A Grandfather's Gift
  • Home
  • The Gift
  • About
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • Gallery
  • Home
  • The Gift
  • About
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • Gallery

A Grandfather's Gift:
​From the Underground Railroad to Thoughts on Race


Map: Compiled from "The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom" by Willbur H. Siebert Wilbur H. Siebert, The Macmillan Company, 1898.[1], Public Domain.
If you are new to this site, please click here to read the story behind A Grandfather's Gift.

How It Began

7/7/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureNancy Kendall - Larger image in Gallery
Nancy Jones Kendall was about 17 years old when her father decided to flee Kentucky.  At the time, of course, helping slaves escape was against the law. The enslaved were considered property. As an abolitionist, Nancy's father published anti-slavery articles and felt increasingly threatened in Kentucky because of his views.
 
The family settled in Washington, Iowa, in 1840. The time between 1840 and 1863 was feverishly desperate for enslaved peoples. Nancy's father,  Edward Jones, was one of many who worked to help them to freedom. 
 
For many years, there was not an abundance of written documentation of the details of these desperate, terrified people.  Many of the first accounts came from Quakers, who were heavily involved. Some recognizable names, such as the Beecher family were active.
 
When Abraham Lincoln first met Harriet Beecher Stowe, so the story goes, he looked down at her small form from his great height and said, "So, you're the little woman who wrote the book that started the big war."  He referred, of course, to Harriet Beecher Stowe's groundbreaking story, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Flawed as it was, the book became influential in the abolitionist movement.
 
Harriet Beecher Stowe was not only a housewife but also a mother of six. Her work appeared as a series that ran in the abolitionist newspaper, The National Era. The series became so popular; the paper published it in book form in 1852. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" quickly became a bestseller.
 
Other famous names, such as Frederick Douglass, Cotton Mather, and, of course, Harriet Tubman are synonymous with the Underground Railroad and civil rights. But, we often don't know the stories of those like my great-great-grandmother and her husband, Andrew, who were only a small part of a wide-reaching, brave and dangerous effort to help enslaved people escape to the north.

PictureJournal Page 1 - Larger image in Gallery
Nancy Kendall wanted to write down a few words for my wonderful, gentle grandfather about her family's work.  And because he gave this precious gift to me, I humbly offer her story. I hope you'll follow with me as we take the journey with Nancy Kendall from Kentucky to Iowa and the Underground Railroad.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Nancy Jean

    Nancy Jean is a woman of several lives and careers, including school teacher, homemaker, parent, amateur musician and writer. ​Read more...

      Subscribe to My Newsletter!

    Sign Me Up!

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020

    Categories

    All
    1840
    Abraham Lincoln
    Black Americans
    Civil War
    Election
    Films
    Grandfather's Gift
    Historical
    Iowa
    John Lewis
    Journal
    Kentucky
    Nancy Kendall
    Native Americans
    People
    Science
    Slavery
    Underground Railroad
    Voting
    Women

    RSS Feed

Home

About

The Gift

Gallery

Contact

Copyright © 2020-2022