Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin (2013) A Walker Book for Young People
This
tells the story between one town, Oberlin, Ohio and the Fugitive Slave
Act and slave hunters. John Price had run away from Kentucky with his
cousin Dinah and a friend Frank. They followed the underground railroad
North to the town of Oberlin, which boasted Oberlin College, numerous
former slaves, as well as a population against slavery, feeling there
was a higher law of what was “right” than the law of the land. John and
his friend stayed in Oberlin for some time. His cousin went a separate
way to avoid recapture. John was captured by slave hunters. As he was
being driven off, he said to a college student that he was being
kidnapped. As soon as he was out of sight of the slave hunters, he ran
to Oberlin to say what was happening. John Price was being held in the
Wadsworth Hotel in Wellington, Ohio. Anderson Jennings had been
promised $500 for the slave in Kentucky. He planned to take the
railroad. Numerous citizens from Oberlin surrounded the hotel,
demanding Price’s release. The train showed up at 5:13, but Jennings did not try to make the train. Reportedly there were federal Marshalls due to arrive on the 8 p.m.
train. They decided to storm the room. They did so without anyone
getting hurt, and rescued John Price. It is assumed we fled to Canada.
President Buchanan decided to make an example of the citizens of
Oberlin. 37 men were charged and convicted of violating the Fugitive
Slave Act. They were sentenced to three months in jail. Upon their
release there was a big celebration. The town pledged, “No fugitive
slave shall ever be taken from Oberlin either with or without warrant,
if we have power to prevent it.” This was one of the things that
fostered poor relations between the North and the South which eventually
lead to the Civil War.
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