James M. Ashley (1824–1896), the legislative author of the Thirteenth Amendment, which legally abolished slavery in the United States, lived here in the home of Capt. Samuel J. and Elizabeth Huston. An abolitionist from a young age, Ashley left his childhood home after a dispute with his father over the morality of slavery. As a teenager, he became a conductor on the Underground Railroad, working with an enslaved African American in Kentucky to ferry freedom seekers across the Ohio River. Ashley worked on riverboats and in the print shop of the Scioto Valley Post and Democratic Inquirer, both published in Portsmouth, Ohio. Beginning in 1848, while living here at Huston Corner, Ashley studied law with local attorney Charles O. Tracy. After losing a bid for mayor of Portsmouth in 1851, Ashley relocated to Toledo, where he became a founder of Ohio's Republican Party. In 1859, Ashley was elected to Congress, where he led the legislative efforts to abolish slavery, culminating in the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. The amendment declared: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” Erected 2025 by the Scioto Historical Project and the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.
James M. Ashley and the Abolition of Slavery- Marker
