Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, late May, early summer, there's actually two date hooks here, a year hooks here, 13 years apart, because late May, 1833, that was the moment a Virginia tobacco farmer named John Randolph died and in his will Randolph had stated that the

383 people he'd held as slaves be freed now cut to around this same time of year, late May, 13 years later, when a group

of people formerly enslaved by John Randolph finally arrive in Ohio and begin a new life of freedom.

And that is the story, this is the story of the Randolph freed people

as they came to be known in Ohio.

So we want to talk about how they first became freed and John Randolph and then the long fight to actually

fulfill what he had proclaimed in his will. And it's also a really fascinating part of Ohio history and we can get into Ohio's interesting role as a free state.

The group of former slaves from Virginia who settled in the Midwest really made a mark on Ohio.

So here to talk about all of this are, as always

Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.

Hello there.

Hello Jody.

Hey there. We were all just chatting right before we started taping about how I think when we first heard about this story and then I think as we first started to read into this story it was from the perspective of this group of formerly enslaved people from Virginia arrives in Ohio and starts this new life.

Isn't this this interesting thing and there's this black community now in Ohio and it still has talks to what an interesting story and then all of us start to read and we're like wait a

minute 13 years after they'd been freed is when this actually happened. So I suppose we should just start there with John Randolph, his will and then 13 year gap to fulfill his will.

I mean this story is, one that's Philip so much

promising at the same time it becomes sort of a tragedy in that when

John Randolph dies, well I should back up before John Randolph dies he leaves a will and in this will he says that he will free all

383 enslaved people that he owns and not only will he free them which is a big deal in

and of itself but he also says that he will provide 8,000 dollars for the purchase

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