Dear Sandra and Bennie,

There is no disagreement! It is simply my opinion that the overwhelming majority of the fugitive slaves who crossed the Ohio River from Wood County, (West) Virginia into Washington County, Ohio had escaped from western Virginia counties relatively close to the Ohio River. Why would a fugitive slave travel the width of Virgina when there were shorter, quicker routes availabe to them via Pennsylvania and other Northern States? Why didn't Harriet Tubman bring her fugitives slaves across (West) Virginia to the Ohio River?

They built the Pike (U.S. Route #50) and all the other roads in Viriginia and the rest of the U.S. because of commerce. Transporting slaves to be sold at the Ohio River Slave Markets was a part of commerce.

They built the Ohio-Erie Canal System in Ohio during the 1830s, 40s. Fugitive slaves followed the canal north to Cleveland to cross Lake Erie into Canada. But they did not build the Ohio-Erie Canal for fugitive slaves to use. They built the canal to facilitate commerce!

Anyway, what is the point? Nobody, least of all me, knows exactly how many fugitive slaves crossed anyplace. We could go on this line for forever and never get anything resolved.
HB