The Randolph Freedpeople Part Three: An Act of Becoming

Ohio may have seemed like a potential refuge for the Randolph Freedpeople, considering that it was the first state from the Northwest Territory to prohibit slavery and a number of Black settlements were already established.[2] However, severe anti-Black legislation worked to effectively uphold the institution. On January 5th, 1804, Elias Langham and Nathaniel Massie, Speaker of the House and Speaker of the Senate respectively, created an act designed to limit the actions of Black people in the North. These so called “Black Laws” demanded that any Person of Color caught without free papers would be sent to the South, regardless of whether they had been enslaved before. Furthermore, those papers had to be recorded by the Clerk of Courts in the Ohio county in which they resided. This also required a fee of twelve and a half cents per family, costly for those who had spent much of their lives toiling for free.[3] Ultimately, Ohio’s opposition to slavery was not a marker of pro-Black advocacy.

Their trip was long, arduous, and covered a wide variety of terrain. From Roanoke they headed to the Natural Bridge, through the Valley of Virginia and up to Lewisburg, in present day West Virginia. When they reached Point Pleasant on the Ohio River, they boarded flat boats that took them up through Cincinnati to the Miami & Erie Canal. Fountain Randolph later recalled how their songs transformed to cheers of joy as they neared their destination.[8] Local papers described the scene a little differently, “In front of our office and occupying the center of the street for half a square, was a crowd of negroes, men, women, and children, like a drove of sheep coming to market. They were dressed in coarse cottons.”[9] The Cincinnati Gazette mirrored the sentiments of many local white residents, “And now, the poor creatures are among us! Why should this be?” The paper protested the evils of slavery, but argued that the North had little responsibility to survivors. Freedpeople were viewed as a liability. This attitude would confront the travelers throughout their journey as they walked down Main Street from the Public Landing and continued up the Miami & Erie Canal.