Augustus West Site/Abolition Road
A historic site in Jeffersonville, Ohio, an NPS Network to Freedom, Augustus West Site/Abolition Road is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Abolition Road—the Fayette County route named for the escapes. The archive files it under Underground Railroad history, the Underground Railroad and African American history. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. The site is open to visitors.
· in your passport — stamped · open it
Is Augustus West Site/Abolition Road haunted?
No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.
The record — long form
Augustus West is the self-purchased — the free Black man who sold himself into slavery three times, split the bounty with the abolitionist, and bought 177 acres. The scam was the funding — Beatty's sale, the escape, the profits that bought the Fayette County farm. The Mansion was the shelter — the walnut house back from the road, the cabins for the runaways.
The Abolition Lane was the community — the black and white neighbors who helped, the schoolhouse on the hill, the first free Black settlement in the county. The cabins are the post-war — the homes for the emancipated, the settlement that lasted generations. Augustus West is the Underground Railroad's entrepreneur — the man who bought himself to buy others, the mansion that hid the freedom seekers.
The file keeps Augustus West: the three self-sales, the 177 acres, the Mansion, and the Abolition Lane settlement.
Augustus West is the archive's Ohio file — the man who sold himself to buy a farm.
Why this file matters
Augustus West is the archive's Ohio file — the self-purchased abolitionist.
A man keeps his farm — the file's suggestion being that West's hold is the scheme: the three sales that funded the land, the Mansion that hid the runaways, and the lane that was the settlement.
Documented history
NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The detail is preserved in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceAugustus West Site/Abolition Road is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. Augustus West Site/Abolition Road's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. The record keeps it — history, not lore.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceThe route is documented. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.
Verified historyNational Park Service
Sources on file
- 01Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01National Park Service · government · A1
- 02NPS Network to Freedom listingNational Park Service · government · A1
- 03Underground RailroadWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
UGRR enrichment wave 1; VERIFY task auto-queued.