A scene from Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The hero of the book is Eliza, a slave woman who escapes to freedom while carrying her baby in her arms. The book is loosely based on the real-life story of Eliza Harris.
Many slaves made dangerous and bold escapes. Among the most famous escapes was that of Eliza Harris. Eliza Harris was a slave from Kentucky. She had heard some terrible news. She and her child were to be sold off to different masters. Eliza knew she had to escape.
It was a very cold winter that year. Eliza hoped that the Ohio River would be frozen solid. She planned to carry her baby across it. But when she reached the river, the ice had broken into large chunks.
At first, Eliza waited for the ice to harden. Yet Eliza knew that her master had sent slave catchers after her. By now, they had to be very near.
Before long, the slave catchers spotted her. Eliza made a run for it. Tightly clinging to her baby, she jumped onto a chunk of floating river ice. From there, she jumped from ice floe to ice floe. She hoped to cross the river that way.
A scene from Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The hero of the book is Eliza, a slave woman who escapes to freedom while carrying her baby in her arms. The book is loosely based on the real-life story of Eliza Harris.
Ice in the Ohio River—dangerous to cross both today and in Eliza’s time
It was not easy. Sometimes the ice floes sunk under the weight of her body. When this happened, she had to quickly get herself and her baby to another chunk of floating ice. They could have died in the icy river but Eliza finally made it across.
A man standing on the other side of the river had been watching. He helped Eliza and her child out of the water. From there, the two were taken to an Underground Railroad station. They kept going North. At last they crossed a lake that took them to freedom in Canada.