Ellen’s Disguise

Ellen’s Disguise

Jennifer Goran, a Champaign actress, did her first presentation this past week as Ellen Craft, the slave who escaped in 1848 by posing as a white man. Jennifer did a marvelous job bringing Ellen and her story to life for seventh and eighth grade students in Champaign,...

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Vanishing Woman Out on Kindle

Vanishing Woman Out on Kindle

The Vanishing Woman is now available on Kindle. The novel is based on the true story of Ellen Craft, a slave who escaped in 1848 by pretending to be an ailing white man. Her husband William posed as her slave as they made their way from Macon to Savannah to...

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Crossing the Jordan–in Ohio

Crossing the Jordan–in Ohio

To many abolitionists, the Ohio River was the North's Jordan River, providing access to the Promised Land. The Ohio River was the dividing line between North and South, making it an important crossing point for escaped slaves in the Underground Railroad. It is also...

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The Lincoln Movie Trailer

The Lincoln Movie Trailer

Ted Johnson, a wonderful actor I got to visit with at this year's Gideon Media Arts Conference, plays a small but very important role in the upcoming Stephen Spielberg movie, Lincoln. He has pointed out an excellent Entertainment Weekly article that goes through the...

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The Civil War’s First Martyr

The Civil War’s First Martyr

Elijah Lovejoy's Last Stand Mobs had already destroyed Elijah Lovejoy's printing press three times, and they were aiming for a fourth time in November of 1837. Lovejoy, a Presbyterian minister, had riled up people in St. Louis for his abolitionist views in his...

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History by the Slice