Ohio's Aid to Fugitive Slaves as a Contributing Cause of the Civil War

              OHIO'S AID  TO FUGITIVE  SLAVES
AS A  CONTRIBUTING  CAUSE   OF THE  CIVIL WAR
By
W.  H.   Siebert
Some   thirty years  ago as a young  Instructor in  the
State  University I had  classes  in American History,   and
when we  got  to  the movements   leading  to   the  Civil ^ar we
took up as a  subject for special  study and investigation
the unlawful and hidden activities  of the Abolitionists and
many other humanitarians  In helping fugitive  slaves   to
gain their freedom by routes   leading from one antl-slavery
home,   or neighborhood,   to another.     In  the  course   of several
years  I accumulated a   large mass   of fragmentary  information
by correspondence and  travel.     The next  step was  to  classify
the  collected material by states   and  counties and piece  together  the  fragments  of  information.     By this process  it became  possible  to trace   on a map of the Northern states a
large  part of the system of routes  over which fugitives were
forwarded by their friends.     In  the years before  the  Civil
War this system was  called  the  Underground Railroad.
Another step was necessary  if the historic  significance
of  the   Underground movement was   to be  determined,   and  this
was   to  study it in relation  to slavery  and   the Fugitive Slave
clauses   of  the Constitution and  the Ordinance  of  1787 and  the
federal  laws  providing  for  the  rendition  of  fugitives  from