| After making it to Cincinnati, the
adventurers worked their way up the Miami Erie
Canal toward Mercer County. They never made it. Waiting at the dock in New Bremen were
armed white settlers. Author Trudy Krisher recounted the scene in an article in a recent
edition of Ohio magazine. The bewildered Negroes listened as three
resolutions read out loud, one of which stated: "Resolved, That we will not live
among Negroes; as we have settled here first, we have fully determined that we will resist
the settlement of blacks and mulattos in this county to the full extent of our means, the
bayonet not excepted." In later years, when the dispossessed land owners
inquired about their land, they were told it had been flooded and was useless. (In fact,
according to Helen Gilmore, there
is some evidence that water was released from Grand Lake St. Marys to temporarily cover
some of the land.) An editorial on the Cincinnati Gazette on July 2, 1846,
commenting on the Randolph Slaves, summed up the feelings of many in Ohio at that time:
"And now the poor creatures are among us! Why should this be? The people of
Virginia...hear the call of death...the first step is to free the slaves, that they may
lull the unquiet knawings of conscience- next to send them to Ohio so that they may be
free. What right have they to be pouring in upon us their helpless, new made free?"
The boats continued south on the canal to Piqua. In testimony given in a subsequent
trial involving their land, Clem Clay recalled that they all left Piqua soon after to
"come to a place called Sidney." The former slaves were first taken to a
place in Shelby County Clay referred to as 'Carey's Plantation'. (The authors believe this
is the present day Fort Loramie.)
The July 14, 1893, edition of the Sidney Journal later carried an account of the
reception they encountered. "In July of 1846 quite a commotion was caused in the
village by the arrival of a boat carrying as passengers...about 100 Randolph slaves, just
set free. The boat passed up to the vicinity of Berlin (Now known as Fort Loramie), but
were not allowed to land. A mob received them with sticks and stones....It was the
exclamation of one of the old Negroes that he guessed his 'Master (referring to Randolph)
was his best friend, after all."
Clay and the others went next to Sidney. A mob began to gather here as well, but
appeals were made to their charity. Joseph Cummins, Guy Kelsey and others in Sidney
convened a meeting at a local hotel to debate what to do. It was decided to allow a number
of the Negroes to stay in Sidney. Clay recalled: "Well, a good class of white
people took some on the farm, and some around to the dwelling houses...some settled around
through Sidney...and the rest came to Piqua."
It was therefore here that these proud men and women first
experienced the meaning of freedom and acceptance. The rest of the close-knit band boarded
the canal boats for other areas, including Piqua, Troy, and Xenia. Others, including
Carter Lee, eventually settled in New Bern, a canal town in Washington Township. Some went
to Rumley, a settlement of Blacks in Van Buren Township dating from 1830.
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