The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad. Amesville. , When Congress established the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, one of the provisions forbid slavery in any new future state admitted to the Union, north of the Ohio River. Later, Congress added to that ordinance, a law that made it a federal crime to give aid or harbor escaping slaves that could be punished by severe fines or even imprisonment. Adding to this were rewards paid by plantation owners to freelance bounty hunters for slaves that were returned. This made life extremely difficult even in a free-state like Ohio., It was under these conditions that caused abolitionists to form secretive networks that could help escaping slaves move along a network that was neither advertised nor written. In fact, most of the people on the network only knew a few of the other members to help protect everyone's identity. That network became known as the Underground Railroad., Although there were Underground Railroad networks throughout the country, even in the South, Ohio had the most active network of any other state with around 3000 miles of routes used by escaping runaways. The reason for this is 2-fold. First Ohio was bordered by 2 slave states: Virginia and Kentucky. That amounted to more that 400 miles of border between slave-state and free-state. Of all the states involved in these underground networks, Ohio was the closest state to Canada with only about 250 miles or less from anywhere along the Ohio River to Lake Erie and freedom., Ohio also had a large Quaker population, especially in the east and southeast portions of the state. While the Pennsylvania Quakers were largely responsible for initiating the abolitionist movement, the Ohio Quakers seemed to be more directly involved in actually moving escaping slaves on their way north and freedom in particular those fleeing slaves coming from Virginia., Around Amesville, there were thought to be several sites on the Underground Railroad. The Cutler house (on what is now State Route 329) is thought to have been part of the network. Elephant Rock, on the northeast edge of Amesville, was thought to be a stopping and overnight location.