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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Across the wide river.

Across the wide river is a story about The Rankin family, Lowry Rankin specifically.

The Rankins lived in Tennessee in the 1800's when slavery was still a very big problem. Lowry's father was John Rankin, an abolition minister.
The book is based on actual events and an obviously actual family, but it still mostly fiction.

In the beginning of the book, Lowry thinks everything in Kentucky is great and had only seen the "alright" side of slavery, that was until he was going to bible school with his friend Sherwood, who just happened to be a slave. after the lesson, Sherwood went outside so Lowry and his father could talk, and then they heard screams. Someone who had a problem with Sherwood learning had whipped him. That would be the beginning of Lowry seeing the bad side of slavery.

After all this, they Rankins made the decision to move across the river into Ohio the to the town of Ripley.
They lived in town for a while, but they didn't really like it, so John Rankin bought some land on top of a hill and built a house for them.

Lowry started school, and got bullied for his accent, so for the next few years, he didn't talk much outside of his home. One girl stood up for him though. Her name was Amanda Kephart. It was love at first sight for him.

Little did Lowry know, his parents had become involved in the underground (Underground railroad). That was, at least, until a slave came to his house looking for someone to take him to the next house.
From then on, he was involved with the underground railroad.

As Lowry grew up he wanted to be a carpenter. He even had a little internship with his uncle for a while. But as the issues with slavery got worse, He decided he wanted to be an abolition minister. So he went to Cincinnati to Lane seminary. Even there though, he had to transport slaves. With all the school, late nights taking slaves to safety, poor nourishment and whatnot, he got sick and had to leave to go back home.

After that he gave up on being a minister for a while and just focused on being a carpenter again.

After a series of events, Lowry saved more slaves, got the girl and would eventually become a name synonymous with abolition.

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