Freedom Stairway
This file appears in: John Rankin House
This photograph depicts an early version of steps that lead up to the Rankin home from the town of Ripley. Though it is not known if the stairs existed in the early part of the nineteenth century, we can tell from this early photograph the work it took Eliza and her child to make it up the steep hill to the Rankin home.
This file appears in: John Rankin House
John Rankin House
We know that it was at the home of Presbyterian minister John Rankin that Eliza Harris had her first moment of safety after escaping from slavery. It had not been an easy journey for Eliza leaving in winter February 1838 from Dover, Kentucky with…