OTOE COUNTY, Neb. (KMTV) — In 1858, Nebraska looked a lot different than it does today. A bustling town called Wyoming was situated on the Missouri River in Otoe County, and it's where two sisters changed the course of history.
- Celia and Eliza Grayson were born into slavery in Virginia, then brought to Nebraska Territory in 1854 by the Nuckolls family.
- Four years later, then 22 and 20 years old, the sisters escaped and, with the help of a traveling retailer, crossed the Missouri River into Iowa. Their first stop on the underground railroad was Civil Bend - or the Percival area today.
- The Grayson sisters brought slavery in Nebraska Territory to light, and ultimately shaped laws and a nation's understanding.
Author Gail Shaffer Blankenau details their story in Journey to Freedom: Uncovering the Grayson Sisters' Escape from Nebraska Territory.
Read further for the script from on-air:
"You can see that they must have looked across and those were the hills of freedom for them," Gail Shaffer Blankenau observed, as she stood alongside 3 News Now's Mary Nelson in Otoe County.
Back then, the Missouri River was more shallow, about five miles wide and full of hazards - including ice - in late November, 1858, when two sisters - Celia and Eliza - risked it all.
Four years prior, Nebraska became a territory.
Also that year, the sisters, born into slavery in Virginia, were brought west by businessman and eventual legislator Stephen Nuckolls.
"He was very politically connected. He was a very powerful person," Shaffer Blankenau explained. She researched Celia and Eliza's story for four years.
"What we do know, from abolitionists being interviewed later and saying... What happened here? And some of them filled in some of those gaps," she added.
Shaffer Blankenau brings an event - not previously much more than a footnote - to light in Journey to Freedom: Uncovering the Grayson Sisters' Escape from Nebraska Territory.
She discovered the sisters lived about seven or eight miles south of Wyoming in Nebraska City. That late November night, they snuck away for the safest nearby ferry launch.
"The whole natural warf is there, just like it was," Jim Johnson shared.
He owns and farms much of the land in the area today, and showed the exact spot where the launch existed. It's no longer under water, as the Missouri's path has changed.
Depicted in artwork, the sisters, 22 and 20 years old, were helped by a traveling retailer named John Williamson who took them by skiff boat to what's now the Percival area. At the time, it was called Civil Bend - the sisters' first stop on the underground railroad.
"Their story became national news. Why?," Shaffer Blankenau questioned.
Prior to the Civil War, the widespread belief was that slaves weren't in Nebraska.
"Well, once (the sisters) hit national news, and Nuckolls pursued them in a very dramatic way that also - just like today, the drama and violence attracts eyes - it did back then, too," she said.
In court filings related to that pursuit, Nuckolls did, in fact, claim the young women among his slaves.
"When they left, and made the national news, not only did this prompt and heighten the debate at the national level, but also at the territorial level," Shaffer Blankenau learned.
It would take several sessions for lawmakers and governors to agree that slavery was an issue, and one worth passing law to settle.
Of Celia and Eliza's impact, Shaffer Blankenau discovered, "They were a big part of saying... You can no longer say that slavery isn't recognized as an institution here. We have to do something about it. And they were the proof."
Whether the Grayson sisters lived long enough to understand the ripples of their bravery isn't clear. Records show that Chicago might have been their last known stop, before they likely changed their names to prevent being found by Nuckolls.
For her part, Shaffer Blankenau contends the record as we know it should be as complete as possible.
"What they did was amazing, and took tremendous courage."
COURTESY: Artwork developed by Gail Blankenau using DALL-E
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