Keith P. Griffler

The African-Americans who took it upon themselves to liberate themselves and other people from bondage before the American Civil War were placing themselves in serious danger. If captured after attempting to gain their freedom having an ear cut off was just one of the horrors that they could face. If they were free and living north of the Ohio River they lacked any legal protections and kidnapers, who had the protection of law, could seize them, take them south of the river and sell them into bondage without risk of prosecution. For these reasons and others there is little documentation, outside of memoirs written years after the fact, of African- American involvement in what has come to be called the Underground Railroad.

The scarcity of documentation is why this book, Front Line of Freedom, stands out from other histories on the subject. Professor Griffler found the sources that do exist, his 14-page bibliography lists almost an entire page of period newspapers that he scoured for information, and put the evidence together to demonstrate that the people who benefited from the Underground Railroad were its motivating force as well as vital participants.

I believe that reading this book is necessary to gain a full understanding of the Underground Railroad and that anyone researching the subject will find something useful it the bibliography.

Griffler, Keith. Front Line of Freedom. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.… (altro)