From his hilltop home in Ripley, Ohio, Rankin established a safe haven for enslaved people crossing the Ohio River. Born in Dandridge, Tennessee, John Rankin was an American Presbyterian minister and ...

During a time when enslaved Americans sought freedom through escape, Elizabeth Freeman challenged her legal status as property—and won.

In this excerpt from Letter IX of John Rankin’s Letters on American Slavery, Rankin argues that slavery is incompatible with ...