John Rankin (abolitionist)
John Rankin (February 5, 1793 – March 18, 1886) was an American Presbyterian minister, educator and abolitionist. Upon moving to Ripley, Ohio in 1822, he became known as one of Ohio's first and most active "conductors" on the Underground Railroad. Prominent pre-Civil War abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe were influenced by Rankin's writings and work in the anti-slavery movement.
When Beecher was asked after the end of the Civil War, "Who abolished slavery?," she answered, "Reverend John Rankin and his sons did."
Read more about John Rankin (abolitionist): Early Career, Ripley and The Underground Railroad, Letters On Slavery, Beyond The Pulpit, "Freedom's Heroes"
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“What should we know,
For better or worse,
Of the Long Ago,
Were it not for Verse:”
—Oliver St. John Gogarty (1878–1957)