Black History Month: Moncure Conway

When a nonslaveholder said they hated slavery, it didn't necessarily mean they were an abolitionist, because very few southern whites worked to end slavery.

That wasn't true in the case of Moncure Conway, son of a Virginia planter and slaveholder. He hated slavery, and he devoted himself to ending it.

Moncure Conway was born on March 17, 1832, in Stafford County, Virginia.  The relatives of his father, county magistrate Walker Peyton Conway, included the families of James Madison and George Washington.  His mother, Margaret Daniel, was the granddaughter of a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  One of his uncles was a states' rights advocate.  And his great-uncle, Peter Vivan Daniel, was a member of the Supreme Court.  In 1857, Peter Daniel voted with the majority in the infamous Dred Scott decision, which stated that "the Negro has no rights which the white man was bound to respect" and included the ruling that African-Americans could never become U.S. citizens.

But Moncure Conway could not bring himself to follow in the thinking of his great-uncle. Conway's biographer, John d'Entremont, called him "the most radical white male who grew up in the antebellum South."

After earning an AB degree from Pennsylvania's Dickinson College, he became a Methodist minister. But not long afterwards, he began shifting towards being a Unitarian and an abolitionist.  It was mostly the women in his family that encouraged him in this direction.  By contrast, his father and uncle "threatened to have him drummed out of town."  Right around this time, he discovered Ralph Waldo Emerson's writings, and started corresponding with him.  In 1853, he moved to eastern Massachusetts, where he met and developed his relationship with Emerson and also earned a degree from Harvard Divinity School.

During Conway's time at Harvard, a fugitive slave named Anthony Burns was arrested.  Abolitionists tried to free Burns through legal channels, and when that failed, they stormed the jail.  A deputy sheriff was killed in the chaos.  No doubt that influenced Conway to come out, in 1854, as an open abolitionist.  He spoke at the same Fourth of July rally where William Lloyd Garrison burned a copy of the US Constituion.  In his speech, Conway said that, "in Virginia, they not only had slaves, but every man with a conscience, or even the first throbbings of a conscience, is a slave."

The next year, 1855, Conway was ordained as a minister of the First Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. He preached so fervently against slavery that he was fired in 1856.  Undaunted, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, became the minister of their First Unitarian Church, and married Ellen Davis Dana.  Gradually, he moved away from Unitarianism into "free thought", no longer believing in Christ's divinity or in miracles.

In July, 1862, Conway, upon hearing of fighting in the area in Virginia where he had lived, made up his mind to free his family's slaves.  After finding about thirty of them in Washington, D.C., and negotiating with railroad officials to take them to Ohio, they set out on a dangerous trip to Yellow Springs, Ohio.  When the slaves finally reached free territory, Conway "observed that every eye danced, every tongue was loosened, and, after some singing, they all dropped off to sleep.  It was not until the next day that I learned that the station which had wrought such a transfomation was the dividing line between the slave and the free states. . . . there the shadow of slavery ended."

The free people named their settlement along the Little Miami River "Conway's Colony".

In 1863, while in England, Conway--without permission from the US government--tried to bargain with the Confederate envoy to England, offering to support disunion if the Confederates would free their slaves.   Back home, Confederates relished in Conway's error, while fellow abolitionists protested.  Conway offered a meek apology to Secretary of State William Seward.

After the Civil War, Conway lived much of the rest of his life as an expatriate.  He served as the minister of London's South Place Chapel, a British free thought organization, and also wrote much on philosophy and religion.  While he was living in New York, he wrote biographies of figures such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Paine.

Not long after his wife died of cancer in 1897, Conway moved to Paris.  He continued to write and travel until his death on November 15, 1907.

In 1862, when Conway learned of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, he called it a poor compromise, because the Proclamation freed slaves only in some states and didn't address the issue of equal rights.

"What will we do in 1962?" he wrote.

He could not have known that, by 1962, the Civil Rights movement was gathering steam and moving full speed ahead.


Sources used:

Schools, Norman L. "Moncure Conway (1832-1907)". Encyclopedia Virginia 
"Moncure Conway, Southern Abolitionist," Renegade South: Histories of Unconventional Southerners, January19, 2010
Boorstein, Michelle. "From 1850s Virginia, an Abolitionist Hero Emerges." Washington Post, Sunday, August 22, 2004

Black History Month: Calvin Fairbank

When Reverend Calvin Fairbank was released from the Kentucky State Penitentary in 1864, he headed straight for his home in Ohio.  Upon reaching the state, he fell to the ground, "kissed the dirt of my adopted State, and rising to my feet, and throwing my hands high in (the) air, I shouted:  Out of the Mouth of Death!  Out of the Jaws of Hell!!"

His crime?

Helping slaves to freedom.

Calvin Fairbank, a Methodist minister, was born in New York State on November 3, 1816.  In his autobiography, he told of listening to the story of a former slave woman who had been sold and separated from her husband and family. He was outraged, and told his father, "When I get bigger, they shall not do that."

Fairbank, in 1840, became licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church.  By then, he'd already freed his first slave, and by 1844, he'd claimed to have rescued at least 44 slaves.  That year, he attempted to rescue the wife and children of a slave, Gilson Berry.  While he was unable to rescue that family, he did come across another slave, Lewis Hayden.  When Fairbank asked, "Why do you want your freedom?"  Hayden answered, "Because I am a man."

The Hayden family--their faces powdered with flour to make them appear white--managed to escape. Fairbank did not.  He was arrested, tried, convicted, and sent to prison at the Kentucky penitentary in Frankfort.  

He was pardoned in 1849 by Kentucky governor John J. Crittenden.  Upon his pardon, he went right back to helping slaves escape.  In 1851, he helped a female slave named Tamar flee from Kentucky to Indiana.  On November 9 of that year, marshals from the state of Kentucky abducted Fairbank and took him back to Kentucky, where he again stood trial for helping a slave escape.  Again, he was tried, convicted, and sent back to the penitentary.  When Fairbank began his second term in jail, he heard the warden say, "Take Fairbank to the hackling house and kill him."  The hackling house, part of the hemp production area, was so brutal that three inmates deliberately chopped off a hand do they wouldn't have to work there.  

While Fairbank was in jail for the second time, he was repeatedly flogged -- over 1,000 times, he reported -- and at one point, he was hit by a club and temporarily blinded.  

His ordeal ended on April 15, 1864, when the Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky, Richard T. Jacobs, pardoned him.  He'd been released, as he said, out of the jaws of hell.  

Fairbank may have come out of the jaws of hell, but the brutal treatment he received there broke his health. He did marry and have a son, but he was unable to support his family. In 1898, he died. 

Fairbank, during his lifetime, reportedly helped 47 slaves escape. Those 47 people would not have known freedom without Calvin Fairbank being willing to put his life, health, and freedom on the line. 

Sources used:  

Prichard, James M. "Into the Fiery Furnace : Anti-Slavery Prisoners in the Kentucky Penitentary 1844-1870." Kentucky's Underground Railroad: Passage to Freedom," web site.
Fox, Aloysius, "November 9, 1851: Minister Calvin Fairbank Imprisoned," The Pandora Society website, November 9, 2015
Fairbank, Calvin. Rev. Calvin Fairbank During Slavery Times: How He Fought the Good Fight to Help Prepare the Way. Chicago: R.R. McCabe, 1890, retrieved from archive.org
Chesson, Michael. Review of Delia Webster and the Underground Railroad, posted at H-Net, Humanities and Social Sciences Online.

Black History Month: Betty Okino

When Betty Okino's coaches asked her if she understood Romanian, Betty answered, "Of course."

Big mistake.

From then on, her coaches started speaking in Hungarian, so Betty couldn't tell the other girls what they were saying.

Okino's coaches were Marta and Bela Karolyi, famous for training Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton, both of whom were Olympic all-around champions in women's gymnastics.

Elizabeth Anna "Betty" Okino, the daughter of a Ugandan father and Romanian mother, was born in Kampala, Uganda, on June 4, 1975. She came to the United States when she was three and, at first, was a competitive dancer. She began gymnastics at the age of nine, which is late in gymnastics circles. Her dance training served her well, though, and four years later, she was competing at the junior elite level.

In 1991, she won the American Cup competition, and she also won two medals at the World Championship--a bronze medal on the balance beam and a silver medal with her teammates. Undoubtedly, this contributed to her being selected to the Olympic gymnastics team in 1992. Okino and gymnast Dominque Dawes were the first African-American girls to be on an Olympic gymnastics team.

Six weeks before the Olympics, Okino fractured her back. She describes this as "quite literally the battle of good vs. evil". Would she give up, or would she hold on to her dream?

She chose the latter. In Barcelona, Spain, site of the 1992 Olympics, she won a bronze team medal, competed in the finals of the balance beam, and placed 12th in the all-around. Okino has described herself as being "tired and drained" by the time she got there. Despite her exhaustion, though, she was grateful for representing the United States at the Olympics.

The Code of Points, the handbook that is used by gymnastics judges, contains two skills--a triple pirouette on the balance beam and a dismount from the uneven bars--named the "Okino", after Betty. It is a type of fame achieved by very few gymnasts.

Okino retired from gymnastics after the Olympics and acted in several TV series. Today, she is married to Jacob Daniel DeVere, and together, they have pursued their interests in art, film and music. She can be found at One Drop Within the Wave, her website. 

In 2012, twenty years after Betty Okino's performance in Barcelona, the world watched as Gabrielle Douglas became the first African-American to win the all-around Olympic gold medal in women's gymnastics. Betty Okino deserves part of the credit for opening the door for her.

Sources used:

"Rewind: Interview with Betty Okino," Triple Twist Gym Blog, January 14, 2014

Hersh, Phil, "For Moves, Local Gymnast Special," July 18, 1990
"Betty Okino biography", Internet Movie Database

Black History Month: Levi Coffin

"Grand Central Station" is not only the name of a famous railroad station in New York City.  It's also the nickname given to the Indiana house where Levi Coffin and his wife Catharine lived.

Levi Coffin was born on October 28, 1798, in North Carolina.  He was a Quaker, a religious group that did not believe in slavery.  As a child, he and his father saw a group of slaves, and Coffin wondered how he would feel if his father were taken away from him, just like the slaves were taken away from their wives and children.

In 1826, he moved to Indiana with his wife Catharine.  When they learned that they were living on a route that escaped slaves used to flee their masters, they started helping shelter them and arranging transportation to Canada and elsewhere.  Because of his work, Coffin gained the nickname of "President of the Underground Railroad," and their home, the nickname of "Grand Central Station".

When asked why he helped slaves when he knew he could be arrested, Coffin explained that he "read in the Bible . . . that it was right to take in the stranger and adminster to those in distress, and that I thought it was always safe to do right.  The Bible, in bidding us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about color, and I should try to follow out the teachings of that good book."

He moved to Cincinnati in 1847.  There, he opened a business that sold goods produced by free laborers.  He continued his participation in the Underground Railroad.  By 1850, safe houses were needed in free states as well as in slave states, because the Fugitive Slave Law allowed Southern slave owners to go to free states and reclaim their slaves.  In order to gain their freedom, escaped slaves had to go all the way to Canada.

In 1876, he published his autobiography, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, which told of his life and his activities in helping slaves.  He died on September 16, 1877, in Cincinnati.  Several years later, a group of African-Americans in Cincinnati, to show their appreciation for Coffin's work, erected a monument over his grave.  It stands today, paying tribute to the man that ran the original "Grand Central Station".

Sources used:

Hoskins, Mary Katherine, "Levi Coffin." Documenting the American South website

"Levi Coffin", Ohio History Central

Indiana Historical Society, "Levi and Catharine Coffin."

Black History Month: Robert Smalls

"Pass the Planter."

The cry from the sentinel at Fort Sumter was the response Robert Smalls had been hoping for.  He put the Planter, a Confederate steamboat, in motion and headed straight for the ships that blockaded the coast.  The first ship that saw the Planter, the USS Onward, almost fired.

Then they saw the white flag.

Robert Smalls had just executed perhaps the most daring escape of the Civil War.  He'd swiped a Confederate ship, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, Howitzer guns, other weapons, and seventeen slaves, among them his own wife and children -- and did it all right under the noses of the Confederacy.

Smalls was born in 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina, the son of a black slave and a white man.  As a child, his mother, a house slave, sent her son into the fields to experience true slavery.  She wanted her son to see the inhumanity of slavery, and she succeeded.  That experience gave him the spirit he would need to later escape to freedom.

Smalls was sent to Charleston when he was 12.  He learned to sail, and proved himself a capable and worthy seafarer.  Slowly, he earned the trust of his slave masters.  When he was assigned to steer the Planter, an armed Confederate steamship, he began thinking of his escape plan.  He knew the waterways, and he knew the signals that the Planter's whistle would give.  Now, all he needed was the chance.

It came on the night of May 12, 1862.  The three white officers in charge of the Planter, instead of spending the night aboard the ship, decided to stay on shore instead.  Smalls, and eight other crewmen, were left aboard.  When Smalls told them his plan, most of them decided to go with him.

Remembering a remark a fellow crewman had made -- "Boy, you look 'jes like de captain" -- Smalls put on the jacket and straw hat of the ship's captain and set out on his journey.  They made one stop, at a nearby wharf, to pick up other slaves, including Smalls' wife and children.  If caught, Smalls matter-of-factly stated to his wife, he'd be shot.

But the Planter was passed, and when it reached the USS Onward, the now-free slaves broke into celebration, singing, dancing, and laughing.  When Smalls met the captain of the Onward, he commented, "I thought the Planter might be of some use to Uncle Abe."

After the Civil War ended, he returned to South Carolina and bought his former owner's house.  He then began several business ventures, including a store, a school for black children, and a newspaper. Smalls also began a political career that culminated in his serving for five terms in the US House of Representatives.

Smalls once stated, "My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be equal of any people anywhere.  All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life."

Robert Smalls' courage and ingenuity proves the truth of his statement.



Sources used:

White, Micah, "Black History Unsung Heroes: Robert Smalls." Biography.com
Roberts, Blain and Kytle, Ethan, "Robert Small's Great Escape," New York Times website, May 12, 2012
"Smalls, Robert, 1839-1915," United States House of Representatives, History, Art and Archives

Black History Month: John Rankin

Slaves fleeing north in the 1840's had to wait at the Ohio River, in hiding, trembling in fear, until they saw the light of a lantern across the river.  It was safe.  They could come across, because shelter was waiting for them.

The lantern belonged to John Rankin, a Presbyterian minister, a Southerner by birth, and who was an abolitionist.

He was born on February 4, 1793 (223 years ago today!) in Tennessee.  Although he lived in the South during his early life, he began preaching against slavery after becoming a minister in 1817. Church leaders warned Rankin that he should never preach such views in Tennessee and, as a result, he and his family moved to Kentucky.  He ministered to the Concord Presbyterian Church, an antislavery congregation, until financial problems and growing personal danger caused him to relocate to Ripley, Ohio.

Not long after moving to Ripley, Rankin discovered that his brother Thomas, who lived in Virginia, owned slaves.  He wrote a series of letters that became known as Letters on Slavery.  They were originally published in the Castigator, Rankin's hometown paper, but in 1826, the letters were published in book form.

Rankin founded Ripley College in 1829, and two years later, he enrolled the school's first African-American student.  As a result, some students left Ripley College and didn't return.  

Rankin decided to "put his money where his mouth was", so to speak, and opened his home to runaway slaves.  In 1838, he helped a slave who escaped by crossing the Ohio River with her baby in her arms.  That woman, and that event, became the model for Eliza, the runaway slave, in Uncle Tom's Cabin.  Ripley's home--the one where the lantern shone--became one of the main stopping points on the Underground Railroad.  His notoriety grew to such a point that a $3000 bounty was placed on his head, and his home was often targeted by hunters demanding to search for fugitive slaves.  But never once was a slave recaptured that reached Ripley.

Rankin kept preaching and speaking out against slavery.  He, along with ten other Midwestern ministers, founded the Free Presbytery of Ripley, and then eventually united into the Free Synod of Cincinnati, later known as the Free Presbyterian Church.  

He died on March 18, 1886.  He supported the cause of abolition by holding the lantern that signaled "safety", and he lived to see that cause validated.

Sources used:

"John Rankin," Ohio History Central

"John Rankin", National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum m.org/jrankin.html

Black History Month: Marshall Keeble

If you are not a member or former member of the Churches of Christ, you've probably never heard of Marshall Keeble.

Come to think of it, if you're a member of the Churches of Christ, you may not have heard of Marshall Keeble.

You should, no matter whether you are or are not part of Churches of Christ.

Marshall Keeble was born near Murphreesboro, Tennessee, on December 7, 1878, the son of former slaves. When he died on April 20, 1968, it was estimated that he'd baptized an estimated 40,000 people.

He and his family moved to Nashville when Keeble was four.  He went to school until the 7th grade, and then went to work at a soap factory.

At 17, Keeble was baptized at the Gay Street Christian Church.  Two years later--after marrying Minnie Womack, a minister's daughter--he began to preach at the Jackson Street Church of Christ.  In 1914,  he decided to devote himself exclusively to preaching.  He traveled to brush-arbors, tents, barns, church buildings, and wherever else people would listen to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Not only did he go throughout the United States, he also made several trips to Nigeria.  Keeble's 1962 autobiography was abtly titled, From Mule Back to Super Jet with the Gospel.

Around 1920, A.B. Burton, friend, a fellow Church of Christ member, and founded of the Life and Casuality Insurance Company, started financing Keeble's work.  A website dedicated to the history of the Restoration Movement (which birthed the Churches of Christ), says that "The Bible and Burton gave Keeble the ability to make the world a better place."

Not only did Keeble preach, he also debated many from other religious groups.  He tackled the subjects of baptism, foot-washing, the Lord's Supper, miracles, the Holy Spirit, the Church, the Sabbath, and probably many, many other subjects.  It's said that after Keeble's debate opponents faced Keeble, they all retired from the debating arena and never came back for a second try.

Keeble's marriage to Minnie Womack lasted until her death in 1932.  They had five children; sadly, all of them died before Keeble did.  Two children died in infancy, one was electrocuted at ten, a daughter died in 1935, and their last child died in 1964.  Keeble married again, to Laura Johnson, in 1934.

Keeble was criticized for being "too accomodating" to the white people that supported him.  He encouraged Christian blacks to "turn the other cheek", but didn't ask for similar Christian behavior from whites.  He did preach to mixed groups, and when doing so, would reserve "whites-only" seating.  There were whites who embraced Keeble because he came across as "knowing his place" in society and in the church.

On the other hand, Keeble did address discrimination when he trained ministers at the Nashville Christian Institute.  And he mentored two people who became leaders in the American Civil Rights movement:  Fred Gray, who later defended Rosa Parks; and Floyd Rose, a minister who also advocated for civil rights.

When he died, over 3,000 people, both black and white, attended his funeral.

In 2000, the Christian Chronicle, a newspaper covering issues in Churches of Christ, named Marshall Keeble their "Person of the Decade" for the years 1940-1940.

There are transcripts and recordings still available of Keeble's sermons.  Those who go looking for them will find a picture of a passionate man of God who devoted his life to telling others about the Jesus he loved.


Sources used:

"Marshall Keeble, 1878-1968," Restoration History
"Marshall Keeble," Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture