Ohio
Mob chased Randolph Freedpeople away with bayonet, threats. Descendants deserve Ohio land.
“I propose identifying state-owned land in Mercer County and returning it to the descendants of the Randolph Freedpeople,” Dontavius Jarrells
State Representative Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus, is a member of the Ohio State House of Representatives, representing District 1, and serves as the assistant minority leader.
As the fundamental freedoms that would shape America were being drafted, our Founding Fathers declared that the People were “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
That declaration was not just a vision for their time, but a mandate for all generations to come.
The democracy our founders envisioned was never meant to be completed; it was to be an ongoing endeavor.
Today, as responsible citizens and leaders, it is our duty to continue this work. This requires acknowledging our failures, learning from them, and forging ahead together. Among our greatest failures, America’s original sin has been and remains—the enduring legacy of slavery.
Every so often, we are given an opportunity to confront this legacy and correct history’s greatest wrong. One such opportunity has presented itself through the story of the Randolph Freedpeople, a chapter of Ohio history that remains largely untold but is crucial to our collective understanding and growth.
Randoph Freedpeople denied promised land
In 1833, John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia, freed his roughly 400 slaves, expressing deep regret for having owned them.
Randolph provided these freed individuals, known as the Randolph Freedpeople, with approximately 3,200 acres of land and the means to relocate. After a prolonged legal battle over his will, the Randolph Freedpeople began their exodus from Virginia to Mercer County, Ohio, in June 1846.
Their journey was met with resistance.
Upon learning of their arrival, white landowners in Mercer County resolved to prevent the Freedpeople from settling, even threatening violence. When the Randolph Freedpeople arrived, they were met by armed mobs and forced to turn back, despite having a legal right to the land.
Denied their promised land, the Randolph Freedpeople were left to wander, eventually settling in parts of Shelby and Miami County, with many making Piqua their new home.
Our View: We must remember, work against ‘America’s original sin’ this long weekend
For generations, they and their descendants have contributed significantly to their communities, to Ohio, and to America. Yet, the promise of freedom and opportunity that Ohio was supposed to represent was denied to them.
Correcting a grave error
This historical episode, unfolding in the years leading up to the Civil War, starkly illustrates that the freedom promised to slaves in the North was far from guaranteed. Ohio turned its back on the Randolph Freedpeople, and now is the time for us to acknowledge this failure, learn from it, and move forward.
With the help of the descendants of the Randolph Freedpeople and other local leaders, we have an opportunity to right this wrong.
We are looking at options to address the injustices faced by the descendants of the Randolph Freedpeople. Ohio lacked the courage to do the right thing then, but I believe we have the courage today.
This is our opportunity to continue the work started by our Founding Fathers. We can recognize this dark chapter in Ohio’s past and write a new one that brings hope, closure, and the promise of a better future. The America we live in today does not have to reflect the injustices of the past. By seizing opportunities like this, we can build a more perfect union, for all of us.
State Representative Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus, is a member of the Ohio State House of Representatives, representing District 1, and serves as the assistant minority leader.
Excerpt from Dontavius Jarrells letter to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on behalf of descendants of the Randolph Freedpeople delivered June 13:
“Upon his death in 1833, John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia, freed his roughly 400 slaves, stating in his will that he ‘give and bequeath to all my slaves their freedom, heartily regretting that I have ever been the owner of one.’
Randolph also provided the freedpeople, known as The Randolph Freedpeople, with land and the means to relocate. After a prolonged legal battle over his will, the Randolph Freedpeople finally began their exodus from Roanoke, Virginia, in June 1846 to what was to be their new home in Mercer County, Ohio.
After several weeks of travel, the Randolph Freedpeople arrived in Cincinnati, where they took boats north on the Miami Erie Canal toward their final destination. However, word had spread to the white landowners in Mercer County that the former slaves were traveling to their new home legally inherited by them. The residents of Mercer County resolved, ‘we will not live among negroes, and as we have settled here first, we have fully determined that we will resist the settlement of blacks and mulattos in this country, to the full extent of our means, the bayonet not excepted.’
This was hardly in line with the dream of unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.
When the Randolph Freedpeople finally made it to the shores of Mercer County, they were met by mobs of white residents and their bayonets. Left with the choice of staying and risking their lives, the Randolph Freedpeople turned their boats around and headed south along the canal.
Like Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, the Randolph Freedpeople were denied entrance to their promised land and forced to wander.
They eventually settled in parts of Shelby and Miami County, with many making Piqua, Ohio, their new home. For generations now, they have contributed to their community, to Ohio, and to America.
Considering this all happened in the years leading up to the Civil War, with a nation divided, the freedom promised to slaves in the North was anything but guaranteed. How Ohio handled this situation is a prime example.
Despite being given their freedom, Ohio turned its back on the Randolph Freedpeople. Now is the time for Ohio to acknowledge its failure, learn from it, and move forward.
With the help of descendants of the Randolph Freedpeople and other local leaders, I am exploring legal and just means to right this wrong and finally give what they legally inherited almost 200 years ago. And I seek your support.
I am not advocating for reparations or eminent domain. I propose identifying state-owned land in Mercer County and returning it to the descendants of the Randolph Freedpeople.“
Cincinnati Reds legend and well-known gambler Pete Rose was possibly more than just curious about Ohio State football’s 2012 season when he texted Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer.
Appearing on “The Triple Option” show with Alabama running back Mark Ingram May 6, Meyer told a story about his relationship with Rose.
After OSU hired Meyer, the Reds asked him to throw out the first pitch at a game. Meyer threw to his son, Nathan, and walked into the dugout, where Rose, MLB’s all-time hit leader, was waiting to greet him.
“I couldn’t get enough talking about ‘Big Red Machine,’ and he wanted to talk college football,” Meyer said on the podcast, explaining how the two spoke for hours and exchanged numbers.
Meyer said that during his first season, Rose texted him early on. He wanted information about the team, like news on Braxton Miller’s shoulder injury.
“I told that to someone, and they said, ‘You’re an idiot. Do you know he’s trying to get information from you for gambling, and you could get in trouble?’ ” Meyer said.
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Though Meyer asserted that he never disclosed much, he started to steer the conversations clear of college football after he realized Rose potentially wanted information for gambling.
The two had another conversation in Las Vegas, where Rose told Meyer he gambled daily after retiring.
Rose was banned from baseball for betting on the sport, something he admitted to in his 2004 autobiography. Rose was reinstated in 2025 and so is considered eligible for the Hall of Fame.
Still baseball’s most prolific hitter (4,256 hits), Rose died in 2024.
GIRARD, Ohio (WKBN) – Over 100 athletes came together for the 5th Annual Trumbull County Special Olympics Invitational Saturday morning in Girard.
These athletes represent five different schools across Trumbull County to compete and spread the message of inclusion, achievement, and sportsmanship.
The Invitational continued its long-standing tradition of honoring the legacy of Randy Suchanek while celebrating the dedication and accomplishments of Special Olympics athletes throughout the region.
“You can hear all the excitement for this, for the athletes that are here today,” said superintendent Bryan O’Hara. “They work hard all year long to participate. We’ve always worked hand in hand with the rotary to get this accomplished is a lot of work behind the scenes.”
Participating schools included Ashtabula, Geauga, Columbiana, Kent-Portage and Trumbull Fairhaven
“There’s a lot of nice participation from girard students as you see behind us, and a lot of participation from the community helping out,” Girard-Liberty Rotary co-president Andy Kish added.
O’Hara added that the event keeps everything in perspective, seeing the athletes compete in the spirit of fun, along with the courage and determination that they show.
Alex Sorrells contributed to this report.
Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
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