Faces
By Lindsey Capritta
One-track Mind Local speaker talks about Ohio’s role in the Underground Railroad
A
Blankenship has spent decades preserving the history of Ohio’s Underground Railroad.
from the border states and ran into Ohio to get assistance.” Blankenship will speak for the historical society’s Understanding Colum-
Understanding Columbus’ Underground Railroad Who: Leslie Blankenship, Friends of Freedom Society co-founder When: 7-8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5 Where: Municipal Service Center, 3600 Tremont Rd. 8
bus’ Underground Railroad event on April 5. The event follows a February historical society discussion with author Ann Hagedorn about her book Beyond the River, which documents Underground Railroad stories from Ripley, a small village that sits on the Ohio side of the border with Kentucky. The history Blankenship intends to share will include Columbus conductors March/April 2022 • www.trivillagemagazine.com
Photo by John Nixon Photography
large part of early United States history is entwined with the history of slavery. As a Union state that resisted this history, Ohio played a key role in helping enslaved people escape from the South. Here in the Tri-Village area, the Upper Arlington Historical Society seeks to educate residents on the vital role central Ohio played along the Underground Railroad through the organization’s History Speaks series. Leslie Blankenship, who has dedicated decades to sharing that history, will give an hour-long presentation on April 5. Blankenship co-founded the Friends of Freedom Society in 1996, an organization that works to preserve historic locations of the Underground Railroad across Ohio and worked as the group’s central regional coordinator. “Ohio was probably one of the most active states on the Underground Railroad,” Blankenship says, “because it bordered Canada and Kentucky and Virginia – today it’s West Virginia. Most runaways and freedom seekers came
