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Diana Porter

Posts by Diana Porter

The Underground Railroad was One of America’s First Co-ops

  Yes Magazine’s online Newsletter featured this video and article that is a new way to look at the Underground Railroad. Cooperative economics and civil rights don’t often appear together in history books, but they should. From the mutual aid societies that bought enslaved people’s freedom to the underground railroad network that brought endangered blacks
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Uncovering History

    Genealogy paths sometimes cross in completely unexpected ways. Lisa Schumann, board member of the College Hill Historical Society and avid genealogy researcher, had a Eureka moment recently when, looking through records at the Campbell County, KY, courthouse, she came across a name that sounded familiar: Anthony Nelson. She’d heard that name before, and
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The Half That Has Never Been Told

    Edward Baptist’s  “The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism”  is getting attention since last month when the Economist published a piece on its website saying that slavery was not so bad.  They have been forced to take it down from their website. Mr. Baptist argues in his new book that the historical mis-teaching
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World Premier of Safe House through Nov. 15th

The Pedigrew family struggles to find its place in the antebellum Southern community as free people of color in Kentucky in the 1840’s. One brother knows he must turn his back on the needs of freedom seekers so that he can get white people to buy his shoes and create a successful life for his family.   The
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Six Underground Railroad sites Recognized

Congratulations to the following local applicants who were accepted for inclusion in the Network to Freedom (U.S. Park Service) in the twenty-eighth round of applications.The committee reviewed the applications on September 10, 2014 at the Penn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina: Charles Cheney Home Site [site] Kirby Avenue Corridor (Escape Route of the 28) [site]
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Witherby Meadows

  Witherby Meadows, the site of the 2014 Citirama,  is named for the Witherby Family who once owned a large farm on both sides of Belmont Avenue.  A part of this farm is the site of this year’s Citirama. Rev. Danforth Witherby was a traveling preacher who moved his family to this farm in 1802.
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College Hill Connections to Cary, N.C.

This year – 2014 – marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of a man without whom Cary, North Carolina would not be named Cary.  Samuel Fenton Cary is the man for whom this town was named because of his strong prohibitionist views. Samuel Fenton Cary grew up in College Hill when it was a farming community near
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Boone County ties to Hamilton Avenue

  Seven abolitionist history buffs set out for Boone County on Friday, May 30th, to tour Abolitionist sites.    We had visited and worked with  Bridget Striker, the Boone County local history librarian as we researched for our September 21st event.   The documents that we sent Bridget convinced her that many more freedom seekers
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April, 1853–Spring Brought a Message of Hope

In Boone county, Kentucky, the newspapers in April, 1853 were filled with news of “slave stampedes.”  It began on April 2 with 28 freedom seekers walking away from Petersburg through Cincinnati and up Hamilton Avenue with an overnight stop in College Hill. I was taken by surprise  when I read that exactly today, 161 years ago,Harriet Tubman
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Lane Rebel docudrama filmed in Cincinnati

Lane Rebels and Harriet Beecher Stowe Film Seeks Support

The cast of a new abolitionist docudrama that was being filmed at the Stowe House in late February welcomed local people to watch the filming and learn about their project.  Len and I stopped by the Stowe house and met the cast of this exciting drama about the Lane Seminary Debates which started a national
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