"Eliza"

There is a runaway slave character called Eliza who escapes from Kentucky over ice floes in the Ohio River in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Mrs. Stowe said her book was a “collection and arrangement of real incidents” and that the chase across the ice floes was drawn from an actual rescue involving her husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe, a clergyman, and her brother, Henry Ward Beecher.

The real-life Eliza escaped from Kentucky with her baby in her arms. When she came to the Ohio River, she saw large chunks of ice floating on it. But that didn’t stop her, for the slave hunters were in hot pursuit. She leaped from one ice floe to the next in an agonizing act of courage until she reached the freedom shore.

Eliza was rescued by the family of the Reverend John Rankin and stayed in their house above the river. Levi Coffin then aided her on the difficult journey to Canada.

As Eliza left the Rankin Underground station, she told John Rankin that she would come back for her other children, still slaves in Kentucky, in June of the following year. Reverend Rankin doubted that he would ever see her again. But a year later, in June, a man came climbing up to the garden of the Rankin house. It was Eliza, wearing men’s clothing, ready to get her children and bring them out.

The Rankins helped her back across the Ohio River into Kentucky. Because it was Sunday, the plantation owner and his wife were away visiting. Eliza hastened to carry off her five children – and two hundred pounds of household goods!

The heavy load slowed them down. By the time they reached the river again, the sun was up and fog on the water was lifting. The Rankins waited for Eliza on the Ohio side, their guns at the ready. They saw dogs and men on horseback spread out on the Kentucky shore. One Rankin son, dressed as a slave woman, slipped across the river. He quickly attracted the slave hunters’ attention and left them on a wild-goose chase away from where Eliza and her brood were hidden.

For hours, the slave posse chased the disguised Rankin son. Finally darkness fell and the hunters lost him. A Rankin helper had by then guided Eliza, her family, and all their belongings back across the river to the safe house on the Ohio bluff.

Two weeks later, Eliza and her children were conducted along the Underground Railroad line to Canada.