Fighting Slavery – Aiding Runaways – Grinnell, IA - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

This historical sign tells about John Brown and his aiding runaway slaves. It is located on the eastbound rest stop near Grinnell and reads as follows:

Fighting Slavery – Aiding Runaways

John Brown’s Last Iowa Trip 1859

On February 19, 1859 John Brown, with twelve men, women, and children escaping slavery from Missouri, plus his own men, stopped near here at the farm of the Cornwall Dickenson family.

The forty-five year old farmer, who had originally come from strongly antislavery Ashtabula County, in northeastern Ohio, lived on the farm where today this rest stop was located. Brown's party rested at Dickenson’s place overnight and then, favored by mild winter weather traveling across Iowa, headed to Josiah B. Grinnell’s house in Grinnell. From there they continued to Iowa City and beyond on their three month trek toward Detroit at which the group crossed by ferry to freedom in Windsor, Canada.

Ten months later Brown was dead, having been captured and hung after the former Kansas fighter and his band (including four Iowans) on October 16, 1859 carried out a failed attack at the Federal Arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. The brash action ignited great controversy and became a catalyst leading to Civil War.

Brown’s actions as part of Kansas’ Troubles

The Kansas-Nebraska struggles arose after 1854 over whether the territories would become slave or Free states. This made western Iowa an important staging area for Free State forces and also for those engaged in aiding refugees escaping enslavement. In the forefront of antislavery and Underground Railroad activity during these years were persons of Congregational, Quaker, Baptist, and Wesley Methodist faith.

The northward flight of persons from enslavement in western Missouri often brought them first to a rural Iowa hamlet known as Civil Bend, just upriver from Nebraska City. From there they would be directed to Tabor and then eastward across Iowa toward Chicago and Canada.

For Iowa residents this participation was a dangerous and illegal business. Many wanted to avoid involvement in the slavery issue and keep black settlement out of the state, while others saw the state standing forth as a beacon of anti-slavery hope.

This outward flow of runaway slaves spread tension in Border States while the larger Kansas conflict enraged both North and South, killed the Whig Party, made the Republican Party, split the Democratic Party and guaranteed Lincoln’s election.

Group that erected the marker: Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa Department of Transportation Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Grinnell Rest Stop I-80 Grinnell , IA USA 50112 URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   06/30/2023 wanderfish visited it