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John Van Zandt, Abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad in the Cincinnati, Ohio area
"In him Christianity had a living witness. He saw God as his Father and received every man as a brother. The cause of the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed was his cause. He fed, clothed, sheltered, and guarded them. He was the eyes to the blind and the feet to the lame."
So reads the tombstone of John Van Zandt, born in Fleming Co., KY in 1791, and owning a plantation with slaves. One night after a dream, he freed his slaves and moved to Ohio residing near Glendale, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. He became an ordained Methodist minister. He was one of the first trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church located in what is now Sharonville. He lived at a site called Mount Pierpoint near Glendale. Mt. Pierpoint was named for an abolitionist from Massachusetts. Van Zandt was known to be a main conductor on the Underground Railroad.
Van Zandt believed there was no such person as a slave. According to oral reports and various research accounts, Eliza Harris, a runaway slave of Uncle Tom's Cabin, who carried her child over the ice laden Ohio River, was harbored by the Van Zandts on her trip to Canada. The house is known as the "Eliza House". Van Zandt was the model for John Van Trompe in Uncle Tom's Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
The Van Zandts drove runaway slaves to areas such as Lebanon or Wilmington. On April 23, 1842, he saw eight runaway slaves on their way to Canada and assisted them. The group was caught except for one runaway slave. Under provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, Van Zandt was tried and convicted in a legal battle that went to U.S. Supreme Court which upheld Van Zandt's conviction. The U.S. government was the backer of the Fugitive Slave Law. Salmon P. Chase, defender of many runaway slaves, was the attorney who defended Van Zandt before the U.S. Supreme Court. This was one of the cases that earned the U.S. Supreme Court the nickname of the U.S. Court of Injustice.
Friends helped Van Zandt pay his legal bills. He had to sell his lands to pay his bill and fines. His church excommunicated him. He died before seeing the end of the lawsuit.
A special tribute is given to this noteworthy individual, a true believer in the cause of justice and equality for all people as exemplified by his life's work as an abolitionist and conductor on the Underground Railroad.
Site Update: The Eliza House is still standing. It is currently owned by Landmark Baptist Temple and is currently being used as the pastor's living quarters
Directions given in a Letter to Siebert by John's son, N. L. Van Zandt, confirm the location of the Spread Eagle as the next stop on the Underground Railroad. Accounts of Van Zandt's and Calvin Stowe's characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin also used the next stage coach stop to Lebanon.
Link to Stowe's Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin
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