"Richard Hill's true and intensely personal story of how he pieced together the long-kept secret of his own origins. This highly suspenseful book is a page-turning saga of personal detective work that will appeal to anyone who loves a good mystery. But this isn't fiction. It's an engrossing account of an adoptee trying to reclaim the biological family denied him by sealed birth records. This fascinating quest, including the author's landmark use of DNA testing, takes readers on an exhilarating roller-coaster ride and concludes with a twist that rivals anything Hollywood has to offer."--back cover.
''Child Heroes of the Underground Railroad illuminates the vital contributions of specific, underappreciated child activists within the extremely local circumstances of their daily work. It also provides meaningful context to the actions of these young activists within the much broader social practice of resisting slavery, and offers fresh insight into the complicated question of who was responsible for ending slavery. Through a thorough examination of these subjects, author Jonathan Shectman proves his central thesis: in many specific cases, children were the essential lifeblood of the Underground Railroad's operational workforce." ( amazon.com )
Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-208) and index.
Contents
The dictates of humanity -- Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave -- Ran away from the subscriber -- Tell them I love them all -- Let not the sun go down on your anger, my boy -- Up like bucks: the Rankin boys -- States of matter divide the states -- Deeds of bold daring -- Many years under the yoke -- The conductor was, himself, presently enslaved.
Part I. Radical, young, and quaker: child pioneers of the underground -- Part II. Up like bucks: the line through Ripley -- Part III. Taking their freedom: young free blacks and fugitive children.
A railroad for the "Southern End" : Pictures, timetables, rare documents and all the news of the Little, Old & Slow, Pennsylvania's first narrow gauge railroad
A long time ago, a narrow gauge railroad was built through southern Lancaster and Chester Counties, in Pennsylvania, bringing an alternative to horses, buggies and ox carts, on muddy deeply rutted roads. "Ole Peachy," as many of the locals called it, served no major industries. Instead, it made do with poultry, eggs, butter, cattle, cream and passengers, becoming a vital link for the farmers of, and visitors to, the "Southern End ." This is the story of how , despite great odds against it, this short line managed to survive for 47 years. [from the book cover]
Abstract: Many Pennsylvania Mennonite families trace solid ancestral lines back to immigrant Mennonite and Amish ancestors. Not so for members of Mennonite Lind families, the first of whom settled in Pennsylvania in the 1940s. This began a continual Mennonite Lind presence in Pennsylvania or, for some years, with Lancaster's mission outreach in Africa. Their immigrant Lind ancestor, John "Philip" Lind, arrived in the United States single, a young man of the Moravian faith. He soon married Elizabeth Whitesell, also a Moravian, and they lived in several Pennsylvania locations. Their son Jacob Lind, born near Nazareth, Pennsylvania, went west and settled in Ohio, where he met and married Maggie Ziegler Boyer and became a convinced member of her Mennonite faith. It is Mennonite descendants of their son Norman A. Lind who made homes in Pennsylvania.
