Monday, July 11, 2011

Mahlique July 9th, Oberlin, Oh

July 9

Today we woke up and Dr. Cousins took us out to breakfast. We were joined by Julia , a local high school student, and Nikita, an artist from New York that is staying with Dr. Cousins. The food was really good, I ate two pancakes and omelets. It was the best breakfast I have had in a very long time. We have eaten alot of bananas, muffins, and breakfast bars, I'm not complaining but this breakfast hit the spot.

After breakfast we got a walking tour of the Town of Oberlin and Ms. Margaret Christian was with us. She was the town historian and 79 years old. Oberlin is a really nice town with a rich history of abolitionists. It is also a very small town, less than 6000 people and Oberlin University is here . We learned about Mr. John Mercer Langston.  He was a very wealth man and was also a lawyer.  Dr. Cousin's owns the house that he lived in.  This is where the John Mercer Langston Institute is.  John Langston was an important abolitionists and he was special because his father was a slave owner from Virginia and his mother was Native American and Black.  His father freed his mother before he was born and this made John Mercer Langston a free man.

We also took a tour of the cemetery.  At the cemetery we saw many families that had died in the Mid 1800's.  We visited graves of many soldiers and the grave of an enslaved person.  He had a very small gravestone that sat behind the enormous mausoleum of the slave owner he worked for.  It was a sad contrast.

After the tour we ate lunch back at the home of John Mercer Langston.  Ms. Reeder made us a spaghetti lunch and she did ham bone with us. The food was excellent and well cooked. Ms. Reeder is a good friend of Dr. Cousin's and is involved with the Underground Railroad programs in Oberlin.  After the lunch we all chilled in the backyard and played fun little games with Julia. When we were done playing we put our bikes together and started to blog.  We had pizza for dinner and decided to stay one more night with Dr. Cousins.  This was one of the best places we have visited.  Dr. Cousins presented us with certificates and told us we were a special group to stay in this home.  I felt honored.




Spoke 'n Revolutions Youth Cycling UGRR Tour 2011 ~ Visit the nation's National Parks. Let's Move Outside!

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