By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
The inaugural Ohio River National Freedom Corridor Conference provides an opportunity for participants throughout the region to learn about freedom seekers and the abolitionists that assisted them on their journeys.
The Ohio River National Freedom Corridor was formed in 2012, and is a cooperative initiative involving interested representatives across the Tri-state working to preserve and interpret its shared Underground Railroad heritage.
Executive Director Rita Thomas described the group as a conglomeration of entities trying to be an umbrella group for all of the organizations that want to preserve the legacy of the Underground Railroad.
“We are scattered along both sides of the Freedom Corridor,” Thomas said. “Our goal is to eventually make this a heritage corridor.”
The conference is sponsored by the Clermont County Convention & Visitors Bureau and Ohio Humanities.
It takes place this week at the Eastgate Holiday Inn near Cincinnati from Oct. 15 through Oct. 18. The conference includes presentations, workshops and tours, highlighted by the Escape of the 28 tour, which begins in Boone County Friday morning.
While in Boone County for the tour, participants will experience Antebellum Petersburg, and hear stories of the planning and execution of one of the largest single slave escapes in Underground Railroad documented history.
The Escape of the 28 has experienced renewed popularity in recent years.
A movie about the enslaved Americans from Boone County, titled “ALL OR NOTHIN’,” is being competed by filmmaker Charles K. Campbell and a group of students from Central Michigan University.
Scenes for the film, which traces the path of the “28” who traveled to four states and two countries in search of freedom, were shot at several Boone County locations, including the Dinsmore Homestead.
For more information about the role of Boone County in the filming of “All OR NOTHIN’,” click here.
The tour retraces a portion of the route of the enslaved Americans to College Hill, which was the home of Farmers’ College. It includes a stop for lunch at Ferndale Park on the banks of the Ohio River. The all-day trip will feature guides and living history characters who share stories along the route.
“There will also be additional information about their journey, including a presentation and a workshop on the Escape of the 28 at the conference, so there is a significant Northern Kentucky connection to this,” Thomas said.
Also on Friday, the Underground Railroad and Quaker Heritage Tour focuses on the communities of Waynesville, Wilmington and the smaller communities in between.
The tour begins at the Museum of the Friends Home in Waynesville. The 1905 Quaker boarding home includes the Miami Friends Meeting, the oldest Quaker meeting in the region.
The tour travels the route from Waynesville to Wilmington and includes stops in Harveysburg and Oakland. It includes lunch at the historic 1836 Red Brick Meetinghouse in Waynesville and concludes at the Quaker Heritage Center in Wilmington.
Tours begin at 8 a.m. Friday and are scheduled to be completed by 5 p.m. The cost is $40 for conference attendees and $50 for non-attendees. Post-conference tours in New Richmond and Ripley, Ohio and Augusta and Maysville, Kentucky are planned as well.
“Even if they don’t go to the conference, they can sign up for the tours and that’s something that we want the public to know,” Thomas said. “If you are not interested in the conference and the academics of it, but you are interested in knowing about some of these things that happened in your own back yard, take these tours.”
Conference keynote speakers include Dr. Clarence G. Newsome, President of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and Déanda Johnson, Midwest Region Director for the National Park Service Network to Freedom.
The National Parks Service is expected to announce the campaign to try to establish the official heritage corridor, which follows the region covered by the Freedom Corridor, at the conference.
“We were told initially to expect this to take 10 years and that we would have to build partnerships with local politicians and a whole bunch of dollars,” Thomas said. “Here we are three years later with our small, but mighty group and the National Parks Service is coming to us now.”
The conference includes a dozen presentation and workshop sessions, some of which run concurrently, and features more than 30 speakers.
Presenters include Brian Hackett, an assistant professor and Director of the Public History Program at Northern Kentucky University and Ronald V. Morris, a professor of history at Ball State University.
Registration for the Saturday conference schedule, which includes lunch, is $85 ($40 for students).
All registration and fee payments will be processed through the Clermont County Convention and Visitors Bureau website until October 14. Registrations after that date will be processed at the conference site.
For additional information,click here .
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com