Staircase doorway to hiding place inside First Presbyterian Church, Portsmouth, Ohio (2022)

ID: 682 ~ Source: Scioto Historical Collection, Center for Public History, Shawnee State University, Portsmouth, Ohio. ~ Creator: Vaughn Wascovich ~ Date: 2022

This file appears in: Portsmouth's First Presbyterian Church and the Antislavery Movement in Southern Ohio

According to oral tradition (passed down by members of the church), the storage areas under the church’s stairs were used as hiding places for African Americans who sought refuge on their way to their next stop on the network to freedom.

This file appears in: Portsmouth's First Presbyterian Church and the Antislavery Movement in Southern Ohio

Portsmouth's First Presbyterian Church and the Antislavery Movement in Southern Ohio

By Andrew Lee Feight, Ph.D.

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, the congregation now known as First Presbyterian of Portsmouth, Ohio, was a nexus of the antislavery movement in southern Ohio and it’s members, elders, and…