Odyssey's "Underground Railroad" Story Told
Two
Historical Events Recounted on Tape and in Books
Review by Jerry Phillips
| Times Staff Writer
In two separate events during
the last century, Odyssey was deeply touched by the division between those
who supported slavery and those who fought against it.
In 1851, Reverend Andrew
Ferguson of Grace Church in Odyssey helped a family of runaway slaves and,
as a result, had his home burned to the ground by slave traders from the
South. The dramatic story of the slaves' escape to freedom and the resulting
conflict in Odyssey has been captured in a three-part "Adventures in
Odyssey" radio program called, appropriately, "The Underground Railroad."
Included in the 24th collection of cassettes and compact discs called
Risks and Rewards, "The Underground Railroad is an exciting and
heart-wrenching look at the effects of slavery and the sacrifices made by
those who fought it.
But the story didn't end
there. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had their intense and
widely reported debates about the morality of slavery, and the town of
Odyssey was divided over the issue. By then Reverend Andrew had become more
active in the Underground Railroad, turning his church into a "stop" on the
Railroad. This place him again in the center of the slavery controversy as
he worked tirelessly to help slaves escape to the North. But his work was
often hindered by slave hunters who were given legal access to the North to
recapture runaway slaves. It is this period of Odyssey's history that has
been told in two books of the "Adventures in Odyssey" series of novels.
Books 9 and 10 chronicle the
events surrounding the recapture of a runaway slave and his daughter as seen
through the eyes of two modern-day Odyssey kids (Jack Davis and Matt Booker)
who stumble back in time thanks to Whit's Imagination Station. They both
learn an important lesson about freedom as Matt gets kidnapped by the slave
hunters and Jack joins Reverend Andrew on a mission into the South to free
him. Book 9 is called Dark Passage and Book 10 is called Freedom
Run.
These adventures are
authentically rendered and a must for anyone who cares about our
nation's—and the city's—history.
This
article originally appeared in "The Odyssey Times," a
special fictional newspaper produced by Focus on the Family to promote
Adventures in Odyssey.
Back to
The Odyssey Times
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