marietta was one of the stops on the railroad, because of its proximity to the state of Virginia (which broke away from Virginia to become West Virginia in 1863). The River Jordan tells of one special trip in 1843 from then-Virginia across the Ohio River to freedom. The passengers all were members of a single family, a female slave and her seven children. With numerous close shaves while en route, the story of the ultimately successful flight could make an outstanding motion picture for theaters or television. While the story doesn’t follow exactly the happenings, the book’s broad narrative stays true to form. Slaves reached freedom with the aid of sympathetic whites who felt that enslaving blacks (or anyone for that matter) was wrong in every respect. The River Jordan successfully reaches its two goals. It is a book that deals fairly with history, and illustrates that even in those oppressive times, rescuers placed themselves in great jeopardy in order to help overcome the horrors of human slavery. Henry Burke, who has been writing articles about the Underground Railroad for years, doubtlessly has collected stacks of material on the topic. With his collaborator Dick Croy, Burke might consider a straightforward factual manuscript about the phenomenon of underground railroads. It would be a worthy project for a university press that seeks to preserve the history of its people. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Burke took his notes to Athens to discuss such a book with editors at Ohio University Press? Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Underground Railroad Makes Fascinating Story in Contemporary Fiction is owned by . Permission to republish Underground Railroad Makes Fascinating Story in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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