" In this captivating tale, Randolph Paul Runyon follows the
trail of the first woman imprisoned for assisting runaway slaves
and explores the mystery surrounding her life and work. In
September 1844, Delia Webster took a break from her teaching
responsibilities at Lexington Female Academy and accompanied Calvin
Fairbank, a Methodist preacher from Oberlin College, on a Saturdary
drive in the country. At the end of their trip, their
passengers--Lewis Hayden and his family--remained in southern Ohio,
ticketed for the Underground Railroad. Webster and Fairbank
returned to a near riot and jail cells. Webster earned a sentence
to the state penitentiary in Frankfort, where the warden, Newton
Craig, married and a father, became enamored of her and was tempted
into a compromising relationship he would come to regret. Hayden
reached freedom in Boston, where he became a prominent businessman,
the ringleader in the courthouse rescue of a fugitive slave, and
the last link in the chain of events that led to the Harpers Ferry
Raid. Webster, the focal point at which these lives intersect,
remains an enigma. Was she, as one contemporary noted, ""A young
lady of irreproachable character""? Or, as another observed, ""a
very bold and defiant kind of woman, without a spark of feminine
modesty, and, withal, very shrewd and cunning""? Runyon has
doggedly pursued every historical lead to bring color and shape to
the tale of these fascinating characters.
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