The Autobiography of a Conductor:
A Rare Look at the Underground Railroad

By Rachanee Srisavasdi

Stuart Seely Srague had not expected what he found at the public library in Ripley, Ohio.

Dr. Sprague was doing research on the Underground Railroad sites along the Ohio River about two years ago when a librarian handed him a copy of a personal account of a former slave who had been a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad.

"I was flabbergasted," recalls Sprague. "When I got hold of it, I knew I had to do something about it."

The discovery led to his most recent project: editing His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor of the Underground Railroad (W. W. Norton & Company).

The book, which came out last month (November 1996), is the story of a former slave who dedicated his life to the abolition movement. It is one of the few autobiographies ever found of a black conductor of the railroad. Most other personal accounts were destroyed in the interest of secrecy.

Sprague, a professor of history at Morehead State University (Morehead, Kentucky), retired in July 1996. He specialized in American history and became interested in African-American history -- specifically the Underground Railroad -- when he began studying Appalachian history in Kentucky.

Morehead gave Sprague a grant to study the Underground Railroad in Kentucky and Ohio, and that work led him to Parker and his autobiography in 1994.

Parker was born a slave in 1827, the son of a black woman and a white man. He bought his freedom at the age of 18 and spent the next 20 years helping slaves cross the Ohio River, from Kentucky to Ohio, at some of the more accessible places used by the Underground Railroad.

During the day, Parker worked as an iron molder, and eventually set up his own iron foundry and blacksmith shop. He also patented a series of inventions during his lifetime.

"This is not someone who says he's a victim of slavery. He is the master of his own destiny," Sprague says. "And he speaks for hundreds of others whose records we don't have."

At about the time Sprague found the text, Robert Newman, a civil rights lawyer in Cincinnati, located the original Parker narrative at Duke University while he was doing research into the abolition movement.

The two men exchanged letters and versions of the manuscript, and decided to work together in publishing it. Sprague started preparing the autobiography and searching for more information about Parker's life.

The poor condition of the manuscript and its nearly illegible handwriting slowed the process. (Parker did not write the account himself -- a journalist who interviewed Parker in the 1880s copied down Parker's story.)

"Sometimes I would make hilarious blunders and would think one word meant another," Sprague says. "But by reading the manuscript over and over, I was able to become familiar with the terrible handwriting."

Finding more information about Parker, who died in 1900, was not easy, Sprague says, mostly because Parker had to keep his involvement in the Underground Railroad secret at the time of his activities. "It was a cat-and-mouse game," Sprague says. "Parker's done his best that I don't find out stuff about him."

It took all of his research expertise, he says, to assemble the facts of Parker's life, which he writes about in the book's preface. Parker says little about his ancestry and only once in his autobiography refers to his mother and father. Sprague went to Ripley, Parker's hometown, several times. He spent days searching through newspaper archives and census records to trace where Parker's children had lived. He also pored over city directories in Kentucky, calling every listing of the name "Parker" in the phone books. (He eventually did locate a distant female relative of Parker in Chicago.)

From his research, Sprague found many previously unknown details of Parker's life, such as the details of how he created the iron foundry. Sprague also found information on Parker's six children -- three of whom went on to study in college.

Parker's autobiography is written in vivid detail. He recounts hardships as a slave, such as beatings by his owners, as well as the adventures he experienced in his several attempts to run away.

He also relates his often-risky involvement with the Underground Railroad in simple and clear language: "While we were wildly searching, I heard the cry of hounds. The patrol had worked faster than I thought. Leaping into the boat to tear up a seat to use as a paddle, I stumbled over the oars, which I had missed finding in the dark. With a halloo, I piled the crowd into the boat, only to find it so small it would not carry all of us. Two men were left on the bank."

As why he took part in the railroad, Parker writes: "There was an excitement about the game that appealed to me, in my younger days, and I really believe I enjoyed the nightly adventures with my ever-changing flock."

All proceeds from sales of the book will go to the newly established John P. Parker Historical Society, which will restore Parker's house in Ripley to its 19th-century condition. The site will also be excavated to discover any remaining Parker belongings.

Sprague and Newman are not the only ones who have recognized the value of Parker's autobiography. TriStar Pictures has already purchased the movie rights.

In Civilization magazine, Joseph J. Ellis, a history professor at Mount Holyoke College, wrote: "Usually we need to invent our American heroes. With the publication of Parker's extraordinary memoir, we seem to have discovered the genuine article."

Sprague is modest about bringing Parker into the limelight. "It's just giving credit," he says, "where credit is due."

Copyright 1996. The Chronicle of Higher Education. This article may not be published, posted or distributed without permission from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

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Copyright (c) 1996. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Reprinted with permission.