THE REV. JOHN RANKIN, EARLY
ABOLITIONIST*
By PAUL R. GRIM
The Ancestry and Early Career of
John Rankin.
The ancestors of the Rev. John Rankin
were Scotch-Irish
Presbyterians whose lineage can be
traced directly to Scotland
during the religious persecutions of the
seventeenth century.1
His great-great-grandfather, William
Rankin, was compelled to
flee from Scotland during that period
after his two brothers had
been killed because of their religious
belief. He made his escape
into Derry County, Ireland, in 1689.2
John, his second son, was
born there and was married to Jane
McElwee. Thomas, the older
of the two sons of John, and the
grandfather of the Rev. John
Rankin, was born in Ireland in 1724. At
the age of three years
he accompanied his father to America,
landing at Philadelphia.
Thomas was reared near Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, before the Revo-
lutionary War. He married Mary
Clendenen, who was likewise
a Scotch Presbyterian. Being intensely
patriotic, he served in the
Revolution and later sold his farm for
worthless Continental
money, a circumstance which left him in
poverty.3 After this
misfortune, he emigrated to the
Southwest and settled in eastern
Tennessee in 1784. He made a home there
in what was later
called Jefferson County.4 He had six sons, the four older of
whom had served with him in the
Revolution. The five older,
moreover, became elders in the
Presbyterian Church. Richard,
the second son of Thomas and a veteran
of the Revolution, was
the father of the Rev. John Rankin. He
married Isabella Steele
and came to Tennessee with his father.
Eleven sons were born
of this union, four of whom served in
the War of 1812. One
* A thesis presented for the degree of
Master of Arts, Ohio State University, 1935.
1 History of John Rankin's Ancestors
(typed manuscript loaned by R. C. Rankin,
of Ripley, Ohio), 1.
2 Ibid.
3 Andrew Ritchie, The Soldier, the
Battle, and the Victory (Cincinnati, 1868), 9.
4 John Rankin's Ancestors, 1.
(215)
216
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of these four, together with three
others, became Presbyterian
ministers.5
Such were the ancestors of the Rev. John
Rankin. Four
generations of loyal Presbyterians
preceded him. All had been
true to the faith. Many were ministers
of the Gospel. It was
noted above that many of his
predecessors were men of action
--loyal citizens who fought bravely for
their country in her early
wars.6 Thus patriotism was a
heritage and a tradition which
John was to receive. Because of his
father's strong religious
inclination, John was reared in a strict
Christian home.7 His call
to the ministry would seem, therefore,
to be the natural result of
heredity and training. Not only did he
continue the work of his
forefathers, but he gave it a more
humanitarian turn by seeking
to aid a miserable, enslaved people. His
early years and the
forces which moulded his life will now
be traced.
Richard Rankin secured one thousand
acres of unbroken
wilderness land after he came from
Pennsylvania with his father
in 1784. Here he built a log cabin and a
blacksmith shop on the
rough land, which became the home in
which he reared his family
of eleven sons.8 The Indians
often interrupted his work on the
frontier farm and made it difficult to
secure adequate food for
his large family. The daily toil was
great, yet Richard always
found time to teach his children the
Christian story. He attended
church regularly both in summer and
winter, even though the
little structure was seven miles from
his home. His wife Isabella
was a faithful Christian mother.9 Such
was the home into which
John Rankin was born in Jefferson
County, east Tennessee, on
the fourth day of February, 1793.10
John, who was a strong, healthy boy,
spent his early days
in the usual play and work of the
frontier farm. He helped his
mother with household duties at a very
early age. When he grew
older, he helped his father with the
farm work and continued to
do so until he was twenty years of age.11
He was able to secure
5 Ibid., 2; Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio (Norwalk,
O., 1888), I, 338.
6 See p. 215.
7 Ritchie, The Soldier, 10; see
also next paragraph.
8 Ritchie, The Soldier, 9.
9 Ibid.
10 J. C. Leggett, "Address,"
in Ceremonies Attendant upon the Unveiling of a
Bronze Bust and Granite Monument of
Rev. John Rankin (Ripley, O., 1892),
6.
11 Ibid., 11.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 217
a small amount of formal education in
his boyhood days by at-
tending the district school, which was
two miles from his home,
but this training was irregular and of
short duration. His par-
ents helped him master the rudiments of
reading and writing. As
other books were scarce, he learned to
quote extensively from the
Bible, which he read and studied daily
under his parents' guid-
ance.l2 He tried to improve
his manner of expression by writing
numerous essays, a practice which gave
him great pleasure. He
liked to practice speaking, for he had a
great desire to excel in
this art.13
At the early age of seven John had begun
to pray in secret,
desiring to possess the religious spirit
of his parents. For many
years, however, he neglected to confess
publicly and as a result
"was left to doubts and
darkness."14 He was especially troubled
over the doctrines of the sovereignty of
God and of predestina-
tion. Consequently, he even feared to
read the ninth chapter of
Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Many
years passed in which he
struggled with doubts and fears, but he
caught occasional
"glimpses of the sunlight of God's
countenance--sufficient to
lead him to connect with the church and
to prosecute his educa-
tion with a view of preaching the
gospel."15
Many difficulties faced him in this
desire to prepare for the
ministry. His father could give him but
little financial aid on
account of his large family and very
limited income.16 John de-
termined to make the attempt and at the
age of seventeen began
to prepare for a higher education. He
entered upon his studies
under the Rev. James Henderson, pastor
of the Presbyterian
Church at Dandridge, Tennessee. He progressed
rapidly and
was soon able to enter Washington
College, at Jonesborough.
This institution was presided over by
the Rev. Dr. Samuel Doak.17
He began his academic career by studying
very diligently, for, in
his own words, he feared "that his
first term would be his last."18
During this period his brother David was
killed in the Battle of
12 Ibid., 6.
13 Ritchie, The Soldier, 11.
14 Ibid., 12.
15 Ibid., 13.
16 Ibid., 12.
17 Leggett, "Address."
18 Ritchie, The Soldier, 13.
218
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Horse Shoe, and his family was greatly
distressed. John's father
received the pay and allowance due his
son from the Government
and used it to help John complete his
education.19
Before the government money had been
completely used for
his educational expenses, he was married
to Jean Lowry, Doak's
granddaughter. She was not only to
comfort and encourage
him, but also to provide the means for
his further education.20
It is interesting to know that John made
the shoes which he wore
at his wedding, and that his fiancee
tailored his marriage coat.
They were married on January 2, 1814,
"and, as a result, his par-
ents were relieved from any further
expense on his account."21
He graduated from the college the same
year, but went on with
his theological studies under Doak. In
1816 he was licensed
to preach by the Presbytery of Abington,
Virginia.22
His marriage seemed to be perfect, and
it certainly was
prolific. Thirteen children were born,
nine sons and four daugh-
ters, all of whom lived to have families
of their own. One of
the sons said that he was grown and out
in the world before he
realized that variance could ever exist
between husband and wife.
He believed that his parents' lives had
been perfectly adjusted;
the two had seemed to become one flesh
and one mind.23 Har-
mony always seemed to prevail within the
family, one parent
never criticizing the other. John
Rankin's ministerial and literary
success must have been due in part, at
least, to the comforting
and sustaining felicity of his domestic
life.24
During one of his first sermons he tried
to speak in an ex-
temporaneous manner and thought he had
done very well. Con-
cluding that this simple plan would make
preaching very easy,
he tried it a second time, but failed
utterly.25 The next Sunday
he attempted to preach from full notes,
but soon lost his place
and had to go on without them. His next
attempt was to mem-
orize his sermon completely. This plan
likewise failed when he
forgot the exact words and grew so
excited that he could not
19 Ibid., 14.
20 Ibid., 12.
21 Ibid.
22 Leggett, "Address."
23 Ibid., 7.
24 Ibid.
25 Ritchie, The
Soldier, 15.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 219
even see his congregation. He managed to
keep speaking, how-
ever, and finally stumbled through to
the end. Strangely enough,
this incident increased his
self-confidence. At length after much
hard work and diligent practice, he
became a very powerful,
efficient, and persuasive speaker.26
Rankin preached in the Presbyterian
churches of Jefferson
County for about a year. He was a
popular minister; he and
his young wife became the leaders of
church and educational
work of the community.27 He
had been brought up practically
from his cradle as a Rechabite in
temperance and as an aboli-
tionist. There was an abolition society
in Jefferson County as
early as 1814, and as a student Rankin
had joined the organiza-
tion.28 He hated the
institution of slavery and felt strongly that
it was wrong and sinful.29 As
J. C. Leggett puts it in his sketch,
"Imbued with the love of liberty,
and hating in his soul the system
of African slavery, Mr. Rankin
determined to remove from its
contaminating and enervating
influences."30
As a result of this feeling against
slavery, he made ready
to leave the South. He chose Ohio as his
future home, a State
kept free of slavery by the famous
Northwest Ordinance.31 In
the autumn of 1817 he set forth with his
wife and infant son,
Adam Lowry, in a two-wheeled carriage
drawn by a single horse.
A few articles of clothing and seventy
dollars in cash completed
their worldly possessions. Such a journey
was considered both
long and dangerous in that early time.
His father rode with
them for some distance and they parted
in great sorrow, for as
John said they expected "to meet no
more on this earth."32
Rankin later declared that their
northward journey was both
rough and dangerous. It led through the
Cumberland Moun-
tains, which are not particularly high,
yet must have proved dif-
ficult of ascent in such a primitive
conveyance. He says:
Our carriage being heavily loaded we
could travel but a short dis-
tance in a day. In this mountain
wilderness the axletree of our carriage
26 Ibid., 16.
27 Leggett, "Address,"
27.
28 Howe, Historical Collections, 338; Alice D. Adams, Neglected
Period of Anti-
slavery in America (Boston, 1908), 61; Genius of Universal Emancipation
(Mt. Pleas-
ant, O.), I (1822), no. 10 (April), 151.
29 Ritchie, The Soldier, 17.
30 Leggett, "Address," 7.
31 Ibid.
32 Ritchie, The Soldier, 18.
220 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
broke in two pieces, and I had to leave
my wife and child by the road-
side, and carry it back some miles to a
black-smith shop to get it re-
paired.33
They spent many weary days on the road,
though never
traveling on Sunday, and finally reached
Lexington, Kentucky,
where Rankin preached in a Presbyterian
church. Here they had
friends who treated them kindly and
helped them on their way.
The next stop of any duration was at
Paris, Kentucky, where
they were urged by the Rev. John Lyle to
preach to the congrega-
tion of Concord, which was near-by. He
accepted the invitation
and continued to serve that congregation
until the following
spring.34
The winter proved difficult, for his
parish had over two hun-
dred members, with three different
charges at which to preach.
He said that he found it something of a
task to preach to the
same people each Sunday on a different
subject. He found a good
text to be an essential foundation for
every sermon, as he "never
had talent to make a sermon out of
nothing."35 He did not
write his sermons out, but wrote essays
and compositions to
facilitate his thinking and to increase
his ability to preach the Gos-
pel easily and well. By the coming of
spring he and his congrega-
tions had become attached to each other,
and he consented to re-
main as their pastor. He preached at
Concord and Cane Ridge
Presbyterian Churches in Nicholas and
Bourbon Counties for
four years.36
A former minister of the Concord
Presbyterian Church,
Barton Stone, founder of the New Light
faith, offered Rankin
much competition during his early
ministry. He had drawn many
members from the church when he left,
and others continued to
leave. Rankin determined to stop this
exodus of his members
and entered into battle with his rival
with much spirit. Stone
denied the doctrine of God's existence
in three persons, that of
household immersion, and other
Presbyterian tenets. Rankin had
to combat him with the Bible alone, as
he had no library. He
33 Ibid., 18.
34 Ibid., 19.
35 Ibid., 20.
36 Howe, Historical Collections.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 221
was successful in his efforts, however,
for he held his members
and even added to their numbers.37
The real beginning of Rankin's
anti-slavery activities dates
from
his residence in Kentucky.38
In 1817 a majority of the
people in his section were opposed to
slavery. He often preached
against slavery during his ministry
there, but was never mo-
lested.39 He says of this period, "I preached against slavery in
some of the most prominent parts of the
State, and was known
as an abolitionist as far as I was
known, and I spoke against
slavery in families of wealthy
slaveholders, and I never had an
insult offered."40 He also began to
write articles against slavery
and soon became the leader of the anti-slavery
movement in
Nicholas County. He founded an
anti-slavery society at Carlisle
in 1818,41 and during the next three
years he organized at Con-
cord and other places near-by several
societies auxiliary to the
Kentucky Abolition Society, which had
been established in 1807.42
In October, 1821, he, with other leaders
of the society, founded
the Abolition Intelligencer and
Missionary Magazine, a publica-
tion of the society to further their
efforts against slavery. In
this manner Rankin began a long and
glorious career of speaking,
writing, and organizing opposition to
the institution of slavery.44
With the admission of Missouri as a
slave state in 1820,
the issue of slavery became more
sectional. Kentucky now began
to favor it rather strongly, and
Rankin's position as an abolitionist
in a slave state would ever become more
difficult. Moreover,
three children had been added to his
family during his residence
in Kentucky, and he did not mean to rear
them in the environ-
ment of slavery. Consequently, he
determined to move on to a
free state, as had been his original
intention.45
Nearly all of the families in his
Concord congregation felt
as he did about slavery. A great number
of them sold their
37 Ritchie, The Soldier, 21.
38 Leggett, "Address,"
8.
39 Ritchie, The Soldier, 22.
40 John Rankin, Short Memoir
of Samuel Donnell, Esq. (Cincinnati, n. d.), 20.
41 Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American
Biography (New York 1887/89), V, 180.
42 William Birney, James G. Birney
and His Times (New York, 1890), 169;
Genius, I (1822), no. 10 (April), 156; I, no. 9 (March), 145;
Adams, Neglected
Period, 61.
43 Genius, I (1822), no. 9
(March), 145.
44 Leggett, "Address," 8.
45 Ritchie, The Soldier, 25.
222 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Kentucky farms and moved into the free
state of Indiana.46
These members were led by Samuel
Donnell, an abolitionist elder
of the Concord Church, and settled in
Decatur County, where
Donnell founded a Presbyterian Church
which always worked
against slavery.47 It
eventually united with the Free Presbyterian
Church which Rankin established in
Ripley, Ohio, from member-
ship in which slaveholders were
excluded.48
Rankin accepted a call from the
Presbyterian Church in
Ripley, where he arrived in January,
1822. He
settled his family
in a home on Front Street and
immediately entered upon his
ministerial duties. Not only was he
pastor of the church in
Ripley but also of the congregation on
Straight Creek, seven
miles west.49 He served the
community for forty-four consecu-
tive years both as a religious leader
and as a powerful factor in
the movement to emancipate the slaves.50
The Rev. John Rankin's Early Work in
Ripley.
Rankin took up his new work in Ripley
with great en-
thusiasm. The town presented a difficult
field to the young min-
ister, who saw evidences of wickedness
on every hand, "frolick-
ing, dancing, drinking, and ball-playing
being favorite pastimes."51
To the excessive merry-making and the
drinking he attributed
the petty thievery that went on. He
attacked these evils from
the pulpit and preached to the people
from the text, "Go to the
ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways
and be wise." Their fam-
ilies, he pointed out, were in dire want
as a result of their drunken-
ness and idleness,52 and, he
further declared, men who spent their
time in playing ball and drinking must
live off honest people,
and that stealing was undeniably going
on. "This put an end
to ball-alley in Ripley."53
During the communion season Rankin
became discouraged
on account of the seeming coldness of
his congregation. Finally
one evening he assembled a large number
of young men and told
46 Ibid.
47 Rankin, Samuel Donnell, 24.
48 Ibid.,
27.
49 Ritchie, The Soldier, 25; Leggett,
"Address," 8.
50 Ibid.
51 Ibid., 26.
52 Ibid.
53 Ibid.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 223
them that God had been knocking at their
hearts in vain. He-
called their attention to the fact that
some of the most wicked
men in the town had recently died, and
reminded them that the
sinful must perish. His appeal produced
a marked effect, for
many were converted. Large numbers came to the meetings,
prayed, and were saved. The whole town
seemed to have been
impressed.54 As Rankin told his biographer, Andrew
Ritchie:
Infidels came to church and seemed to
hear with intense interest,
and after [a] few weeks he had communion
during which thirty were
added to church on profession of their
faith. The work continued, and
after some weeks, at a subsequent
communion, twenty more were added.
It was a conversion of sinners rather
than a revival in the church. The
work appeared in a peculiar sense, the
work of the Lord, and the result
was very evident in the improved
morality of the town.55
On December 2, 1823, Rankin received a
letter which was to
influence greatly the remainder of his
life. It was from his
brother Thomas, a merchant at
Middlebrook, Virginia, saying that
he had purchased a negro slave.56 Rankin
was deeply moved by
this information, and his hatred of
slavery caused him to act im-
mediately. In 1824 he wrote a series of
letters to his brother, in
which he attacked slavery from many
angles; but instead of mail-
ing them directly to his brother, he
first published them in the
Castigator, a local newspaper, edited by David Ammen. He then
sent the newspapers in which the letters
appeared to his brother.57
Influenced by friends and the desire to
strike at slavery, he later
revised and added to the letters, which
were issued in book form
in 1826, his friend Ammen again being
the printer.58 One thou-
sand of the small books were printed in
this year, but only a
few were bound at a time on account of
the expense. The actual
printing cost eighty dollars, which
Rankin paid by permitting
Ammen to occupy a part of his large
house on Front Street.59
The book was fairly well received both
in Ohio and Ken-
tucky when first published. In one
instance a bookseller in the
neighboring town of Maysville, Kentucky,
whose name was Cox,
supplied his store several times with
the book.60 These letters
54 Ibid., 8.
55 Ibid., 28.
56 Ibid., 29.
57 Ibid.
58 John Rankin, Letters on Slavery (Ripley,
O., 1826), ii, iii.
59 Ritchie, The Soldier.
60 Ibid., 30.
224 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
were among the first clearly defined
anti-slavery views printed
west of the Appalachian Mountains. In
fact, they may have been
the very first set forth in book form.61
Rankin's book was widely discussed in
the river counties ad-
jacent to Ripley. The southern section
of Ohio had been settled
largely by natives of Virginia, who knew
slavery and hated it.
Most of these early settlers had left
the Old Dominion to find
new homes on free soil in order to get
away from slavery.62
Many local anti-slavery societies were
founded in southwestern
Ohio in the late 1820's. There is no
doubt but that Rankin's
Letters on Slavery exerted a great influence towards the formation
of these societies.63 Rankin's own
activity in connection with
their organization will be fully
considered in a subsequent sec-
tion.64 For the present the statement of
Professor Albert Bush-
nell Hart must suffice that Rankin's
series of letters became a
sort of textbook for the early
abolitionists.65
One year after their publication the
Chillicothe Presbytery
passed the famous anti-slavery
resolutions which constitute the
first official action, so far as known,
taken by any religious body.66
This action started the controversy over
slavery which eventually
divided the Presbyterian sect into
separate schools in 1838.67
The sequence of events suggests that
Rankin's book was in-
fluential in producing the action taken
by the Chillicothe Pres-
bytery, although its direct effect is
not certain.68 Rankin con-
tinued his agitation within the synods
of his church and was a
powerful factor in bringing that body to
take its stand finally
against the system of African slavery.69
Rankin's Letters must have become
widely disseminated
within a short time after their
publication, for it is known that a
copy of them fell into the hands of the
Rev. Samuel J. May
61 Leggett, "Address," 10. The first anti-slavery
newspaper, the Philanthropist,
was published at Mt. Pleasant, Jefferson
County, Ohio, in 1820 by Charles Osborn.
Benjamin Lundy, the Quaker abolitionist,
published his Genius of Universal Eman-
cipation at
Mt. Pleasant in 1821, which he soon removed to Jonesborough, Tennessee.
62 Leggett,
"Address," 9.
63 Ibid., 10.
64 See pp. 229-236.
65 Albert Bushnell Hart, Slavery and Abolition, in The American
Nation (New
York), XVI (1906), 159.
66 Leggett, "Address," 10.
67 Hart, Slavery, 214.
68 Leggett, "Address," 10.
69 Ibid.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 225
about 1825, who was then living in
Brooklyn, Connecticut.70 It
is not certain just when William Lloyd
Garrison first became
acquainted with the Letters on
Slavery, but he printed them in
the second volume of the Liberator in
1832.71 Garrison char-
acterized them as being "among the
most faithful and thrilling
productions we have read on the subject
of slavery."72 His
printing of the Letters marked
the beginning of a personal ac-
quaintance and friendship between him
and Rankin. Many times
in later years Garrison acknowledged
himself indebted to Rankin
for abolitionist inspiration.73 On the
fly-leaf of a copy of his
writings which the famous New England
abolitionist sent to his
friend in Ripley the following
inscription appears:
REV. JOHN RANKIN.
With the profound regards and
loving veneration of his anti-slavery
disciple and humble co-worker in
the cause of emancipation,
WM. LLOYD GARRISON,
CINCINNATI, April 20, 1853.74
Rankin's Connection with the
Anti-slavery Movement.
It was stated above that Rankin was
reared from infancy
as an abolitionist. This statement is
true, but it must be remem-
bered that there were various degrees of
abolition, especially in
the first quarter of the nineteenth
century. Originally the word
meant a gradual emancipation by any one
of the many plans ad-
vanced by anti-slavery men. The idea of
immediate abolition de-
veloped rather slowly, for it seemed a
radical demand to most
people. In fact, the first demand for
immediate emancipation
appears not to have been formulated
before 1814.75 No record
seems to exist of anyone stating this
view before that year. Wil-
liam Birney dates Charles Osborn and the
Rev. George Bourne
70 Wilbur H. Siebert, Underground
Railroad from Slavery to Freedom (New
York, 1899), 308.
71 Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis
Jackson Garrison, Life of Garrison
(New York, 1885), I, 305.
72 Ibid.
73 Siebert, Underground Railroad.
74 Taken from a photograph of the
original owned by Mrs. Frank Nixon of
Ironton, Ohio, in Siebert Collection of Underground
Railroad Material for Ohio
(in Ohio State University Library), Vol.
II.
75 Birney, James G. Birney, 189.
226 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
as advocates of immediate abolition from
1814, and he places
Rankin and Benjamin Lundy second on the
list in 1815.76
The Rev. A. T. Rankin, a younger son of
John, once de-
clared that his father never believed in
gradual emancipation.77
This statement was made in retrospect,
however, in 1883, when
he was striving to assure his father's
place in the history of the
abolition cause. It was an
overstatement, for the evidence shows
that John Rankin originally favored a
gradual, peaceful manu-
mission. It is known that in his early
life he hoped to Chris-
tianize slaveholders, have them
recognize their sin, and thereby
terminate the institution of slavery.78
He held this view during
his student days and even preached it
for a time in Kentucky.
But as slavery moved westward into the
Mississippi Valley, and
then rapidly across into the territories
beyond, becoming ever
more powerful and dominant as it was
accepted by the South as
"a positive good,"79 amd was
protected by law and defended
from the pulpit,80 Rankin
realized the hopelessness of his earlier
view. His next plan was practically a
call for immediate emanci-
pation: he would have the Federal
Government buy all the slaves
after their value had been fairly
determined by a commission and
free them upon purchase.81 He wrote many
articles in support
of this plan, but he was greeted with
laughter. It might have
been better to have followed his plan
and thus averted sectional
hatred and civil war; but his was an
Utopian dream in the early
years of the new century. Later he saw
the coming struggle,
as did many others, and in 1850 he
predicted that slavery would
only be ended by the sword.82
In general, authorities agree that
Rankin advocated imme-
diate abolition in 1815.83 Even before he left Tennessee there
is direct evidence of this fact. He
persuaded Doak to free his
slaves, probably about 1816.84 Although
Rankin was widely
76 Ibid.
77 A. T. Rankin, Truth Vindicated and Slander Repelled (Ironton,
Ohio,
1883), 10.
78 Leggett, "Address," 11.
79 Henry Wilson, Rise and Fall
of the Slave Power in America (New York,
1872), I, 149.
80 Cincinnati Commercial
Tribune, February 18, 1900.
81 Leggett, "Address," 12.
82 Ibid.
83 Birney, James G. Birney, 169; Adams, Neglected Period, 61.
84 Birney, James G. Birney.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 227
known in Kentucky as an abolitionist,
this does not necessarily
mean that he spoke in favor of immediate
emancipation.85 Dur-
ing his early residence in this state he
still hoped to see the slaves
freed voluntarily by their owners. But,
as has been seen, he soon
gave up this view and urged
unconditional and immediate emanci-
pation from the pulpit by 1815.86 The
following evidence shows
rather conclusively that he was an
exponent of immediate emanci-
pation during his work in Kentucky.
While making an address
at the anniversary meeting of the
American Anti-slavery Society
in May, 1839, Rankin said:
I rejoice in the triumph of the
principles of immediate emancipation
because . . . I was a member of an
anti-slavery society in Kentucky
twenty years ago on the same principle
as this. This doctrine of imme-
diate emancipation is said to be new,
but societies were formed all over
the country twenty years ago, and many
members of these societies advo-
cated this same doctrine.87
After coming to Ohio, Rankin became a
leader of the aboli-
tion movement, which got an early start
in the State.88 He wrote
many articles against slavery in 1822,
which were published in
the Castigator, a Ripley
newspaper. During the next two years
he wrote his Letters on Slavery.89
This book, which was put
through several editions by the American
Anti-slavery Society,
together with his other writings, gave
him a national reputation.
By 1830 his publications could be
classed with those of Rev.
James Duncan, Rev. George Bourne, and
George Stroud on the
subject as having the largest
circulation.90 Western writers of
this period often called him "the
father of abolitionism," while
it was not uncommon in the 1830's to
hear him spoken of as the
"Martin Luther" of the cause.
William Birney states that Rankin
and Lundy were the two strongest figures
on the side of immediate
emancipation before the time of
Garrison.91
Some writers begin their discussion of
abolitionist activity
with the work of Garrison in 1829, when he
announced himself
to be an exponent of immediate
emancipation. It is known, how-
ever, that he believed in gradual
emancipation before that date
85 Ibid.; Adams, Neglected Period, 61.
86 Leggett, "Address,"
12.
87 Birney, James G. Birney, 170.
88 Adams, Neglected Period,
61.
89 Leggett, "Address," 12.
90 Birney, James G. Birney,
170.
91 Ibid., 169.
228
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
from his address of July 4, 1829, in
Park Street Church,
Boston.92 In that address he said, "the emancipation of all the
slaves of this generation is most
assuredly out of the question."93
But in the following month, when he met
Lundy in Baltimore
to begin their joint publication of the Genius
of Universal Eman-
cipation, Garrison first stated his demand for immediate and un-
conditional emancipation.94 It
was noted above that Rankin be-
lieved in this doctrine as early as
1815, and that he advocated it
in southern Ohio in the early 'twenties
before Garrison had been
converted from gradual emancipation.95
Rankin may not have
used the expression "immediate and
unconditional emancipation,"
but he surely believed in it and was
expounding it by 1822. In
the following year his famous Letters
on Slavery appeared. A
brief examination of these will disclose
his matured principles.
In the preface of his little book he
states that the safety of the
Government and the happiness of the
people depend upon the
extermination of slavery, and that every
citizen must help the
evil which threatens national ruin:
Let all the friends of justice and
suffering humanity do what little
they can, in their several circles, and
according to their various stations,
capacities, and opportunities; and all
their little streams of exertion will
in process of time, flow together, and
constitute a mighty river that shall
sweep a way the yoke of oppression, and
purge our nation from the
abomination of slavery.96
Such a statement would come only from
one who desired
to end slavery immediately. At the end
of his thirteenth letter
Rankin says:
There is no divine permission for
enslaving the Africans, and there-
fore the command is as obligatory upon
their enslavers as it was upon
the emancipating Isrealites. Hence,
every slaveholder is commanded to
break the yoke of bondage, and "To
let the oppressed go free."97
There is no argument for delay in this
passage. In com-
pliance with the command the sin is to
be eradicated.
Apart from the fact that Rankin
antedated Garrison by four-.
teen years in arriving at the principle
of immediate emancipation,
these two abolitionists differed widely
in their attitude toward
92 Life of Garrison, I, 127-37.
93 Ibid., 135.
94 Life of Garrison, I, 140.
95 Rankin,
Truth Vindicated, 13.
96 Rankin, Letters, iv-vi.
97 Ibid., 200.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 229
the church. Garrison held that the
church as an institution sup-
ported slavery. Although he often quoted
the Bible against slave-
holding, he took the stand that the
churches had deteriorated
until American Christianity had become
the main pillar of slavery
in the United States.98 He
once said in the Liberator, "Consider-
ing their influence and the force of
their example, undoubtedly
the worst enemies of the people of color
are professors of re-
ligion."99 He also said that
Christian ministers preached and
professed the terrible oppression of
bondage and lacked the moral
power to stand against the institution
of slavery.100 Such state-
ments were true of the churches in the
South and, it must be
confessed, of many in the North; but
north of Mason and
Dixon's line there were not a few
individual churches which were
opposed to slavery and not a few
clergymen who preached against
the evil and were otherwise active in
promoting the cause of
abolition. In the 1830's and later some
denominations split on
the slavery question, the anti-slavery
element forming denomina-
tions and congregations of their own.
Such were the Wesleyan
Methodists and the Free Presbyterians,
to mention only two of
the new sects. Rankin was himself a
Christian minister and an
active abolitionist for forty years. In
southern Ohio were other
clergymen of his denomination who
supported the cause un-
flinchingly in word and deed, namely,
James Gilliland, Samuel
Crothers, John B. Mahan, and others.
Rankin and his sons served as delegates
from the Ripley
Anti-slavery Society to the convention
held at Zanesville in April,
1835, for the purpose of forming a State
society.101 This con-
vention resulted largely from the
untiring efforts of that dynamic
abolitionist, Benjamin Weld. He had
spent the previous year in
speaking over the State and founding
local societies in practically
every county.102 The
convention met first in Zanesville, was driven
across the Muskingum River to Putnam by
its enemies, and
finally called back to Zanesville. There
were present about one
hundred and ten delegates from
twenty-five counties, represent-
98 Life of Garrison, I, 477, 479.
99 Ibid., I, 265.
100 Ibid., I, 480.
101 Gilbert H. Barnes, The Anti-slavery Impulse (New
York, 1933), 83; Birney,
James G. Birney, 166; Ritchie, The Soldier, 35.
102 Barnes, Anti-slavery Impulse, 83.
230 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ing the many societies of the State.103
Rankin and his sons oc-
cupied seats of honor as
representatives of the older aboli-
tionists.104 Hart states that
the father was one of the leaders of
the convention.105
James G. Birney came from his residence
in Kentucky with
the delegation from Hamilton County,
Ohio. Other prominent
members of the convention were Weld,
Crothers, Elizur Wright,
and a group of seceders from Lane
Seminary at Cincinnati.106
Most of the delegates were Weld's own
converts of the past year.
The convention pledged itself to the
principles of the American
Anti-slavery Society, which had been
organized in New York
City in 1833, not merely to free
the slaves but also to protect
them
by laws appropriate to their condition.107 The delegates
gave their allegiance to the cause of
emancipation and thereby
formally organized the Ohio Anti-slavery
Society.108
Rankin had his first experience with a
mob while attending
this convention, but it was by no means
his last. In the course
of a walk to the home of a friend in Zanesville
one evening he
was beset by a band of roughs and made
the target for a shower
of rotten eggs, one of which struck him
on the shoulder, and a
gosling fell out. Later in life, after
facing more than twenty
mobs, he declared, "The aspect of a
fierce mob is terrible."109
On his way home from the Zanesville
convention Rankin
stopped at Chillicothe and preached
twice to a colored congrega-
tion.110 During the evening
service people outside threw stones
in and injured a few members. After the
sermon was over
Rankin was attacked by the gathering
crowd, but was afforded
protection by abolitionist friends.111
He said that the mob con-
sisted of the rabble of the town, who
had been told that the
abolitionists favored inter-marriage
between poor whites and
Negroes in order to provide a greater
number of servants. This
103 Birney, James G. Birney,
163.
104 Barnes, Anti-slavery Impulse.
105 Hart, Slavery, 193
106 Ibid.
107 Barnes, Anti-slavery Impulse, 83.
108 Ritchie, The Soldier, 36.
109 Howe, Historical
Collections, I, 338; Cyclopaedia of American Biography, V,
180.
110 Ritchie, The Soldier, 36.
111 Ibiid., 38.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 231
was mere propaganda, of course, as
Rankin always opposed
amalgamation of the races.112
In 1854 Garrison had gone so far in his
denunciation of
slavery that he burned the Constitution
of the United States at
an open-air celebration of the
abolitionists at Framingham, Massa-
chusetts, as "a covenant with death
and an agreement with
hell." 113 Rankin's hatred of slavery was no doubt as deep as
Garrison's, but he evidenced no desire
to destroy the Government
in order to end the evil it sanctioned.
He stated in his Letters
that slavery must be ended by fair
discussion and other law-
ful means.114
In 1836, the year after his return from
the convention which
organized the Ohio Anti-slavery Society,
Rankin became a travel-
ing lecturer for the American
Anti-slavery Society.115 His first
appearance in this capacity was in a
Methodist church near
Mowrystown, Highland County, Ohio,
twenty-five miles north of
Ripley. His audience was small but
attentive, and, though some
mob spirit developed in the village, no
violence was offered him.116
He next lectured at Williamsburg,
Clermont County, where the
local Presbyterian minister opposed his
views, saying that they
would lead to bloodshed and war.117 Rankin
gave his address to
a quiet audience, but he was attacked by
a young man while re-
turning alone from the church and struck
on the neck with a
club. However, he was saved from injury
by the collars of three
heavy coats which he wore turned up to
keep out the severe cold.
The lecture must have been effective,
for the locality soon became
a strong abolition center.118
Rankin traveled from Williamsburg to
Goshen, a small vil-
lage in the same county, where a
friendly Presbyterian minister
opened his church for the lecture.119
Here an anti-slavery society
was formed which ere long carried on
Underground Railroad
operations. Rankin next lectured in
Batavia, the seat of Clermont
112 Hart, Slavery, 216.
113 Life of Garrison, III, 412.
114 John Rankin, Letters, v. One might ask if the
Underground Railroad was a
lawful means?
115 Ritchie, The Soldier, 40.
116 Ibid., 39.
117 Ibid., 40.
118 Ibid.
119 Ibid., 41.
232 OHIO ARCH AEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
County, where anti-slavery principles
were somewhat popular.
While speaking one night at a church two
miles from the town,
some young men threw eggs and rocks
through a window at him.
This attack did not disturb the speaker,
but his audience became
frightened and fled. This was the only
time that Rankin was not
heard through to the end of his
address.120
In Clermont County Rankin lectured and
preached in a
Baptist and a Presbyterian church near
New Richmond, where
he was well received, his Letters having
been widely read in that
community with evident influence.
Anti-slavery principles were
prevalent there.121 He was later invited
to deliver a lecture at
Felicity, in the same county, where his
brother, Alexander T.
Rankin, was pastor of the Presbyterian
Church.122 He made an
appointment for an evening during the
meeting of the Cincinnati
Presbytery at Felicity, but the elders
refused to open the church
for his address. The people were much
aroused by this action,
for Rankin had promoted the erection of
the church.123 The
Methodists magnanimously offered him the
use of their pulpit,
and a huge crowd, including most of the
members of the Pres-
bytery, turned out to hear him speak.
The effectiveness of his
effort is manifested by the fact that
sixty names were placed on
the roll of the anti-slavery society
formed immediately after
the lecture.124
Rankin also lectured in the Presbyterian
Church at West
Union, the seat of Adams County, and
there founded a large
anti-slavery society.125 The
local minister, however, gave the
organization no support and it
eventually ceased to exist. Later
that part of the county became strongly
pro-slavery. At a meet-
ing of the Ripley Presbytery at West
Union the tails of the
horses of a number of the ministers were
closely shaved, evidently
to show the disapproval of the
anti-slavery sentiments of the
owners of the animals on the part of the
miscreants committing
120 Ibid., 42.
121 Ibid., 43.
122 Ibid., 44.
123 Ibid.
124 Ibid.
125 Ibid., 45.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 233
the outrage. It happened, however, that
Rankin's horse escaped
the shearing, for it was safely locked
in a stable.126
Shortly after this Presbytery meeting a
large anti-slavery
gathering was held in a grove outside of
Winchester, a neigh-
boring village in Adams County.127 A
mob soon collected, beat-
ing drums so loudly as to drown out the
speakers. Rankin spoke
during the program, but was rudely
interrupted by a man greatly
under the influence of liquor, who
forced his way to the front
and tried to strike him with a club. The
speaker was saved from
possible injury by the timely
intervention of a friend, who warned
the drunken man that he would have more
than one to strike. This
ended the attack.l28 After
the meeting a large number of the
disturbing element reposed in a drunken
slumber on the ground.
As Rankin rode past a tavern that night
on his way from Win-
chester, he was made the target for a
deluge of eggs, but the
speed of his horse saved him from
contamination.129
On the day following the difficulties at
Winchester a meet-
ing was held at Decatur, Brown County.130
A mob of pro-slavery
men gathered there and threatened
violence, but the abolitionists
were prepared to defend themselves,
being well armed. Hence
no trouble occurred. The best citizens
of Decatur and the sur-
rounding country were abolitionists, as
staunch as any in the
State, and remained loyal to the
anti-slavery cause.131
At Withamsville, Clermont County,
between Georgetown
and Cincinnati, Rankin spoke in a
schoolhouse before an audience
consisting mostly of young rowdies. He
had great difficulty in
holding their attention, but was able to
maintain a fair degree
of order as long as he could look the
worst of them in the face.
Finally they turned their backs and
misbehaved openly, but he
managed to finish his address. As he
left with a friend to go to
his lodging place, curses and threats
were hurled at him. The
rowdies soon followed the speaker and
his companion and threw
fire-brands from the school stove at
them. Rankin was struck
126 Ibid.
127 Ibid., 46.
128 Ibid., 47.
129 Ibid.
130 Ibid., 47.
131 Ibid.
234
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
on the shoulder by a burning missile,
but received no injury. He
said that after all his arguments to
show that all men ought to
be free, he was at times tempted to
believe that there were men
of his own race who "did not seem
fit to be free."132
Rankin found that he could often
accomplish more for the
abolition cause by preaching than by
lecturing:
A solemn discourse founded on the
Scriptures had an authority, and
a divine sanction, that a mere lecture
could not have, and there was less
danger of disturbance by mobs. I adopted
the plan of preaching and
mingling the subject of slavery with
other gospel subjects. In this way
I could bring my hearers to view faith
in the light of eternity.133
He traveled to Springdale at the request
of the Rev. A.
Aten, the Presbyterian minister there,
who desired his people to
hear Rankin's anti-slavery views, as
several able men had previ-
ously lectured to them on abolition with
little success. He
preached on Friday and Saturday
preceding the communion serv-
ice without mentioning slavery. On
Sunday morning he preached
on humility and benevolence,
administered the communion, and
announced that he would present the
Biblical teachings on slavery
that evening. The evening service was
attended by a large con-
gregation, before which he denounced the
view that the Scriptures
sanctioned slavery and showed that they
condemned all forms of
oppression, of which slavery was the
worst. On Monday he gave
a regular sermon, followed in the
evening by an anti-slavery
lecture which resulted in the
organization of a society of sixty
members.134
Rankin said that he often invited many
persons who were
not anti-slavery sympathizers to come
and hear his speeches and
could usually get them to agree with
him, at least in sentiment.
His method was to begin by declaring his
belief in the immortal
opening words of the Declaration of
Independence, which all
believed. He next stated that he
believed God had created all
men of one blood, which was usually
accepted on Biblical grounds.
His last general point was that all men
should either do their own
work or else pay those who did it for
them. This proposition
was also well received. He concluded
with the statement that
132 Ibid., 48-50.
133 Ibid., 50.
134 Ibid., 53.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 235
these three fundamental principles
embodied all the beliefs of the
abolitionists, which could be summed up
in the sentence that all
men possessed the same rights,
regardless of color.l35
Rankin felt that he had failed but once
in all his speaking
to convey the conviction that he spoke
the truth. Often, how-
ever, people would not believe that he
taught abolition, because
they could not see much similarity
between his views and those
of James G. Birney. Yet they felt that
his arguments were
sound and usually agreed that he exposed
the evils of slavery
and made them apparent to all.136
Rankin lectured for the American
Anti-slavery Society dur-
ing six months of the year 1836. The
work was very strenuous
and exposed him constantly to the rigors
of the weather. He
caught a severe cold and had to give up
speaking before his full
year of service had expired. His
affliction was accompanied by
a deep cough which incapacitated him for
many months and made
him almost despair of recovery, but he
regained his health in
time and continued his work for
emancipation.137
Many years later Rankin received an
invitation from a John
Rankin, of Chester County, Pennsylvania,
to come and speak
against slavery. He accepted the
invitation, was paid his travel-
ing expenses, and reached his
destination after a pleasant journey.
He stayed at the home of his host and
began to lecture, although
the majority of the Presbyterian
ministers of the county opposed
him vigorously and kept their churches
closed to him. His host
opened the doors of his church for the
lectures and even secured
other places for his appearance. Rankin
spoke in churches, school-
houses, the open air, and once in a
barn, before a special hall
was erected for his use. This structure
was provided chiefly by
the efforts of a group of Hicksite
Quakers, who favored the anti-
slavery movement. He delivered more than
forty lectures in
Chester and Lancaster Counties, and once
faced a mob without
suffering any injury. He did much to
advance the cause of aboli-
135 Ibid., 52.
136 Ibid.
137 Ibid., 52, 54.
236
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
tion in that region, which later joined
his Free Presbyterian
Church.138
In the sermon which Rankin considered to
be his most effec-
tive one against slavery, he stated that
no man could love his
neighbor as himself and yet hold him in
a position in which he
would not himself be held. Slavery was
wholly inconsistent with
the law of love, which, if obeyed, would
immediately banish all
slavery and oppression from the world.
He said that many per-
sons would not permit the colored man to
sit in their homes or
their churches, merely because he was of
dark skin and poor in
worldly wealth. Yet Christ had never
despised a single human
being. The proud heart would never reach
heaven, for pride had
no place there. "The holy angels,
of higher nature than we are,
condescend to attend to the lowest of
our race."139
Rankin's Underground Railroad Work.
For more than thirty years Rankin's home
was on top of
the high hill immediately behind the
village of Ripley.140 His
house was a small story-and-a-half
brick, with the garret sloping
to the rear, and was in full view of the
Kentucky shore. At night
a lantern hung in one of the windows to
serve as a beacon to
fugitive slaves who were ready to cross,
or were crossing, the
Ohio River.141 Ripley was
one of the first towns in southern
Ohio to receive the runaways, and
Rankin's home was the initial
"station" in Brown County,
having become so as early as 1825.
Rankin and his sons continued to engage
in this hazardous serv-
ice until the Civil War put an end to
it. One of the sons, Captain
R. C. Rankin, who was a conductor of
fugitives from station to
station, estimated that more than two
thousand of them passed
through Ripley from 1830 to 1865.142
The father stated that there was no
formal organization of
138 Ibid., 55.
139 Ibid., 66, 71.
140 Howe, Historical Collections, II, 338; Ritchie, The
Soldier, 98. There is pend-
ing in the Legislature at the present
time a bill to appropriate $5,000 for the pur-
chase of this property for the purpose
of maintaining it as a State memorial under the
control of the Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society.
141 W. H. Beers and Co's History of
Brown County, Ohio (Chicago, 1883), 443;
Ritchie, The Soldier, 98.
142 Interview with Capt. R. C. Rankin by
Siebert, Ripley, Ohio, April 8, 1892,
Siebert Collection, Vol. II.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 237
the men who engaged in this work, but
that they acted from a
sense of humanity and justice. All
operators were faithful and
worked in secret; there were no
betrayals. The slaves early
learned that Rankin was an abolitionist
and made their way
clandestinely to his house on the hill
after crossing the river.
They were hidden in the house, barn or
other near-by buildings
until they could be sent on to the homes
of other anti-slavery
men farther north in the county.
Rankin's nine sons traveled
the routes with the fugitives to Redoak,
then northeast to Decatur,
then more directly north to Winchester,
in the northwestern part
of Adams County, or they passed through
Redoak and Russell-
ville to Macon, where they veered a
little north of west to Sar-
dinia. Safety, not speed, was the rule
in these trips, which were
made at night in wagons, on horseback,
or even on foot. Rankin
once had twelve escaped slaves on his
property at the same time
and saw to it that they passed on in
safety. He declared that
not one fugitive was ever apprehended
while under his care.143
After 1830 Rankin's notoriety as an
abolitionist spread into
the South, and he was especially hated
in Kentucky, where the
slaveholders felt very bitter toward him
and the other vigorous
abolitionists of Brown County. In 1838
certain masters of Ken-
tucky offered a reward of $2,500 for the
assassination or abduc-
tion of Rankin and Dr. Alexander
Campbell of Ripley and Dr.
Isaac Beck and Mahan of Sardinia. These
men were the most
prominent leaders of the abolition
movement in Brown County,
and their lives were in constant danger.144 In the same year
Mahan was arrested and taken to Mason
County, Kentucky, to
stand trial for having gone there, as
was alleged, and aided a
slave to escape to Sardinia by means of
the Underground Rail-
road. The case aroused great interest
among the anti-slavery
people of southern Ohio, and Governor
Joseph Vance was severely
criticized for extraditing Mahan to
Kentucky. After spending
more than ten weeks in jail, the
prisoner was tried and found
entirely innocent of the charge. He was
ably defended by lawyers
sent by his fellow-abolitionists of
Brown County and by the Ohio
Anti-slavery Society. The owner of the
fugitive sued Mahan in
143 Ritchie,
The Soldier, 97-8, 111; Siebert, Underground Railroad, 62-3.
144 Brown County, Ohio, 313.
238
OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
civil court, and he was later forced to
pay damages in the sum
of $1,600. Rankin's home was often
searched by slavehunters
and his wife and children were
threatened, but never was a fugi-
tive found there, although some had
narrow escapes. His stal-
wart sons and the young men of the
village were always able to
spirit them away and more than equal the
bravado of the slave-
hunters.145
Those persons at Ripley who aided the
Rankin family in
Underground Railroad work were Campbell,
Dr. Alfred Beasley,
James, Theodore and Thomas McCague,
Kenneth McCoy, and
John Porter. These men either supplied
food and horses, acted as
guides, or helped to conceal the
fugitives. During the early years
of the underground system the runaways
were taken from the
home of Rankin to that of Mahan at
Sardinia, a distance of about
twenty-one miles to the north. In later
years, after the work had
become more popular, they were not
conveyed such a long dis-
tance. Most of them were conducted only
four miles and hidden
in the Redoak Presbyterian Church, whose
pastor, Gilliland, was
another noted abolitionist. In this
neighborhood William Baird,
Washington Campbell, William Dunlap,
Gordon Hopkins, William
and James McCoy, Thomas Salisbury, and
John Shephard were
always ready to feed, secrete, and
forward the fugitives. The
western route ran on through
Russellville and Sardinia, by way
of the Huggins community, to Buford.
Thence it passed through
Lynchburg, Highland County, where John
Hunter, a Presbyterian
elder, maintained a station, to
Hillsboro, where Colonel William
Keys and John Nelson extended
hospitality to the guides and
fugitives. From Hillsboro the route
extended to the farm of the
Rodgers brothers, near Greenfield, or to
Willmington, via the
Quaker settlement at Martinsville. The
eastern route from Ripley
led through Redoak and Decatur to
Winchester, Adams County.146
According to local tradition and
numerous writers, the name
"Underground Railroad"
originated in an incident which occurred
at Ripley. In 1831 a fugitive from
Kentucky, by the name of
145 Ibid., 315; Trial
of John B. Mahan for Felony, 12, 78, 81, Siebert Collection,
Vol. II; Letter from Dr. Isaac Beck,
December 26, 1892, Siebert Collection, Vol. II;
Philanthropist, I, no. 48, December 26, 1892; Howe, Historical
Collections, II, 339;
Ritchie, The Soldier, 111.
146 Interview with Capt. R. C. Rankin;
Letter from Beck, December 14, 1892,
Siebert Collection, Vol. II.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 239
Tice Davis, reached the Ohio River
opposite Ripley, with his
master in close pursuit. He plunged into
the water, swam across,
and left no trace. The master was
somewhat delayed in finding
a skiff and rowing across, and when he
landed on the Ripley side,
made a careful but fruitless search. To
some of the villagers he
declared, to their amusement, that his
"nigger must have gone off
on an underground road." At that
very time the fugitive was
probably eating a hearty meal at the
Rankin home. The story of
this incident was often repeated, and,
with the advent of steam
railroads, the apt name became
"Underground Railroad." The
origin of the name has been explained by
similar incidents in other
parts of the country. Professor Wilbur
H. Siebert says:
These anecdotes are hardly more than
traditions, affording a fair
general explanation of the way the
Underground Railroad got its name;
but they cannot be trusted in the
details of time, place and occasion.
Whatever the manner and date of its
suggestion, the designation was
generally accepted as an apt title for a
mysterious means of transporting
fugitive slaves to Canada.147
To Ritchie, who published Rankin's
biography in 1868 under
the title, The Soldier, the Battle,
and the Victor, that gentleman
narrated some escapes of slaves which
had come under his own
observation, and which are typical of
hundreds of others reported
by operators of the Underground
Railroad. The mother of a
slave family near Dover, Kentucky,
determined to free her hus-
band and children. She first sent her
husband across the river,
and in due course he reached Canada. She
then fled with her
baby by the same route to Rankin's and
was sent on to join her
husband. Four years later she returned
for the purpose of ab-
ducting her six other children, who were
still held by her master.
She disguised herself as a man, crossed
to Dover, and the first
night thereafter came away with four of
the children. On her
way to the river she hid for a day in a
field, where there was
green corn to eat and where the little
party was in constant
danger of discovery. At night they
crossed the Ohio and were
concealed just outside of Ripley by
friends of Rankin. When
their master arrived at the village, the
fugitives were spirited to
147 Siebert, Underground Railroad, 45-6;
"Men Who Worked on the Under-
ground Railroad in Ohio." in
Cincinnati Commercial-Tribune, February 18, 1900,
Siebert Collection, Vol. II.
240
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the house on the hill and from there
northward before he could
locate them.148
One night seven slaves came to the
Rankin home from Ken-
tucky and were hidden away. Early next
morning the slave-
hunters were riding through the streets
of Ripley. An abolitionist
neighbor had seen the slaves at Rankin's
but would not reveal
the fact, although one of the pursuers
offered him $1,000 to do
so. They were soon passed on to
"the promised land."149
A young fugitive came to Rankin in great
haste one evening
and told him that he had avoided being
taken by twenty men
on horseback by hiding in a wheat field.
The horses had nearly
trampled him. He further said that
Kentuckians represented the
Ohio abolitionists as being in the habit
of selling fugitives into
worse servitude than that from which
they fled. He felt that his
condition could not be worse, for he had
been sold to go to the
far South. He was sent on to the next
station after expressing
his gratitude to the Rankins for their
great kindness.150
Ripley has long been associated with the
dramatic scene de-
picted in Harriet Beecher Stowe's
immortal story of Uncle Tom's
Cabin, in which Eliza Harris, with her child in her arms,
crosses
the river on cakes of floating ice. The
true story of Eliza's
adventure, as related by Rankin, is less
dramatic than that told by
Mrs. Stowe, but gave her the incident
which her imagination was
able to improve upon. Captain R. C.
Rankin, a son of John
Rankin, related that the Rev. Dr. Lyman
Beecher and his family,
including Mrs. Stowe, then living at
Cincinnati, were on friendly
terms with the Rankins and often visited
in their home. During
a meeting of the Cincinnati Synod at
Ripley, Mrs. Stowe, her
husband, and her father were guests of
the Rankins and heard
the story of the escape of the young
negro woman and her child
across the frozen river. The oldest
inhabitants of Ripley still
give versions of the story, and the
Rankin house on the hill is
known over much of southern Ohio as the
"Liza house."
The following details come from the pen
of the Rev. John
Rankin and must be regarded therefore as
authentic. A black
148 Ritchie, The Soldier, 103.
149 Ibid., 104.
150 Ibid., 104-5.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 241
woman, who lived just across the river
from Ripley, was cruelly
treated by her mistress and decided to
attempt to escape to Canada.
She took her infant in her arms, ran to
the bank of the river, and
sought aid from a Scotchman who lived
near-by. He was a drunk-
ard, but was kind enough to direct her
to the Rankin house, where
he said she would find safe refuge. It
was late winter and the
river was frozen over solidly, but a
recent thaw threatened to
break up the ice. It was night, and
water was running over the
ice; but she did not hesitate and
carried her child safely to the
Ohio shore. She made her way to the
Rankin home, entered,
built a fire, and dried her clothes. She
then aroused Rankin's
sons, who took her two miles farther
before daylight. By that
time the ice had broken up in the river,
and it was no longer
possible to cross except by boat. Her
pursuers followed the next
day and thought she had drowned until
they discovered a piece
of her child's clothing on the Ohio side
of the river. The fugitives
were forwarded to the Greenfield
neighborhood, where they had to
remain. The woman's husband (George
Harris, in Mrs. Stowe's
novel) followed her in a few weeks and,
with the aid of the
Rankins, reached the Greenfield
neighborhood in search of her.
Some young men had gone ahead to tell
her of her husband's
coming, but she mistook them for
slavehunters and fled with her
child during a cold night. She had to
seek shelter and fortunately
fell into the hands of friends. She was
soon re-united with her
husband, to her great joy, and they
remained at Greenfield until
spring. They reached Canada in the early
summer.151
Early in August, 1895, Siebert visited
Windsor, Ontario, and
held interviews with John Reed, Horace
Washington, and other
fugitive slaves from Kentucky, who
testified that they had been
concealed, fed, clothed, and guided on
their way to freedom by
Rankin and his sons, who had also aided
many of their friends
to escape to Canada. Rankin has himself
said of his underground
work:
My house has been the door of freedom to
many human beings, but
while there was a hazard of life and
property, there was much happiness
in giving safety to the trembling
fugitives. They were all children of God
by creation, and some of them I believe
were redeemed by the blood of
the Lamb.152
151 Ibid., 105-7.
152 Ibid., 111.
242
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Rankin's Religious and Educational
Work.
Rankin was a missionary in southern
Ohio, as well as the
pastor of the Presbyterian Church at
Ripley and a crusader in
the anti-slavery movement. He labored
incessantly to spread the
doctrines of his denomination in his
neighborhood, and the Presby-
terian societies at Decatur,
Russellville, Sardinia, Buford, Hunt-
ington, Winchester, Felicity, and Cedron
owe their origin to his
efforts. After establishing these
churches, he had the satisfaction
of seeing them grow through the years to
become strong centers
of the Covenanter faith.153
Rankin worked diligently within the
presbyteries and synods
of his denomination to secure a more
vigorous opposition to
slavery. As early as 1818 the General
Assembly of the Presby-
terian Church had adopted resolutions
denouncing slavery as "ut-
terly inconsistent with the law of God
which requires us to love
our neighbors as ourselves," and
had called for exertion "to effect
a total abolition of slavery."
These resolutions demanded further
that the slaveholders within the church
take steps toward emanci-
pation, under penalty of rigorous church
discipline. In practice,
however, these resolutions remained a
dead letter and were defied
openly throughout the South. Rankin
sought in vain to have them
enforced within his synod. In the great
division over doctrine
which occurred in 1838 Rankin and his
Presbytery followed the
"New School" or
"Constitutional" Presbyterian Church as being
the more progressive. The Assembly of
the "Old School" per-
mitted the anti-slavery resolutions to
lie unnoticed, and they were
never enforced within its jurisdiction.
The Assembly of the "New
School," however, discussed the
resolutions fully, and the advo-
cates of slavery therein were allowed
free expression. In 1839
this Assembly passed a resolution
referring the whole subject of
slavery to "the lower
judicatories," that is, to the synods, presby-
teries, and sessions throughout the
country.154
Rankin interpreted this resolution as a
victory for the slave-
holders within the "New
School," and the Ripley Presbytery re-
fused to send delegates to its meetings.
As a result the Presby-
153 Leggett, "Address," 14.
154 Albert Barnes, The Church and Slavery (Philadelphia, 1857) 49,
54-6, 67, 72;
Robert E. Thompson, A History of the
Presbyterian Churches in the United States
(New York, 1907), 133; Leggett,
"Address," 12.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 243
tery was called before the Synod of
Cincinnati, where Rankin
defended its action and won complete
vindication and acquittal.
The matter reached the more conservative
ears of the Assembly
of the "New School" in 1840,
and the proceedings of the Cincin-
nati Synod were therein condemned. The
Assembly further de-
manded that the Ripley Presbytery cease
its agitation against the
referendum of the slavery resolution.
The Ripley Presbytery re-
plied that it would not license or
ordain slaveholders or anyone
who justified slavery, nor
receive to the church any slave-holder,
nor invite members of other
churches who are slave-holders to
commune with them; and that it will
hold no fellowship with any other
ecclesiastical body that tolerates slave-
holding.155
As a result of this declaration the
Ripley Presbytery was
formally censured by the Cincinnati
Synod. As the members of
the Presbytery heard this condemnation
of their action at the
meeting of the Synod, they arose in turn
and asked to have their
names stricken from its roll. Rankin
issued a call for a convention
of the members of the Ripley Presbytery,
which met early in
1845. He preached an eloquent sermon on
the text, "Come out
of her, my people, that ye be not
partakers of her sins," and a
new organization was formed with great
enthusiasm. The new
body was called "The Free
Presbyterian Church of America," and
specifically excluded all slaveholders
from membership. Many
other congregations from the two older
divisions joined the move-
ment and Rankin perfected a synod of
more than fifty churches.
It maintained an active existence until
the Civil War, with five
presbyteries extending from eastern
Pennsylvania as far west as
Iowa. This new church exerted much
influence on the older divi-
sions and especially challenged the
"New School," in which the
anti-slavery feeling grew much stronger.
The slave-holding ele-
ment of the "New School"
Assembly seceded just before the
Civil War, which paved the way for the
reunion of the Free
Church with that school. The "New
School" Assembly pledged
its hostility to slavery and welcomed
Rankin and his insurgents
155 Ritchie, The Soldier, 115;
"The Ripley Presbytery against Pro-slavery Min-
isters," Oberlin Evangelist, September 23,
1840, in Siebert Collection, Vol. II.
244
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
back into the larger organization to
oppose the evils of slavery and
rebellion.156
While leading the Free Presbyterian
Church in a general at-
tack upon the institution of slavery,
Rankin experienced difficulties
with his own congregation at Ripley. A
division occurred, and a
part of the members withdrew to form a
new organization. Ran-
kin was asked to serve as pastor by the
withdrawing members,
who built a new house of worship in
1845. He was moderate
during the differences within his
church, but was faithful to the
seceding group. The two churches
remained separate until his
retirement from his pulpit in 1866. He
had spent forty-four
years as an active clergyman in Ripley.
During his later years
he preached for a short time in Central
Illinois and later at Linden,
Kansas. In his eighty-seventh year he
returned to Ripley, where
he delivered a farewell sermon to the
strongly reunited and en-
thusiastic congregation of the First
Presbyterian Church, which
owed so much to his past efforts.157
Rankin was deeply interested in
education, as well as in reli-
gious and anti-slavery work. About 1830
the citizens of Ripley
had organized an institution of learning
and chartered it under the
name of "The Ripley College."
Rankin served as its only presi-
dent and gave much time and effort to
advance its interests. It
flourished for a short time and drew
young men from many parts
of Ohio. Ulysses S. Grant, then a youth
at the neighboring village
of Georgetown, spent a term in the
college in preparation for West
Point. The institution soon failed for
lack of endowment, but it
continued to serve as an academy under
Rankin's guidance for
many years. By 1846 he had an assistant,
and forty pupils were
then enrolled in the academy, part of
them being colored. The
principles of freedom and abolition were
naturally emphasized in
the school. Rankin even started a Female
Seminary on his farm,
but this also declined after a brief
existence. His home was fre-
quently full of students, both white and
black. He taught theology
and the classical subjects during his
long residence at Ripley and
156 Ritchie, The Soldier, 115-6; Hart, Slavery, 214; Leggett,
"Address," 12-3;
Howe Historical Collections, I, 338; Thompson, Presbyterian
Churches, 137.
157 Leggett, "Address," 8; Ritchie, The Soldier, 119;
Seibert Collection, Vol. II.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 245
prepared two of his sons and a number of
local men for the min-
istry.l58
The Writings of John Rankin.
In the preceding chapters Rankin's Letters
on Slavery have
been mentioned many times. They placed
him in the front rank
of early anti-slavery men and became one
of the standard works of
the Ohio Anti-slavery Society and was
used by abolitionists far
and wide as a source of information and
inspiraton. These Letters
will now be examined more closely to see
what are their significant
statements about slavery. In the first
letter to his brother Rankin
expressed his extreme hatred of that
institution and discussed the
reasons for the prejudice against the
Negro. He found the main
cause of this prejudice to be the color
of the African, which had
resulted from centuries of exposure to
an equatorial sun. Further,
the race had been degraded on account of
its presumed inferiority
of intellect, and it had been denied the
opportunities of an educa-
tion. In his second letter Rankin
attempted to prove that the Negro
had not been created for slavery. He was a human being and
therefore desired to acquire knowledge,
liberty, property, and a
reputation. All men desired to be free,
for "all the feelings of
humanity" were "strongly
opposed to being enslaved." Nothing
"but the strong arm of power"
could "make men submit to the
yoke of bondage."159
In the third letter the evils resulting
from the slaves' being
kept in ignorance are pointed out, as
also is the tyranny practiced
by many slaveholders. In the succeeding
several letters the specific
results arising from the system of
servitude are listed. Rankin
found that slavery is "opposed to
domestic peace," because the
slaves are reared without moral
instruction, and often their in-
temperance, falsehood, and dishonesty
affect the families of their
masters. Slavery promotes idleness on
the part of slaveholding
families, who are unwilling to work
unless forced to by necessity.
It is conducive to vice among the free
inhabitants of the slave
158 Leggett. "Address," 14;
Howe, Historical Collections, II, 339-40; "Tennessee
Preacher Founded Underground,"
Huntington, West Virginia, Herald-Advertiser,
November 25, 1934, Siebert Collection,
Vol. II.
159 Hart, Slavery, 159; Birney, James
G. Birney, 170; Rankin, Letters, 7, 18,
28, 34. These letters were originally intended for his
brother Thomas, a merchant
of Middlebrook, Virginia, who had bought
a slave: Letters, i.
246
OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
states. Immorality follows idleness, and
the master's children are
taught obscenity by the slave children,
with whom they often play.
In many instances the master and his
family are overcome by the
great temptations surrounding them and
are carried to ruin. The
gain from slavery often leads to
gambling, intemperance, and other
forms of indulgence. Slavery weakened
the bodies of the slave-
owning class, for whom lack of exercise
is dangerous, just as
excessive toil is for their slaves.
Eventually slavery must tend to
poverty, because the plantations are
large estates, and the poor
people can never own their farms. The
children of slaveholders,
reared in idleness and luxury, often
squander the richest estates
and fortunes left to them. Rankin said
truly that enslaved persons
have not the same motive to industry
which influences those who are free,
when they labor for themselves, and
consequently, they are not equal in
the performance of labor, to an equal
number of free men. Hence, not
only the poverty of individuals, but
also that of the state must become so
numerous, that there is not land enough
for them to cultivate, extreme
indigence must soon be the consequence,
both to the state, and to in-
dividuals.160
Slavery usually results in ignorance,
for persons reared in
idleness and ease will seldom attempt
the exertion necessary to gain
a liberal education. The sons and
daughters of slaveholders often
will not submit to the regulations of a
well-governed college and
are frequently expelled for gambling,
bad habits, and violent tem-
pers. "Slavery weakens every state
in which it exists." The
slaveholders secure great wealth, and
the poor whites are conse-
quently forced far down in the social
scale. The latter often leave
the slave state in order to seek a new
start in life and equal op-
portunity among free workers. Even many
of the better citizens
of the slave states grow tired of the
evils connected with the in-
stitution of servitude and move to a
free state to rear their children
in freedom and industry.161
Slavery cultivates a spirit of cruelty.
The slaves are greatly
lacking in moral instruction, are often
vicious, and hence draw
punishment and suffering upon themselves.
The vicious slave-laws
allow these poor creatures to be
tortured according to the dictates
of their masters' passions. Slavery
promotes tyranny. It
160 Ibid., 40-4, 119-21, 123-7.
161 Ibid., 127-9.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 247
is opposed to the fundamental part of
the Declaration of Independence
which declares that "all men are
created equal and are endowed with cer-
tain inalienable rights, that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness." These principles are
absolutely denied by the slaveholding
states. They practically declare that
all men are not created equal, that
liberty is not an inalienable right, and
that a certain class of people have
not a right to pursue their own
happiness. They do in all their constitu-
tions, create distinctions among
men--some [of whom] they forever con-
sign to the service of others.162
In his tenth letter Rankin explained
that slaves were originally
free, were not enslaved for crime, and
hence must have been un-
justly enslaved. They were either
stolen, or taken by violence, and
sold into bondage. Hence they should be
free.
Property, that is stolen or taken by
unjust violence, though it pass
through a thousand hands by honest
purchase, still belongs to the original
owner; and to him, according to the
plainest principles of justice, it must
revert. The right to freedom belongs to
the Africans, and therefore it is
as unjust to hold it from its right
owner.163
It is unjust to make a slave of the
Negro, even though the
state sanctions such oppression. The man
who would take away
the liberty of another merely because
the state permits him, would
probably take the property of another if
the opportunity should
arise. "The man who will be just no
farther than the state com-
pels him, is a rogue in heart."164
Rankin could see nothing but injustice
and cruelty in slavery.
It made an innocent man the property of
another and often de-
prived him of the comforts of life and
subjected him to untold
suffering. "The truth is,"
wrote the Presbyterian abolitionist,
"when once a man is made the
property of another, and thus put
completely under his control, it is
impossible to enact laws that
will protect either his life or his
limbs."165
In the last part of his Letters, Rankin
considered the various
pro-slavery arguments which certain
persons derive from the Bible
and refuted them all. He stated that the
slaves of Abraham were
voluntary subjects for temporary use
only. Much of the slavery
permitted by Mosaic institutions was for
the punishment of idol-
atry, and the "hired servants"
were not perpetual slaves. Rankin
not only found no divine sanction for
slavery, but on the contrary,
quoted from the Bible in condemnation of
it: "He that stealeth a
162 Ibid., 97,
132, 133-4.
163 Ibid., 138-9.
164 Ibid., 142.
165 Ibid., 60, 109.
248
OHIO ARCH EOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
man, and selleth him, or if he be found
in hand, he shall surely be
put to death." (Exodus, XXI,
16.)166
Rankin was also the author of a large
number of articles and
pamphlets against slavery. One of these--An Address to the
Churches in Relation to Slavery--was read by him at the first
anniversary of the Ohio Anti-slavery
Society, which was held at
Medina, Ohio, in 1836. He appealed to
the Christian Church to
oppose involuntary servitude because it
had no Scriptural basis.
As he had previously done in his Letters,
he maintained that servi-
tude in Israel was voluntary and
non-permanent. He said that the
Biblical slave was similar to an
apprentice in America and was
accepted as a member of his master's
family. He set forth the
many evils resulting from slavery and
declared it to be a direct
violation of the law of love.167
Rankin wanted
all the various denominations of
Christians to exclude from church fel-
lowship all who persevere in holding
slaves, under any pretext whatsoever;
and let all the gospel ministers lift up
their voices against slavery, and
bring the lightnings and thunderings of
Sinai to bear upon it, and it will
wither and die like the mown grass
beneath the scorching sun, and will
disappear like midnight darkness before
the rising sun of day.168
Of course, Rankin's desire for unanimity
among the denom-
inations on the slavery question was not
fulfilled to any considera-
ble degree, and if it had been it will
be agreed that the influence he
predicted they would exert was far
beyond attainment.
Two years later he gave another address,
this time before the
third anniversary meeting of the Ohio
Anti-slavery Society, at
Granville, on May 30, 1838. This was
entitled "An Address to
the Churches on Prejudice against People
of Color." Here again
he employed the arguments he had already
used in his Letters:
All men were made of one blood, and
climatic conditions had
changed the African to a dark hue. Even
if a permanent difference
existed in the color of the skin it was
"but the dress which God
has thrown over the human frame."
Prejudice against the Negro
was a serious crime, for it brought
oppression and ruin upon an
innocent people. He argued that America
was inconsistent in
166 Ibid., 158, 198.
167 John Rankin, Address to the
Churches in Relation to Slavery (Medina, O.,
1886), 1-5.
168 Ibid., 8.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 249
sending missionaries abroad each year to
convert heathen peoples,
while a thousand heathen were made at
home for every ten con-
verted abroad. He could but weep while
recording the painful
and shameful fact. If only he could persuade his Christian
brethren of all denominations "to
make immediate and persevering
efforts to abolish a prejudice that
involves millions in utter ruin."169
Rankin was the founder of the American
Reform Society,
which was later known as the Western
Tract and Book Society.
Such an organization, he thought, would
aid in combatting the in-
creasing power of slavery, and for many
months he worked among
his abolition friends to perfect it.
Finally he issued a call for a
meeting to organize the society, which
should publish the truth
about that "dominating system of
oppression so powerful in the
land." The meeting was held in the
Vine Street Congregational
Church, in Cincinnati, on December 16,
1851, and Rankin was
chosen president. The society found it
difficult to raise money for
its work, for many churches feared to
support it. Inasmuch as
agents to promote the objects of the
society were difficult to get,
Rankin did practically all of the work
himself. For a number of
years he was reelected its president,
and its success was largely due
to his efforts. The society became
widely known for its anti-
slavery and religious work and did much
to prepare the people
of the Middle West for the final
breaking of the bonds of
slavery.170
Rankin wrote a number of tracts for the
society, which were
widely circulated. The one entitled, The Duty of Voting for
Righteous Men for Office, is preserved in the Oberlin College
Library. Therein he argued that it is
clearly the will of Christ
for all men to vote, and that they must
elect good men in order to
fulfill the ordinances of God. Wicked
men pervert justice and
bring calamity upon the people, even as
they did in passing the
Fugitive Slave Law. He blamed slavery
upon the cruel laws made
by men irresponsive to their public
trust. "Voting for wicked
men endangers our republican
institutions," and leads to oppres-
sion of the people. Rankin felt sure
that the nation could be re-
169 John Rankin, "Address to the
Churches on Prejudice against People of
Color," Ohio Anti-slavery Society, Report
of the Third Anniversary (Cincinnati,
1838), 30, 35, 38.
170
Ritchie, The Soldier, 75-7.
250
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
formed, slavery abolished, and the best
interests of all the people
secured if good men were elected to
office.l71
Several more of Rankin's publications
may be mentioned.
One of these is A Short Memoir of
Samuel Donnell, Esq., which
is a brief account of the life and work
of a fellow-Presbyterian
abolitionist of Kentucky and Indiana.
Another gives the reasons
for the withdrawal of a large number of
students and several
members of the faculty from Lane
Seminary in 1835, because
they were forbidden to discuss slavery.
It is entitled A Review of
the Statement of the Faculty of Lane
Seminary. Of his religious
writings in print the most important is A
Present to Families,
which is a short treatise dealing with
the duties of parents and
children in the church and the meaning
of the covenant of grace.
Rankin's Place in the Anti-slavery
Movement.
One of the reasons why Rankin's
leadership in the early aboli-
tion movement has not been more widely
recognized is that
Ritchie's biography of him omits his
name from its title, which
gives no hint of his identity or the
causes for which he labored.
This title--The Soldier, the Battle,
and the Victory--is an admira-
ble example of what a title should not
be. Thus the extent of his
services have been overlooked by many
writers who have dealt
with the anti-slavery movement. Even
those writers who have
mentioned him are unfamiliar with the
full measure of his services
to the cause. A few examples may well be
cited. May in his book,
Some Recollections of Our
Anti-slavery Conflict, devoted only
one
paragraph to Rankin,172 which states that
he
was a Presbyterian minister in Kentucky,
where, in 1825, having heard
that his brother, Mr. Thomas Rankin, of
Virginia, had become a slave-
holder, he addressed to him a series of
very earnest and impressive letters
in remonstrance. They were published
first in a periodical called the
Castigator, and afterwards went through several editions in
pamphlet form.
He denounced "slavery as a
never-failing fountain of the grossest im-
moralities, and one of the deepest
sources of human misery." He in-
sisted that "the safety of our
government and the happiness of its sub-
jects depended upon the extermination of
this evil." We New England
Abolitionists, in the early days of our
warfare, made great use of Mr.
Rankin's volume as a depository of
well-attested facts, justifying the
strongest condemnation, we could utter,
of the system of oppression that
had become established in our country
and sanctioned by our government.
171 Ibid., 92.
172 Samuel J. May, Some Recollections of Our
Anti-slavery Conflict (Boston,
1867), 10.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 251
May said nothing about Rankin's work in
establishing anti-
slavery societies in southern Ohio, or
of his persistent agitation of
the abolition cause in the Presbyterian
Church, or of his participa-
tion in the organization and later
meetings of the Ohio Anti-slavery
Society, or of his labors in
southeastern Pennsylvania, etc. All of
these matters would probably have been
referred to by him if he
had known about them.
In his volume, The History of the
Anti-slavery Cause in State
and Nation, the Rev. Austin Willey gave only a sentence to Rankin,
as follows:173 "The same [anti-slavery] sentiment existed in Ken-
tucky and Tennessee, the work of Rev.
John Rankin, although he
was compelled to move over into
Ohio."
Professor Gilbert H. Barnes in his book The
Anti-slavery
Impulse, 1830-1844, issued in 1933, devotes two paragraphs to an
account of the organization of the Ohio
State Anti-slavery Society
at Zanesville in 1835, in which he says:
"From Oberlin and the
Negro schools in Cincinnati came the
Lane rebels, Quakers and
old-time abolitionists, John Rankin and
his sons among them, oc-
cupying the seats of honor; but most of
the delegates were Weld's
own converts of that year."174
Professor Theodore C. Smith refers only
twice to Rankin in
his The Liberty and Free Soil Parties
in the Northwest (New
York, 1897). On page 9 he says:
It must always be remembered that
Western abolitionism had an in-
dependent beginning; but while credit
for independent action must be
given to President Storrs of Western
Reserve College; to Asa Mahan,
John Rankin, Elizur Wright, Jr., Beriah
Green, Theodore D. Weld, and
Samuel Crothers in Ohio; to Charles
Osborne in Indiana; and to James
G. Birney in Kentucky, nevertheless the
establishment of the Liberator
gave the abolition cause its first real
impetus in the West as well as in
the East.
Speaking of the effect of the Fugitive
Slave Law of 1850 in
Ohio, Smith says on page 227: "In
Highland County a meeting,
managed by Mr. [Salmon P.] Chase
and the old time abolitionists,
John Rankin and Samuel Crothers,
resolved that 'Disobedience to
the enactment is obedience to
God'."175
To the above citations shall be added
but one more, namely
173 Austen Willey, The History of the
Anti-slavery Cause in State and Nation
(Portland, Me., 1886), 28.
174 Barnes, Anti-slavery Impulse, 83.
175 From The National Era, December
5, 1850.
252
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the references in Hart's Slavery and
Abolition, 1831-1841. On page
159 Hart states that Rankin
"preached and wrote against slavery
in Kentucky and then settled in Ohio,
where he published a volume
of Letters on Slavery, which
became a sort of textbook for abo-
litionists."
On page 193 he refers to the
organization of the Ohio State
Anti-slavery Society as follows:
Some of the pre-existing Ohio
anti-slavery societies, in April, 1835,
joined in forming a state society, in
which the leaders were Samuel
Crothers, John Rankin, and others from
the slave states, Elizur Wright,
a professor in the Congregational
Western Reserve College, and a group
of the Lane Seminary seceders.
On page 214 Hart speaks briefly of the
breaking off of a
small branch of the Presbyterian Church
under Rankin's leader-
ship, because the "New School"
relegated the consideration of the
slavery question to the local
presbyteries, and the formation by the
anti-slavery branch of the Free
Presbyterian Church, "with a few
thousand adherents, who made it a tenet
that no slaveholder should
be admitted to membership."
From the above references to Rankin's
work, which are rep-
resentative of others that might be drawn
from the general treatises
dealing with the anti-slavery movement,
one would not gain an
adequate idea of Rankin's leadership in
the Middle West, or of the
variety and extent of his activities,
including the underground
labors of himself and his family. Rankin
was one of the early
operators of the secret system of aiding
fugitive slaves in Ohio,
and it is exceedingly doubtful that any
household along the Ken-
tucky border forwarded more fugitives to
Canada than his. This
system had a continuous development in
Ohio until its termination
by the Civil War, and, although it was
secret, it inevitably received
much publicity in certain localities and
through the public press
by reason of the capture of occasional
runaways and the arrest and
trial of some unfortunate underground
operator who was detected
at his illegal proceedings. In many
communities such publicity
made new converts to the abolition
cause, and slavehunting had a
more pronounced effect among
right-thinking men.
The best estimate of Rankin's work as an
abolitionist is given
by William Birney in his James G.
Birney and His Times in tell-
ing of the anti-slavery convention at
Zanesville, in April, 1835.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 253
Birney named the veterans who were
delegates to the convention
and "had fought the battles of immediate
abolition in Ohio for
more than ten years," among them
Mahan of Brown County, a
tall, swarthy man who was a farmer and
local Methodist preacher,
and from about 1820 had been "one of the most active friends of
fugitive negroes." . . . "He knew reliable friends in the
counties adjoining his own to whom he
could confide fugitives."
As early as 1826 he and his associates
had formed a close connec-
tion with Levi Coffin and other Quakers
in Wayne County, Indiana.
They had established an earlier one with
western New York "in
order to baffle the slave-catchers who
were stationed at Detroit;
and, after 1826, the recapture of a
fugitive negro who could cross
the Ohio River and get five miles north
of it, was a rare occur-
rence."
Birney wrote also of Crothers, a
Presbyterian minister who
had been raised in Kentucky, but had
left that state in 1810, when
he was twenty-eight years old. After a
decade's service in Ross
County as a pastor, he was in charge of
the Presbyterian Church
at Greenfield, Highland County, for
thirty-six years, and in that
part of Ohio exerted great religious,
moral, and political influence.
From the beginning of his work in the
State, "he was known as
an immediate abolitionist, in full
sympathy with Gilliland, Burgess,
Rankin, and the Dickeys." Fifteen
letters by him were published
between 1827 and 1831 and republished in
the year last named
under the title An Appeal to Patriots
and Christians in Behalf of
the Enslaved Africans. Early in 1835 Crothers published five let-
ters which by their logic, wit, and
sarcasm completely demolished
the plea of President Young of Centre
College for gradual emanci-
pation.
In time, Birney spoke of Rankin, whom he
characterizes as
"the most noted abolitionist"
in the Zanesville convention. He
further stated that his services to the
anti-slavery cause were "very
great," that "many Western
men . . . called him 'the father
of abolitionism'," and that
"it was not an uncommon thing in the
thirties to hear him called 'the Martin
Luther' of the cause." He
adds that in 1827 Rankin "was one
of the five most prominent ad-
vocates in this country of immediate
abolition." Of the many
thousands who joined the modern
anti-slavery movement within
254
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
the first twelve years after its revival
at the close of the War of
1812 perhaps the two best known were Lundy and Rankin.
Birney
said that Rankin's influence "in
Ohio and Kentucky was power-
ful." He might have added that
through his Letters on Slavery
he furnished abolitionists, both East
and West, many strong argu-
ments in support of their cause. In the
light of the above facts
given by Birney, and of Rankin's
anti-slavery work within the
Presbyterian Church, which Birney
overlooked, it is not too much
to say that Rankin prepared the way more
than any other early
abolitionist, with the possible
exception of Lundy, for the more
aggressive work of Garrison.
Like many other anti-slavery men, Rankin
differed from Gar-
rison in supporting party action for the
overthrow of the national
evil. He helped to found the Liberty
Party in Ohio and later
joined the Free Soil movement. He became
a Republican soon
after the birth of that party and was an
active supporter of Abra-
ham Lincoln.176 He lived to
see slavery swept away on the bloody
battle-fields of the Civil War and
rejoiced in its overthrow.
Chambers Baird, of Ripley, has
characterized the work and
place of Rankin among the advocates of
abolition in the following
sonnet:
Grand pioneer in Freedom's holy cause,
The praise and honor thine, who battled
long,
And didst assail the citadel of wrong
With dauntless faith, and courage
without pause,
Despite the throttling power of evil
laws
That made the bondsman's shackles doubly
strong,
And would make freemen slaves in common
throng,
Whilst cowards gave assent and meek
applause.
Dear Hero of our age, thy work is o'er,
Thou canst and needst no more thy
warfare wage,
In peace and joy thou sawst thy latest
sun;
Thou hast the victor's crown for
evermore,
And leav'st to us for blessed heritage
The faith well-kept, and good fight
fought--and won.177
Rankin's Monument at Ripley; His
Characteristics; His Sons.
The sonnet by Baird, quoted at the close
of the preceding
section, was delivered on May 5, 1892, on the occasion of the
dedication of the bronze portrait bust
of Rankin and the granite
176 Rankin, Truth Vindicated,7.
177 Written in May, 1892.
REV. JOHN RANKIN 255
monument on which it stands in Maplewood
Cemetery, Ripley,
where the noted abolitionist reposes.
Rankin died on March 18,
1886, at Ironton, Ohio, at the age of
ninety-three years. The dedi-
catory service was held therefore a
little more than six years later.
The bust was modeled by Mrs. Ellen
Rankin Copp, a grand-
daughter of the abolition leader. The exercises consisted of
Scripture reading and song, and several
addresses in the First
Presbyterian Church, after which Mr. J.
C. Leggett, a local his-
torian gave an oration on the life and
character of Rankin at his
grave and unveiled the bust. On the
monument is carved:
John Rankin
1793-1886
Jean Lowry, His Wife,
1795-1878.
Freedom's Heroes.178
Rankin had received calls from numerous
churches which
would have paid him higher salaries,
including large congregations
in Philadelphia and New York City, but
he was not ambitious for
such preferment. He also refused the
degree of Doctor of Di-
vinity, saying that it would increase
neither his usefulness nor his
reputation. Such was his simple and
unpretentious character.179
Rankin was slightly below the average
stature, erect in bearing,
and neat in dress, with a clean-shaven
face and high, broad fore-
head and large, keen eyes. He was
distinctly of the intellectual
type and bore a kindly expression. He
often wore a white stock,
which was tied in a single knot. He was
genial, fond of children,
and liked to entertain guests, but he
permitted no alcoholic bever-
ages in his house, being himself a total
abstainer. He opposed
dancing and all his life objected to
fraternal organizations. His
preaching was usually extemporaneous,
his convictions honest and
earnest, his logic effective, and his
voice clear, with excellent in-
tonation.180
His wife, Jean Lowry Rankin, shared his
joys and sorrows
for sixty-three years and took part as
far as her domestic cares
permitted in his church work and his
anti-slavery labors. She
178 Ripley (Ohio) Bee, May 12, 1892; Leggett,
"Address," 15.
179 Ibid., 14.
180 Reminiscences of Chambers Baird, Esq., of Ripley, ibid., 15.
256
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
was always in charge at home and was in
danger of calls by slave-
hunters while her husband was away on
his speaking trips.181
Six of their eight living sons were in
the Union Army during
the Civil War, as was also an orphan
grandson who lived with the
family. The Rev. A. L. Rankin served as
chaplain of the 113th
Illinois Regiment. R. C. Rankin was a
captain of the 7th Ohio
Volunteer Corps and served for four
years with distinction, ren-
dering special service in the pursuit of
John Morgan and other
guerillas. The Rev. S. G. W. Rankin was
connected with the
Christian Commission. John T. Rankin
served with the 116th
Illinois Regiment. Dr. A. C. Rankin was
an assistant surgeon in
the 74th Illinois Regiment. William A.
Rankin served as a staff
officer throughout the war, first with
Colonel LeGrange's Brigade
of Cavalry, then with General McCook,
and finally with General
Wilson in Georgia. John C. Rankin, the
grandson, served during
the war in Company E of the 7th Ohio
Volunteer Corps under
Captain R. C. Rankin. It should be added
that the Rev. A. T.
Rankin and Thomas Rankin took part in
the pursuit of Morgan
through Ohio and Indiana.182
Three of the sons followed their father
in the ministry of the
Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Samuel W.
Rankin was for many
years a pastor in Hartford, Connecticut.
The Rev. Arthur T.
Rankin preached in Greensburgh, Indiana,
while the Rev. A. L.
Rankin held various charges in
California.183
181 Ibid., 16.
182 Leggett, "Address," 15;
Howe, Historical Collections, I, 339; John Rankin's
Ancestors, 2-4.
183 Leggett, "Address," 2.
THE REV. JOHN RANKIN, EARLY
ABOLITIONIST*
By PAUL R. GRIM
The Ancestry and Early Career of
John Rankin.
The ancestors of the Rev. John Rankin
were Scotch-Irish
Presbyterians whose lineage can be
traced directly to Scotland
during the religious persecutions of the
seventeenth century.1
His great-great-grandfather, William
Rankin, was compelled to
flee from Scotland during that period
after his two brothers had
been killed because of their religious
belief. He made his escape
into Derry County, Ireland, in 1689.2
John, his second son, was
born there and was married to Jane
McElwee. Thomas, the older
of the two sons of John, and the
grandfather of the Rev. John
Rankin, was born in Ireland in 1724. At
the age of three years
he accompanied his father to America,
landing at Philadelphia.
Thomas was reared near Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, before the Revo-
lutionary War. He married Mary
Clendenen, who was likewise
a Scotch Presbyterian. Being intensely
patriotic, he served in the
Revolution and later sold his farm for
worthless Continental
money, a circumstance which left him in
poverty.3 After this
misfortune, he emigrated to the
Southwest and settled in eastern
Tennessee in 1784. He made a home there
in what was later
called Jefferson County.4 He had six sons, the four older of
whom had served with him in the
Revolution. The five older,
moreover, became elders in the
Presbyterian Church. Richard,
the second son of Thomas and a veteran
of the Revolution, was
the father of the Rev. John Rankin. He
married Isabella Steele
and came to Tennessee with his father.
Eleven sons were born
of this union, four of whom served in
the War of 1812. One
* A thesis presented for the degree of
Master of Arts, Ohio State University, 1935.
1 History of John Rankin's Ancestors
(typed manuscript loaned by R. C. Rankin,
of Ripley, Ohio), 1.
2 Ibid.
3 Andrew Ritchie, The Soldier, the
Battle, and the Victory (Cincinnati, 1868), 9.
4 John Rankin's Ancestors, 1.
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