Discovering Black History in Southeast Ohio

On June 28, 2006, Governor Robert A. Taft signed legislation enacting section 5.2234 of the Ohio Revised Code, Ohio House Bill 393, to designate September 22 as Emancipation Day in honor of the anniversary of the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862. The First Ohio Colored Regiment. / John M. Langston, colored, made a speech at the Court House, Tuesday night of this week, in behalf of the 1 st Ohio Colored Regiment, in Camp Delaware – asking for aid and recruits. We did not hear him, but learn from several who did that he made an eloquent speech, not surpassed in power by any one who has spoken in Marietta, this year. The house was filled, and at the close, the sum of $260 was raised and paid for the Regiment. It will be borne in mind that the Government does not pay bounty as for white recruits, the law not authorizing it. The colored people present raised $10 towards procuring colors for the Regiment. Two recruits were obtaine...

  Marietta Intelligencer , June 19, 1845.  On Wednesday the 11th inst., the Steamboat "Allegheny Mail" passed this place bound for Pittsburgh. She grounded on Carpenter's bar, five miles above this place, and in the course of the night a servant boy of John O. Price of Maryland, aged 15 years, made his escape from the boat to parts unknown. The account Mr. P. gives of the matter is this. He had been to Cincinnati and while there this boy was permitted to go where he pleased. He made no attempt to escape, and was apparently anxious to return home to Maryland with Mr. Price, who thinks the boy would never have left him had he not been over-persuaded by professed friends, as his mother and other relations are in Mr. P's hands. When he was missed on the morning of the 12th inst., it was feared that he had fallen overboard. But some of the hands on the boat say that in the course of the night, they overheard a man in the garb of a Quaker, who is from the western part o...

Western Spectator [Marietta, Ohio], December 21, 1811.  RANAWAY, on the 9th inst. from the Subscriber, of Washington's Bottom, Wood County, Virginia, a Negro Girl named Phillis, about twenty four years old, five feet five inches high, a dark yellow complexion; on the back of her right wrist, she has a long fresh scar, when walking bends her head forward, a downcast look and naturally very active. She had on and took with her, a blue cotton and a white cambric gown, a linen, a calico and a humhum petticoat, a dimity and a red calico jacket, a large leno and a large dark colored shawl, an old linsey habit and a pair of calf-skin shoes, with sundry other articles too numerous to mention. She has lived at Parkersburgh two years in a tavern, with Dean and Baily, and will probably be known to many. Any person who will bring the girl to me, or secure her so that I can get her, will be entitled to the above reward. If she is brought home, all expences will be paid exclusive of the reward. ...

  American Friend  [Marietta, Ohio], May 12, 1820.  Ran away from the subscriber, in Wood County, Virginia, on the 28th day of April, 1820, the following negroes, viz: JACK, ROSE & JOHN. JACK is a very handsome negro, about 5 feet 10 inches high, of a black complexion, erect in his appearance, and about 26 years of age - had on, when he absconded, a deep blue bearskin coat, &c. ROSE, the wife of Jack, is a likely woman of her age, about 5 feet 6 inches high, black complexion, hair tolerably long and tied at top, has holes in her ears but seldom wears rings, and about 36 years of age - had on, when she absconded, a blue cloth riding dress with white glass buttons. JOHN is about 5 feet 7 inches high, very black complexion, thick and well set - had on linen pantaloons, &c. The above reward will be given to any person who will apprehend and deliver said slaves to me, at Parkersburgh, or two hundred dollars will be given if they are secured in jail so that I can ge...

Library of Congress photo.  Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an African American author, educator, and activist, well-known in the mid-19th century for her lectures, poetry, novels, and essays on the themes of abolitionism and women’s rights. An original copy of her highly successful 1857 book, “Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects,” is held in the Stimson Collection at the Marietta College library. In December of 1860, Frances spent a week in Marietta, lecturing at the Washington County Courthouse and at the Methodist Church on Putnam Street, where “a room full of hearers” learned more about “the Progress of Freedom.” She was described in local newspapers as “a woman of considerable talent.”  Home News  [Marietta, Ohio] , Saturday, December 15, 1860 "F rances Ellen Watkins, a colored lady, will give a free lecture at the Methodist Church, Putnam street, on Monday evening next. She is a woman of considerable talent, so we are informed, and has written and published a number of...

  The Marietta Register , July 8, 1864    Amesville, O., June 20, 1864.   Having been requested by some friends and patrons of the Albany Enterprise Academy, a school for the colored people, to visit that institution, I would hereby state that I have endeavored faithfully to perform the duty assigned to me, and that I find the effort to build up a permanent school of the kind designated, in successful progress.   The walls of the edifice, 30 by 48 feet, and two stories high, are completed, well and thoroughly built and ready for the roofing and floors. The materials for enclosing the building are nearly all on the spot and mechanics are engaged on the work. The building is well located for its purposes and when completed will be an honor to its donors, and a proud incentive, as well a great facility for the intellectual and moral elevation of the Colored People of the region. Thus far the undertaking is nearly free from debt and I doubt not has been as well and ...

The Marietta Register , August 22, 1872 Mr. Editor: An incident, related at the Newbury Harvest Home Picnic, by Mr. A. L. Curtis, ought to be preserved from oblivion.  As near as I can remember, these are his words:   "Some fifty years ago, when slaves were owned on the other side of the river, an energetic colored man named Harry, purchased his freedom from his master, and came over here to work for my father, in order to obtain the balance of the purchase money.  Harry left a wife in bondage, and, as he was still in debt, there was little prospect of obtaining freedom for his wife.  They concluded, as have many since that time, that there was a shorter road to liberty; so one night Harry quietly paddled his canoe across the river, and brought his wife to this side, and made a camp among the rocks just on the other bank of that ravine, not a stone's throw from where we are now standing, hoping to get her to a place of greater security during the coming night. ...