Freed Will exhibit at St. Charles Center Sept. 9 to Oct. 8

Saint Charles Center is partnering with the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center of Wilberforce, Ohio, to host the traveling exhibit, “Freed Will, The Randolph Freedpeople from Slavery to Settlement.” 

In his last will and testament, John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia, emancipated the entire company of his enslaved workers — 383 men, women, and children. His will also provided resources to acquire property for them to farm in Ohio, supposedly a free state. His executor had purchased for them 3,200 acres located in Granville and Marion townships in Mercer County. 

But why Mercer County? At that time, this area offered promise to a black population. Already in 1837, as Cincinnati became more embroiled in racism, the Abolitionist Augustus Wattles and 15 black families had come north to buy and settle rich farmland in Mercer County. 

Then, as early as 1840, the black entrepreneur Charles Moore came with his mother and five siblings and platted the village of Carthagena. Already in 1830, his mother, Mrs. Dorcas Moore, had been emancipated and moved from Clermont County, Ohio. Meanwhile, Carthagena continued to grow, eventually becoming Ohio’s largest rural black settlement.  

So then, dreaming of that farm ground awaiting them in Ohio, the caravan of some eighty families left Roanoke, walking nearly 300 miles during the entire month of June of 1846. The next 300 miles went more swiftly, traveling by paddle-wheeler on the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers to arrive in Cincinnati.  

There they transferred to three barges on the Miami Erie Canal, arriving at the Port of New Bremen on Sunday July 5, 1846. Tragically, on their arrival, they were met by a mob of vigilantes armed with guns and pitchforks, agitated by racist politicians.  

Unable to land and claim their properties in Mercer County, they turned back on the canal to Piqua, where they were reluctantly permitted to occupy some terrain on the east side of the Miami River. Nearly 180 years later, their descendants live in Miami and Shelby counties, and throughout the southwestern counties of Ohio and beyond.  

Freed Will, through a series of illustrated panels, enables descendants to share their story of resilience through hardship. It will offer an occasion to acknowledge a tragic event that darkens our local history. 

As sisters, brothers, Companions, and priests of the Precious Blood, we lament this sin of racism; and, in truth and justice, we seek healing, forgiveness, and reparation. 

The Saint Charles Center is hosting this traveling exhibit from Sept. 9 to Oct. 8, 2025. It will be on display daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Auditorium at Saint Charles Center, 2860 U.S. 127, Carthagena, Ohio. Follow the signs to theMerlini Entrance. For more information, call 937-376-4944 ext. 2123 or email dpridemore@ohiohistory.org.