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The river had the power to sustain life and to take it away. Early peoples learned how to build canoes to navigate the treacherous waters, especially at the Rapids of the Ohio. The river was the great highway of travel before there were roads.
The river gave opportunities for travel and freedom. Especially to the enslaved, because if they could get across the water to Jeffersonville, Indiana, they had a chance. Many thousands crossed the Ohio River, often with the help of complete strangers who sent them on to Canada and a new life. The river provides calm, sometimes through the mesmerizing revolutions of a paddle wheel that at one time was immensely integral to the development and identity of Jeffersonville. |