Follow the Drinking Gourd
Following the Underground Railroad in Northern Kentucky

During the Civil War, Kentucky was known as a “border” state, claiming total allegiance to neither the North nor the South. Brother fought against brother, and the topic of slavery divided the Commonwealth, though not along specific lines.

In the Bluegrass State, servitude was legal, and many escapees from the Deep South traveled through at night, trusting both in the Big Dipper, or “the Drinking Gourd,” which pointed to the North Star and the often lengthy path to safety.

Though crossing the Ohio River held no guarantees, the waterway served as a natural boundary into “the land of freedom,” where slaves were more likely to evade bounty hunters anxious to return them to captivity. As a result, many Underground Railroad stations were located in Northern Kentucky, and these days, the area offers a rich history of that dark time.

An excellent starting point for visitors is just off Highway 68, in the town of Old Washington. The beautifully-restored village of 1700s buildings is the site of what was once a settlement of 119 log cabins begun by Simon Kenton. The Cane Brake Visitor’s Center offers a short video on area history and excellent guided walking tours.

Our first stop on an Underground Railroad tour was at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Slavery to Freedom Museum. In 1833 Stowe visited this house and witnessed her first slave auction. In 1852 “the little lady that started the great big war” published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and in it made reference to that auction.

In addition to Civil War memorabilia, the museum displays include old slave manacles and collars, a chronology of Stowe complete with photos, an explanation of the Abolition Movement, editions of Stowe’s history-changing novel, original slave documents, and a series of photographs of Mason County locations that curators believe were associated with Uncle Tom, Eliza and Topsy.

The Paxton Inn was a stop on the Underground Railroad built in 1810 by attorney and staunch abolitionist James A. Paxton. According to oral history, slaves hid on a narrow staircase beside the kitchen fireplace until they could be moved safely across the Ohio. Today you can peek up that staircase, which ascends into a bedroom closet, and can see a number of lovely quilts once hung on fences and clotheslines as signs and maps for runaways. A log cabin pattern with black centers in its design signaled a “safe house,” while a North Star pattern might have directions pieced into it in various colors. A crazy quilt warned not to “walk straight down the middle of the road or you’ll get caught. Travel back and forth.”

A number of Old Washington’s refurbished dwellings house shops filled with antiques, collectibles and gifts. Visitors can refresh with a tasty lunch at the Marshall Keys Tavern in 1820 Washington Hall, built as a grand hotel in hopes of keeping the county seat here. (It didn’t work; Maysville won out.)

Maysville, originally named Limestone, features a treasure of Underground Railroad history and slave family genealogy. Housed in the 1881 Maysville Library building is the Mason County Museum and Research Library. Several realistic dioramas, an award-winning video, a chronology and display on slavery, an 1804 pioneer graveyard and a nice museum gift shop make a stop here worthwhile. But its research resources are the real drawing card.

Open April through December, the facility’s stockpile includes genealogical research guides with how-to instructions; state maps from 1793; slave birth and death records; marriages of Mulattos and Negroes in Mason County 1866 to 1898; local newspapers from 1799; official Civil War records, documents, biographies and histories; slave sales, deeds and ownership depositions; emancipation deeds; and an ongoing African American bibliography.

At the Maysville Welcome Center, pick up a city walking tour map and peruse downtown Maysville, most of which is on the National Historic Register. Highlights include Limestone Landing, where paddle wheelers still dock and an impressive floodwall mural recreates the town’s history.

Only a short drive across the Simon Kenton Memorial Bridge, the Ripley (Ohio) Museum tells of the town’s vital role on the Underground Railroad and contains histories and genealogical records of this former abolitionist stronghold.

For folks interested in the whole area experience, the Maysville-Mason County Tourism Commission offers a two-day Underground Railroad Heritage Tour, which takes in Old Washington, Maysville and the Ohio towns of Ripley and Georgetown. For more information, visit www.cityofmaysville.com.

Katherine Tandy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report.
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