More Than One Path to Freedom

Green generated income for himself while still a slave by recycling discarded items, even bacon grease from Dobyns's warehouse floor, which he sold to a soap manufacturer and with the proceeds bought a set of silver spoons. Dobyns's 8-year-old daughter taught Elisha, who already knew how to read, how to write. Both Dobyns and Maysville were growing in wealth, Dobyns investing in a projected railroad eastward from Maysville. Slaveholders near Maysville were increasingly alarmed by news of escaping slaves; Ripley, Ohio, eight miles west, was had some dedicated underground railroad operators, including John Rankin and John Parker. Free blacks were increasingly viewed with suspicion. After passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, Green had difficulty traveling to Ohio on church business. Slave catchers were even venturing into Ohio to kidnap non-enslaved blacks.