Greenfield's Path To Freedom

Greenfield's Path To Freedom. . , Greenfield's 1799 founders took up the prohibition of slavery that their faith demanded and was set in the 1787 Northwest Ordinance., Greenfield played a significant role to abolish slavery culminating with the Civil War and continuing through the generations., Greenfield's path to freedom is a journey continually calling every person and generation to action. Today we take up our responsibilities to help everyone achieve their potential, to build a healthy, safe, and prosperous community for everyone., Greenfield's Presbyterians held strong anti-slavery beliefs. Many Presbyterians had moved to the area from slave states. Presbyterian ministers led their congregations from the pulpit and in forming abolition societies. In 1813 Rev. Dr. Samuel Crothers persuaded the Chillicothe Presbytery to adopt a resolution that "slaveholding is a sin against God and man." As minister of the Greenfield Presbyterian Church from 1821-1856 he led antislavery efforts and gave the first sermon from a pulpit denouncing slavery. In 1836 he hosted the first meeting of an antislavery society and in 1836 organized the Greenfield Anti- Slavery Society and was their vice president. When the 1850 fugitive slave act became law, Rev. Crothers called the Presbyterians to refuse to obey the law and be willing to go to jail. The congregation voted to disobey the fugitive slave act., Rachel Stafford was the first African American person to live in Greenfield. She was born circa 1782 in Maryland and died May 21, 1858. Rachel was an emancipated slave whose owner was Samuel Gibson (KY). Gibson freed Rachel in 1807 when she became 25 years of age. The scarcity of information about her is supplemented by indirect sources that tell a revealing story. Her last name was not used by people who knew her, but it was discovered in the record of the United Etates census of 1850, with her age reported as seventy years, and her birthplace as the state of Maryland. She lived in the household of Rev. Dr. Samuel Crothers, later becoming his housekeeper. In an old ledger of the Douglas Tannery is an 1848 entry that Dr. Crothers bought a pair of shoes for Rachel, assumed to be an act of charity. Dr. Crothers and Rachel are buried in Greenfield's Pioneer Cemetery, also known as the old burying ground.