Eric,

Thanks for walking through this door. This is exactly what I was hoping to learn more about. My initial impression is that the reason people wrote this specific language into their wills was more of a political commentary on the hypocrisy of the "free" Northern states....i.e, there was not state would accept them. But I don't really know that, but this sure furthers the theory.

As so your last post citing Kathleen Browns book, "Nasty Wenches" etc. The title is catchy but it is otherwise a waste of pulp. Just my opinion of course, but I know it was reviewed by several people on our Mary Ball Washington Museum & Library committee as a possible purchase. That is a pretty diverse group of people and they were unanimous in their opinion: NO.

On May 17, 2012, at 2:25 PM, Eric Richardson wrote:

> Craig,
> A Public History source/venue (Underground Railroad museum in Cincinnati)
> displayed several of the antebellum mid-western Black Codes that required
> removal of any person of African descent within a very short time period,
> as short as 24 hours like Georgia required for free persons of color
> entering that state.  The museum's argument was that the Underground
> Railroad did not end in Ohio & elsewhere but continued to Canada as the
> actual safe refuge, not the "free States."  Not sure if it is ancedotal
> proof or disproof but Sally Hemmings' son, Peter, changed his name to
> Jefferson in Ohio, moved to Wisconsin, and "passed" as white there.  Not
> sure if the stop in Ohio was longer than the Black Code allowed but he left
> VA after Jefferson emancipated him.
> Eric

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