"It outlaws me, and I outlaw it!" Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law in Syracuse, New York.

On May 26, 1851, Daniel Webster spoke from the balcony of Frazee Hall in Syracuse, New York. He had come to Syracuse, a city which had hosted a number of anti-slavery conventions, as part of an effort to promote obedience to the new Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The law had been passed in an effort to appease the Southern states after the admission of land gained from the Mexican War as free territory, and he feared disunion if it was not enforced in the North. The law, however, was repugnant to many Northerners not only because of its pro-slavery nature but also because it infringed on the individual rights of white citizens. According to the terms of the new fugitive slave law the federal government would have jurisdiction over slave cases, appointing special commissioners to issue warrants for the arrest and return of fugitives to their masters. It also imposed fines or jail sentences upon anyone who aided a fugitive or refused to obey the law. Syracuse was one of the first towns to organize in resistance to the law, and Webster hoped to send a message to the city in his speech:

      They say the law will not be executed. Let them take care, for
      those are pretty bold assertions. The law must be executed, not
      only in carrying back the slave, but against those guilty of
      treasonable practices in resisting its execution. Depend on it
      the law will be executed in its spirit, and to its letter. It
      will be executed in all the great cities; here in Syracuse; in
      the midst of the next Anti-slavery Convention, if the occasion
      shall arise ... (2)

A murmur of dissent rippled through the crowd as he spoke these words. (3) Within months the citizens of Syracuse would test Webster's prophecy.

THE LAW

Initial protest against the law in Syracuse arose out of the town's free black community. On September 23, only five days after the law's passage, a meeting was called at the African Congregational Church. The black population in Syracuse was small, an estimated 350 people out of a general population of 21,900, but was vigorous in their efforts to oppose the law.

At the September meeting, they organized against the legislation, electing a black vigilance committee, pledging support for their mutual protection, and adopting the motto "United we stand." (4) Unlike many black communities in the North, those attending the Syracuse meeting repudiated the idea of flight, making the arguments that they had committed no crime and so should not have to flee, that it was necessary to resist "tyrants", and that "liberty which is not worth defending here is not worth enjoying elsewhere." (5) Their actions did not escape the notice of the rest of the town's citizens. One of the town's major newspapers, The Syracuse Standard, reported that "the fugitive slave law is causing some excitement among the colored population here, who have organized and assembled and armed themselves to resist any attempts on their liberty." (6)

Howard Holman Bell's generalization that "the decade of the 'fifties was one in which the Negro sought in various ways to work out his own destiny" (7) is illustrated in the actions of the black community of Syracuse. As in other places throughout the North, they were willing to become "more radical, more self-contained, and more independent" with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. (8) Thus, its members did not rule out the use of violence in their resistance to the law. One of the resolutions of the September meeting stated that a man threatened with arrest under the act "is justifiable in resorting to any means, even if it be the taking of the life of him who seeks to deprive of us of what is dearer than life." Other resolutions pledged to "take the scalp of any government hound, that dares follow on our track", and should slave hunters approach their families to "slay them as we would any other legalized land pirates." (9)

Although the black community of Syracuse was clearly ready to stand alone, Thomas G. White, a member of the vigilance committee formed at the September meeting, recognized potential support from the community at large. Syracuse, after all, was a town with an active anti-slavery element, and he hoped to tap into this to involve the entire town in the protest of the law and call for protection. (10) With the aid of men at the Liberty Party Paper, White issued a circular inviting the town to a candle lighting ceremony in protest of the law. He enlisted white and black antislavery leaders in the town to help him publicize the meeting, to be held on October 4. (11) Syracuse became one of the first localities to call a town-wide meeting to repudiate the law.

The October meeting brought diverse elements of the community together to protest the Fugitive Slave Law. The mayor of the city, A.H. Hovey presided over the meeting and eight vice presidents, all highly respected men, were selected from among the town's various political parties. According to Samuel May, a prominent anti-slavery agitator from Syracuse, only one of these vice presidents had been active in the cause of abolition. (12) Many men who previously had been outspoken opponents of the antislavery movement were in attendance at the meeting as well. (13) The law seemed to present a bigger threat to stability for many of these men than the abolitionists did. (14)

In addition to attracting men who had previously not been involved in abolition, the meeting brought together different elements within the anti-slavery movement. Some were representatives of the black community who were directly threatened by the law, and others were representatives of the white community who were concerned about the government overstepping the bounds of its authority. Some were in favor of violent resistance, and others advocated more peaceful means. Some were members of the Liberty Party, and others were Garrisonians. The rhetoric of the meeting illustrates the views of the various factions.

The mayor, although emphatically anti-slavery, represented a conservative element. He opened the meeting declaring that "the Colored Man must be protected--he must be secure among us, come what will of political organizations," (15) but he also emphasized that it was his duty as an officer of the law and as a citizen to obey the laws of the land, and he expressed a hope that he would be able to do so. (16)

Others also emphasized the law of the land as their chief concern, although they encouraged resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law because they believed that it was not constitutional. Charles Wheaton, who was a Liberty Party man, told the members of the convention, "Your proud state is to be made the hunting ground for the dealers in human flesh." He called for the state of New York to unite against the law, attacking the constitutionality of the law's provisions, specifically concerning the denial of trial by jury. (17) Charles Sedgewick, who had helped to organize the new Free Soil party in Syracuse, addressed the crowd on the unconstitutional nature of the law as well, calling for defiance of what he termed "the vilest law that tyranny ever devised." (18) He claimed that "good citizens were under no obligation to sustain it ... and should anyone fleeing from bondage seek an asylum at his house, let no 'agent or attorney' of any pretended owner spirit him away." (19) Reverend Robert R. Raymond, one of the town's ministers, echoed this pledge, inviting any "persons fleeing from oppression" to his house, as it was his duty as a minister of God to "oppose this most unrighteous law." (20)

Two of the most radical speakers were the leading black abolitionist leaders from Syracuse, Jermain Loguen and Samuel Ringgold Ward, who made it clear that the black community was prepared to resist the law at all costs, even should they have to resort to violence. (21) Loguen spoke in persuasive tones, "It outlaws me, and I outlaw it!" (22) He called on the citizens of Syracuse to consider what actions they would take if he, as a fugitive slave, were arrested under the act,

       The question is with you. If you will give us up, say so, and we
       will shake the dust from our feet and leave you. But we believe
       better things ... If you will stand by me--and I believe you will
       do it, for your freedom and honor are involved as well as mine--
       it requires no microscope to see that--I say if you will stand
       with us in resistance to this measure, you will be the saviors of
       your country.... Heaven knows that this act of noble daring will
       break out somewhere--and may God grant that Syracuse be the
       honored spot, whence it shall send an earthquake throughout the
       land. (23)

Thirteen resolutions were generated at this meeting in protest of the law. In keeping with several of the speeches, the resolutions portrayed the act as an assault on the Constitution: due process, habeas corpus, and legal council were all denied to the fugitive. It was therefore not only the right but also the duty of citizens to resist the law. The convention declared the Fugitive Slave Law to be "null and void", and asserted that agitation against its enforcement was necessary. A committee was appointed to draft a petition to be presented to Congress urging the law's repeal. All of these resolutions were passed at the meeting with only one dissenting vote, J.H. Broad, a Democratic lawyer who gave a speech encouraging obedience to the law. His speech was received in silence. (24)

The black community would not have to stand alone against the Fugitive Slave Law. It had succeeded in inspiring the leaders of the white community in Syracuse to pledge their support and protection. A vote at the end of the meeting supplanted the black vigilance committee that had initiated the resistance with a new interracial vigilance committee. The thirteen men on this new committee, who pledged to interfere with any attempt to enforce the law in Syracuse, had all been active in the anti-slavery movement, and most were immediate abolitionists. (25) So although the Fugitive Slave Act united many different groups in opposition, those who participated in the organized resistance to it agreed to follow the lead of the most radical antislavery activists in the city. In addition to being activists, the members of the Vigilance Committee were among the most prominent and respected people in town. Four lawyers, three newspaper editors, two ministers and a doctor belonged to the body. Three had served on the Board of Education and eight had served in public office. All were in positions to influence public opinion. (26) All would soon be tested on their dedication to their cause.

Several other meetings concerning the law followed this initial one. Through the end of 1850 and the first half of 1851, however, the protest remained rhetorical and concerned with many of the larger issues that were dividing the abolitionists during the 1850s: the constitutionality of slavery and thus of the Fugitive Slave Law, the question of violent means of protest, and the question of moral suasion versus political action in attacking the law. While factions within the anti-slavery movement did use the law as a platform for debate, they were however, at the same time, able to recognize that it was important to act together against the law. Although they had different reasons for their opposition, they were in agreement about their goal. (27)

THE TEST

The test of their dedication came on October 1, 1851. On that day, the Liberty Party was meeting at the Congregational Church in Syracuse. On that same morning, three U.S. Marshals and two police officers entered Frederick Morrell's cooperage in the city's first ward, grabbed a young mulatto who worked there, threw him to the ground, and handcuffed him. They informed the man, whose name was William Henry but who was known in Syracuse simply as "Jerry", that he was under arrest for theft. Jerry offered no resistance as he was led away from his place of work.

Not until Jerry arrived at U.S. Commissioner Joseph Sabine's office did he find out the real reason for his arrest. A man named James Lear greeted him as he walked into the office, and when Jerry recognized him, he knew that he was in a great deal more trouble than had been indicated to him by the officers. For Lear was a previous acquaintance, a neighbor of the man who claimed Jerry as his property. (28)

Part of Webster's prophecy had been fulfilled. An arrest of a fugitive slave had been made in Syracuse on the same day as the Liberty Party met for an "anti-slavery convention". Now the question was whether the prophecy would be fulfilled in its entirety. Would the citizens of Syracuse allow the Fugitive Slave Law to be executed in their town?

There was an immediate reaction to Jerry's arrest in Syracuse. Many citizens immediately headed for the Commissioner's office as the sight of a manacled slave being led through their city came to their attention. (29) William L. Crandall, upon learning of the arrest, rang the bells of the Presbyterian Church to notify the city of the arrest of a fugitive slave, a signal prearranged by the Vigilance Committee. Soon, the town's fire alarm was blaring and almost every church bell was ringing in Syracuse. (30) A crowd of around two thousand eventually assembled outside of the Commissioner's office. (31)

Inside the office, Liberty Party activist Gerrit Smith and Leonard Gibbs offered council for the defense. Also present were Commissioner Sabine, who had misgivings about the whole affair, (32) federal marshals from three counties, government councils, the claimant James Lear and the sheriff of Marion County who presented the deed of Jerry's sale. Men had rushed up the stairs upon learning of the hearing, and the Commissioner's office became too crowded to hold any proceedings.

When the Commissioner adjourned for thirty minutes in order to look for another room, Jerry, with the aid of "some of the crowd, composed mostly of colored persons", made an escape attempt. (33) Still manacled, Jerry got out of the building and ran awkwardly down the street as those gathered around the office cheered his escape. The manacles slowed his progress, and although the crowd attempted to block his pursuers, he was soon overtaken. (34) Those who witnessed the capture were incensed at Jerry's treatment. A scuffle ensued when he was seized by the police during which his clothes were torn from his body, and he was bloody and bruised when the police officers threw him into a cart. (35) He was taken back to the police office after the escape, and kept in a back room away from the crowd. Shackles were added to his feet. (36)

The chief of police asked Samuel May to come in and calm the prisoner who was "in a perfect rage, a fury of passion." (37) He had trouble quieting him until he convinced Jerry that plans for another rescue attempt were to be made. At first Jerry was dubious, but he eventually settled in to wait. May's next job was to deal with the crowd gathered in Clinton Square in front of the police station. He instructed them to remain until dark when the Vigilance Committee would announce a plan of action. (38) In order to control the crowd, anti-slavery leaders made speeches, aimed at maintaining yet controlling the fervor. Samuel Ringgold Ward's speech on the Declaration of Independence was particularly memorable. Upon completion, Gerrit Smith offered his arm to Ward, and they walked from the crowd together, black and white, to help the Vigilance Committee plan for Jerry's release. (39) Meanwhile the crowd waited for the signal to act.

The committee met at Dr. Hiram Hoyt's office in town. While they met, Ira H. Cobb and Reverend L.D. Mansfield were sent to keep watch at the courtroom. (40) Twenty to thirty men attended the meeting in which they planned to have a horse and buggy drive around the city until the crowd was able to break the doors and windows of the police station, enter the building and remove Jerry. Gerrit Smith and Samuel May pressed that the rescue was to be non-violent. "If anyone is to be injured in this fray, I hope it may be one of our own party," stated May. (41) Jermain Loguen and Samuel Ringgold Ward, however, "justified defensive violence." (42)

While the Vigilance Committee met, plans were made to resume Jerry's trial. Worried by the crowd, Federal Marshal Henry Allen decided that more security was needed. "We can guard the prisoner in the back room," he said to Onondaga County Sheriff William Gardner "but if there is a general rising, our only safety is in the militia." (43) The sheriff called the Syracuse Citizens Corps, the National Guard and the Washington Artillery to aid in crowd control.

Upon learning of the call, Charles Wheaton contacted Colonel Origen Vandenburgh, an anti-slavery man who also headed the 51st Regiment of the National Guard Armory. Wheaton convinced Vandenburgh to help prevent the deployment of the National Guard to Syracuse. (44) The two discussed the matter with the sheriff, persuading him that he had no duty to call out the Guard to aid in slave-hunting and that a military presence might cause trouble. (45) The sheriff dismissed both the National Guard Regiment and the Syracuse Citizens Corps. Only the Washington Artillery heeded the original call for crowd control, and they would prove to be ineffective. (46)

At 5:30 p.m. the hearing resumed inside the police courtroom. Outside, the excitement of the crowd increased, and stones were thrown at the windows. The agitation made the proceedings inside difficult, but Marshal Allen urged the continuation of the hearing. James Lear, the claimant, attempted to give testimony that would prove Jerry's status as a slave. However, D.D. Hillis, who was now one of Jerry's defense counsels, raised constant objections and questions. The noise from the crowd slowed the testimony. When one of the rocks hurled through the windows almost hit Commissioner Sabine's head, he adjourned the proceedings until 8:30 the next morning. (47)

The crowd did not disperse after the hearing was stopped but continued to agitate outside the courtroom. Word had spread that a rescue was to be attempted after dark. According to one newspaper report, "the chief movers of the crowd appeared to be negroes." (48) Jermain Loguen, who worried that their white supporters might not go through with the rescue, advised the black community to show up at the jail in large numbers, "If white men won't fight, let fugitives and black men smite down Marshals and Commissioners--anybody who holds Jerry--and rescue him or perish." (49)

But a crowd of from two to three thousand of both white and black did show up to aid in Jerry's rescue. Charles Wheaton put clubs, axes, and iron rods outside the door of his hardware store and many arrived bearing these instruments. A large beam was secured as a battering ram, and "a stalwart young colored man" named Randall positioned himself with an iron bar in front of the double door entrance to the building. (50) The women of Syracuse gathered "out of the reach of danger, to see the battle" as darkness approached. (51) Ira S. Cobb and L.D. Mansfield, who had been present at Jerry's hearing, remained in the building in order to assist the rescue from inside.

The Vigilance Committee came from Dr. Hoyt's office at around 8:00 p.m. and began to mingle with the crowd in the square. At 8:30 a group of men marched into the crowd carrying the long, heavy beam to be used as a battering ram. Someone in the crowd shouted "Now!" and they attacked the building, smashing in windows, chopping and prying out casings, and removing bricks from the structure. The battering ram was used to burst through the doors into the building. As the crowd rushed in, Cobb and Mansfield, who had been stationed inside, turned off the gas extinguishing all light within the building. Shots were reported as the crowd poured in, but no identifications, injuries, or arrests were made in connection with these shots. (52)

The crowd made their way into the building and battered at the partition that walled in the room where Jerry was kept. As the rescuers attacked the wall with axes and the battering, ram, Henry Fitch, a federal marshal from Buffalo who was guarding Jerry, opened the door of the room, thrust out his arm and fired twice into the crowd. Someone in the crowd struck his arm, and Fitch retreated back into the room and jumped out of the second-story window, escaping from the building. Fitch, the only party who sustained any real physical injury save Jerry himself, was later found to have broken an arm. (53)

As the crowd continued to batter at the wall, the other guards in the room covered themselves with boxes and hid in a closet. One guard addressed Jerry, "Go out--why the devil don't you go?" Jerry responded, "Are you so cowardly crazy as to not know you have chained me so I can't go?" The marshal then opened the door, pushed Jerry out into the crowd and climbed back into the closet. Jerry, because of the shackles on his feet, could not walk and so the crowd carried him out of the building. (54)

The New York Tribune reported on the general reaction to the Jerry's escape,

    Those who were the most fierce when Jerry first escaped did not
    chase him up as they should. Only one or two of their number
    volunteered their services to guard the fugitive after his rearrest;
    and our citizens en masse--Merchants, Bankers, Salt Manufacturers,
    Mechanics, Book-keepers, and indeed, all of every class were very
    backward in assisting to retake Jerry.... This unanimity of
    sentiment must have appeared somewhat singular to the
    man-stealers. (55)

Although few tried to hinder Jerry's escape, certain members of the crowd did try to detain his claimant. Several men who had a barrel of tar and a bag of feathers waiting "for his accommodation" seized Lear, but he was able to escape by claiming that they had mistaken his identity. (56)

Jerry's rescuers carried him through the streets of Syracuse toward the railroad depot where a carriage waited. The crowd that accompanied Jerry was so thick that the rescuers were forced to call. "Fire! Fire! Fire!" in order to clear a path to the carriage, where James Davis, Jason S. Hoyt and Moses Summers waited to take him away. The carriage took a circuitous path to the predominantly black, eastern part of the city. (57)

Lucy Watson, a black woman who was sixteen at the time of the rescue, recalls Jerry's arrival at her parents' home:

    We lived in the basement. When we got him there Jerry was awfully
    frightened. His face was bleeding and his hands were shackled. He
    explained his bruises in this way: when the crowd broke open the
    door the officer was so frightened that he put Jerry in front of him
    to protect himself until he got to the door and then slipped away.
    Jerry got a stone in the forehead before the crowd appreciated that
    they had him....
      We started to get the shackles off. We worked a good while with a
    hammer and flat iron, and finally broke them. Mrs. Marla Robbins and
    I buried them in the garden, for we knew it was high treason if we
    were discovered.
      Then we tried to get someone to file off the handcuffs. We finally
    got Peter Lilly, the blacksmith, after we had been there twice, to
    come and do it. He was an abolitionist and he was so excited when he
    found that we had Jerry that he could scarcely file them. Then we
    put some women's clothes on Jerry and took him into the backyard and
    boosted him over the back fence, and that was the last we saw of
    him. (58)

Jerry spent time in several homes in the black community before James Davis and Jason Hoyt finally moved him to the home of Caleb Davis, who lived at Orange Street near Genesee Street very near to the place of the rescue. (59) Caleb Davis, the town butcher and a Democrat, was known as a pro-slavery man throughout Syracuse who "never met the sweet-tempered Samuel May in public without reviling him." (60) However, he had been angered at the calling of the militia earlier in the day, and he agreed to help Jerry. (61) Jerry stayed at the Davis home for four days to recuperate while Davis appeared in Syracuse "on the street cursing the abolitionists and the whole business." (62)

On October 5, Jason S. Hoyt and James Davis arrived at Caleb Davis' home to move Jerry out of Syracuse. Hoyt brought a gun and gave Jerry an iron bar. Should anyone interfere with his escape, "You will strike to kill," he said, "I will shoot to kill." (63) Jerry was taken to Mexico, New York, a station on the Underground Railroad, and eventually was sent on to Oswego Harbor to board a ship for Canada. (64) "The next morning neighbors in Syracuse greeted each other with smiles asking, "'Where's Jerry?'" (65)

The citizens of Syracuse passed the test. They came together to prevent Webster's prophesy from being fulfilled, and the attempt to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law failed. Anti-slavery leaders from all factions looked beyond their differences in order to stand together against the law, and whites and blacks worked together, side by side, in order to free Jerry. Even men such as Caleb Davis, who had no sympathy for the abolition movement, participated in the resistance to the law. All of these people, for their own reasons, defied an unjust law. But would they continue to work together in opposition to the law in the absence of a crisis? Would the loose coalition that was created by the law's passage and strengthened by Jerry's rescue remain sturdy enough to effectively nullify the Fugitive Slave Law in the town of Syracuse?

THE AFTERMATH

After the rescue, towns throughout the North debated the actions of the rescuers. "Cotton" newspapers depicted Syracuse as under mob rule. (66) Antislavery newspapers commended the rescue. Within Syracuse itself, an ongoing debate appeared in the newspapers over the nature of the Fugitive Slave Law and whether those who defied or obeyed it were the better citizens.

The Syracuse Standard and The Syracuse Journal, in line with both publications' anti-slavery leanings, supported the actions of the rescuers. The Syracuse Star, the town's Democratic newspaper, led in the criticism of the rescue. Editorials in the paper warned that to "make war against the laws, is to make war against the government or country." (67) The paper attacked the prominent abolitionist leaders in town and all of those involved in the Jerry Rescue, and it lamented the disgrace brought upon the city that was "a matter of notoriety in every state and every city of the Union." (68) The Star in its criticisms also commented on the participation in the rescue of citizens previously unassociated with anti-slavery. "There are those who profess a holy horror for abolitionists and their principles who were found active with them in this shameful mob and who do not hesitate to justify the measure," one editorial declared. (69)

In order to repair the good name of the city, The Star circulated a petition denouncing the rescue and asserting that the citizens of Syracuse would agree to uphold the law. Only six hundred and sixty-eight signatures appear on this petition, and those signing it tended to be members of groups traditionally associated with anti-abolition: merchants, bankers, and manufacturers who feared the economic consequences of disunion, the employees of the aforementioned who feared their bosses, recent immigrants and other laborers who feared job competition, and hotel managers and saloon keepers who associated abolition with the temperance movement. (70)

The Star also held a "Law and Order" meeting that the paper declared to be "the largest and most enthusiastic gathering ever assembled in Syracuse," but in the same article the paper admits that disunity existed due to the presence of "the disorganizers--Abolitionists, quasi Abolitionists ... The lawbreakers of the recent riot" at the meeting. (71) The New York Tribune, which had covered much of the action in Syracuse, printed only a few short paragraphs about this meeting in an article that began "Cotton in Syracuse--Dull." (72) An earlier statement, also from the Tribune, seems to sum up the Star's efforts to condemn the Jerry Rescue: "The little paper printed here called The Star is furious upon the occasion, but its voice is like unto that of the dog barking at the moon." (73) Although The Tribune was a paper with anti-slavery leanings, its analysis of the impact of the "Law and Order" meeting seems to be accurate. The anti-slavery movement continued to gain momentum after the Jerry Rescue, as more and more citizens of Syracuse stood against the Fugitive Slave Law and as the abolitionists continued to use the rescue to bring attention to their opposition to slavery.

In order to build on the publicity of the rescue, Samuel May and black anti-slavery activist George Vashon arranged a mass meeting on October 14 in Syracuse of the "friends of Human Freedom" in order "to take into consideration the principles of the American Government, and the extent to which they are trampled under foot by the Fugitive Slave Law". (74) May gave a speech, later published by the Syracuse Standard, in which he proclaimed that "the citizens of Syracuse and of Onondaga County did not, on the 1st of October, violate the law ... they trampled on tyranny." (75) May also commented on how the attempt to execute the law in Syracuse brought the citizens together in a common cause,

    When the people saw a man dragged through the streets, chained and
    held down in a cart by four or six others who were upon him;
    treated as if he were the worst of felons; and learnt that it was
    only because he had assumed to be what God made him to be a man, and
    not a slave--when this came to be known throughout the streets,
    there was a mighty throbbing of the public heart; an all but
    unanimous up rising against the outrage ... Persons who had never
    been known to manifest the least interest in the cause of our
    enslaved countrymen, were loud in their cries of shame!! Quickened,
    roused, urged on by this almost universal denunciation of the
    outrage upon freedom, some men, more ardent, less patient or
    cautious than the rest, broke through the slight partition between
    the victim and liberty ... Then such a shout of gladness rose upon
    the air ... If that were sinful, then there were few if any saints
    in all our town that night. If that were treason, then were there
    few patriots here. (76)

At the meeting an effort was made to be especially "calm and dignified" in order to emphasize the respectability of their cause. A number of resolutions were passed praising the rescue and once again criticizing the Fugitive Slave Law. (77)

On October 25, the Liberty Party held its New York State Convention in Syracuse and dedicated much of the discussion to the recent events of the city. Gerrit Smith spoke to those gathered and expressed hope that the rescue would help the Liberty Party to grow stronger. He praised the city of Syracuse for remaining "undisgraced by the fulfillment of the satanic prediction of the Satanic Daniel Webster." (78) He also issued a number of resolutions calling for the punishment of those who participated in the capture of a fugitive slave as kidnappers and urging white support for black resistance "even if they have to take a life." (79) This was a notable shift from his insistence on peaceful

means at the Vigilance Committee meeting before the rescue.

In November, yet another gathering took place to agitate against the Fugitive Slave Law. A "County Rally for Freedom" met at Syracuse City Hall on November 20. At this meeting a plan was devised to raise $10,000 to support assistance to fugitive slaves, in particular to be designated for legal assistance, provisions for the fugitives' comfort, and the employment of anti-slavery lecturers. Resolutions were also passed at this convention recommending a campaign to "flood the tables" of the New York legislature with petitions encouraging the passage of personal liberty laws that would legally justify resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law. (80) An "Address from the Freemen of Onondaga County" was drafted at the convention and printed in the Syracuse Standard urging fellow citizens to stand with them against the law. (81) These meetings helped to keep the spirit of the Jerry Rescue alive in Syracuse.

More tangible resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law occurred with the series of arrests and trials that followed Jerry's escape. President Fillmore demanded that arrests be made of the key participants in the rescue. A letter was sent from acting Secretary of State, J.J. Crittenden to the U.S. Attorney for Syracuse James R. Lawrence urging that "the supremacy of the laws must be maintained at every hazard and at every sacrifice" and that he should go about "bringing to justice these who have wantonly and wickedly violated the most sacred duty of a citizen." (82) Lawrence had not yet acted against the rescuers and was sympathetic to the anti-slavery movement, but he was inclined to uphold the law. (83) Word spread that he would send out warrants for arrests. For his trouble he received thirty pieces of silver from "the ladies of Syracuse." (84) Jerry's sawed off shackles were retrieved and sent to President Fillmore, care of the Onondaga County Fair. (85)

On October 15, church bells summoned the citizens of Syracuse to a meeting at the Congregational Church. Charles Wheaton opened the meeting, stating that their object was to discuss the impending arrests. A decision was made not to resist authorities and to show that they were "law-abiding citizens, by bearing patiently, any evils that our government may implicate upon [them]." (86) Furthermore, those at the meeting pledged to support anyone arrested for actions associated with the rescue with both their money and their sympathy. (87) One observer at the meeting proclaimed, "If our Government shall punish them for giving to a man his 'unalienable rights'--the disgrace will attach to the government and not the sufferers". (88)

Two prominent rescuers, Peter Hallenbeck and Jermain Loguen, were fugitive slaves themselves. Rumors flew about Syracuse that they, particularly Loguen, were in danger of being sent back into slavery. Because the prospect of arrest was more dire for them, both left Syracuse for Canada. (89) Hallenbeck took his family with him, but Loguen, expecting to return when it was safe, left his family in Syracuse where collections were regularly taken up by the anti-slavery community for their support. (90)

A total of thirteen men were arrested for participating in the rescue, both white and black. (91) Prominent citizens posted bail for all of the accused, and they remained free until the hearings. Of those arrested, only Enoch Reed, W.L. Salmon, J.D. Brigham, and Ira H. Cobb were ever tried. The hearings stretched out over two years, the last trials occurring in 1853. Of those tried, Enoch Reed was the only black defendant and was the only one convicted of a crime. However, because the rescue had taken place before it was determined that Jerry was in fact a fugitive slave, Reed could not be convicted under the Fugitive Slave Law. Instead he was charged with resisting a federal officer. (92) W. L. Salmon was acquitted at his trial. When it was over, Charles Sedgewick, who was the defense counselor for Salmon, proclaimed, "There will be no convictions under the fugitive slave law. The moment that element is put into a case it strikes it dead--it is rank poison." (93) Sedgewick was correct. Brigham was acquitted at his trial and Cobb's trial was dismissed due to a hung jury. (94) According to Jermain Loguen, "the prosecutions and trials were, of course, political prosecutions and trials; and immediately after Mr. Cobb's trial, the parties which intended them for their good, found them a burden and a curse." (95) The trials had cost the government approximately $50,000 and they resulted in no convictions under the Fugitive Slave Law. (96)

Because the trials dragged out so long and because they took place in several different locations, Syracuse abolitionists also found themselves financially drained by the proceedings. (97) The trials did have some value to the abolitionists, however, for they kept the issue before the public for two years. With each report of the trial proceedings in a local newspaper the people of Syracuse were reminded of the time that the city banded together to help free a fugitive slave. The trials also fortified the city's claim that the Fugitive Slave Law would not be enforced in Syracuse. Not only could a fugitive not be taken from Syracuse, but those assisting the fugitive would not be punished.

Those who participated in the Jerry Rescue were not alone in facing legal charges after the event. The anti-slavery forces in Syracuse responded to the attempt to arrest Jerry with their own legal gambit. At the suggestion of Gerrit Smith, Charles Wheaton filed a complaint against those who participated in the Jerry's arrest. (98) Syracuse authorities issued a warrant for the arrest of James Lear, Jerry's claimant, and U.S. Deputy Henry Allen for kidnapping. The arrest was based on an 1840 New York law, which provided that "every person who shall, without the authority of law, forcibly remove, or attempt to remove from the state any fugitive from service or labor, or any person who is claimed as such fugitive, shall forfeit $500 to the victim of such offense, and shall be punished by imprisonment." (99) James Lear, who returned to Missouri, was never brought to trial. A grand jury in Syracuse, however, made the decision to follow through with Allen's indictment, once again illustrating the preponderance of opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law in the city. (100)

The trial began on June 21, 1852. Gerrit Smith argued the case against Allen, using the trial as an opportunity to attack the constitutionality of the law. Smith asserted that since the law was not constitutional, attempts to enforce it were a crime. He further argued that even if Allen acted in good faith, he should be punished asking, "Is not his tithe to our sympathies far weaker than that of the victims of his ignorance?" (101) The trial ended with the judge instructing the jury to find Allen "not guilty". (102) Although the trial was a legal defeat, it was a public relations victory for the abolitionists who used it to focus further attention on their attacks on the law. Both the trials of the rescuers and of Allen, therefore, gave the anti-slavery forces a venue for further argument and attention to their protest against the law.

A more deliberate attempt to keep the sentiments of the rescue alive in Syracuse occurred in the yearly celebration of "Jerry Rescue Day" on the anniversary of the event. From 1852 to 1860 every October 1 was dedicated to a remembrance of the rescue and to an attack on both the Fugitive Slave Law and on slavery as an institution. (103) The first rescue day, attended by several thousand people, was titled, "No Robbery of Man's Inalienable Rights can be law." It took place at the Central New York Railroad Station because no building was large enough for the crowd that attended. Speakers at the celebration included the most prominent abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Lucretia Mott, as well as those who had participated in the rescue. (104) Gerrit Smith presided over the gathering as well as over subsequent rescue days that entertained similar themes. Jerry Rescue Day became an annual homage to the event and an additional vehicle for the anti-slavery movement in furthering their cause.

THE PROTECTION OF FUGITIVES

The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, the Jerry Rescue, and the subsequent efforts of abolitionists to use the rescue as a rallying cry for anti-slavery activities led to a progressive strengthening of the anti-slavery movement in Syracuse. One area in which this progression is vividly exhibited is in the growth of Underground Railroad activity in the city. Reports of Underground Railroad activity in Syracuse can be found in the city's newspapers dating back through the 1840's, but after the Fugitive Slave Law passed in 1850, the reports became more prominent. (105) Part of this change can be attributed to an increased traffic of fugitives to Canada as blacks in the North became more anxious about capture, but some of it is also due to a growing boldness in the town of Syracuse in challenging the law. According to Gerrit Smith the Underground Railroad maintained more secrecy "before the reaction occasioned by the Jerry case," but afterwards "Underground Railroad activities "were winked at and privately encouraged by many who openly seemed to lean the other way." (106)

Beginning in 1851, numerous announcements of fugitive slaves passing through Syracuse on the Underground Railroad began to appear in newspapers. Monthly and yearly reports of the numbers of travelers were given. (107) Announcements of a refuge for fugitive slaves also began to appear. Upon his return to the city from Canada in 1852, Jermain Loguen became the most active Underground Railroad conductor in Syracuse, advertising his home, 293 East Genesee Street, as a safe haven for fugitives. (108) Syracuse was thus a place where a fugitive slave could print his address in the local paper inviting other fugitive slaves to his home, and still feel safe from arrest. The newspapers were also used to advertise "donation parties" to raise money and supplies for fugitive slaves, and on occasion they were used to announce the presence of "slave-catchers" in the city, calling for citizens to run them out of town. (109) The citizens of Syracuse stood ready to give both their money and their time to support the Underground Railroad.

There was a racial division, however, in the nature of this support. While the white community backed the idea of the railroad and gave substantial economic assistance to its operation, black community leaders were most directly involved with the actual administration of aid to fugitive slaves. The life of the Fugitive Aid Society, formed by abolitionist leaders in 1856 to deal with fugitives more methodically, illustrates the division of responsibilities within the organization. The society arranged for an apartment to be outfitted at Jermain Loguen's house, and any fugitive slave passing through town was sent to him. Samuel May headed up the societies' efforts to raise money to provide Loguen with the supplies needed. (110) In 1857, this society was dissolved due to the decision that Loguen "having been a slave and a fugitive himself, knows best how to provide for that class of sufferers." All further donations were instructed to go directly to Loguen, who would continue to provide services for the fugitives with the help of other members of the free black community. (111) The Underground Railroad in Syracuse depended on the economic and moral support of the white community, but it relied more heavily on the industry of the black community in its operation.

The general population of Syracuse not only accepted the flagrant operation of the Underground Railroad in their town but they stood ready to defend the town's reputation as a safe harbor. A description of an event in Syracuse, which resident Sarah Pellett related to a meeting of Boston abolitionists in 1854, displays this sentiment: A report circulated throughout Syracuse of plans for a fugitive slave to be taken through the town on the railroad. Upon hearing the rumor, a crowd "three thousand strong" gathered to rescue the slave. The slave never appeared, but the city had confirmed the continued determination to forcibly rescue any kidnapped slave. (112) The Jerry Rescue had set a precedent in the city. The citizens of Syracuse had accepted the viability of active, even violent, resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law, and they banded together to insure that the law would never be executed in their town.

The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law helped to spark a progression of resistance in Syracuse. Anger over the law brought together many elements of society in protest, across both racial and political boundaries. Those who had not taken an interest in antislavery began to take interest, and factions within the movement came together in opposition to the law. Before the Jerry rescue, resistance to the law was rhetorical. Meetings were held, committees were formed and editorials were written. The real test came with an attempt to enforce the law. Once the town stood together in the rescue of a fugitive slave and succeeded in that stand, the rhetoric gave way to more pragmatic resistance. After the Jerry Rescue the citizens of Syracuse used more energetic tools to oppose the law. They had the kidnappers of Jerry arrested. They used the trials of the rescuers to attack the legitimacy of the law. They supported an organized and very public Underground Railroad operation with their money and their time. Most importantly, they stood ready to act if any other fugitive were threatened in their town. The citizens of Syracuse had proved that Daniel Webster's prophecy was false. A fugitive slave could not be taken in Syracuse.

(2) Daniel Webster, The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1903), 419-20.

(3) Syracuse Star, May 28, 1851.

(4) Syracuse Standard, September 27, 1850; Members of the committee included the following: J.C. Foster, a laborer; John Thomas, lay pastor for the People's African Methodist Episcopal Church; Thomas G. White, a boatbuilder; Reverend John Lyles, pastor of the African Congregational Church; and the chair of the committee, James Baker, a white washer and lay preacher. Carol Hunter, To Set the Captives Free: Reverend Jermain Wesley Loguen and the Struggle for Freedom in Central New York, 1835-1872 (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1993), 113.

(5) Syracuse Standard, September 27, 1850; On flight, see Fred Landon, "Negro Migration to Canada After 1850," Journal of Negro History, January 1920, 26-27. Landon discusses reports from Underground Railroad officials throughout the North of the increase in flight to Canada after 1850.

(6) Syracuse Standard, October 3, 1850.

(7) Howard Bell, ed. and comp., "Minutes of the Proceedings of the National Negro Conventions, 1830-1864" (1969), 162.

(8) Ibid.

(9) Syracuse Standard, September 27, 1850.

(10) Several prominent abolitionists lived in Syracuse during the 1840s and 1850s including Samuel May, Jermain Loguen and Samuel Ringgold Ward. In addition, the Liberty Party was very active in the town (under the leadership of Gerrit Smith who lived in nearby Peterboro). The town's position as a railroad hub and a stop on the Erie Canal made it an ideal convention center, and between 1845 and 1850, Syracuse hosted twelve major anti-slavery meetings as well as numerous smaller gatherings. It's location near the Canadian border also led to Underground Railroad activity in the town. For accounts of antislavery activity in Syracuse before 1850 see Eva Marie Hardin, Syracuse and the Underground Railroad (Syracuse: Erie Canal Museum, 1989), 2-3; Esther C. Loucks, "The Anti-Slavery Movement in Syracuse from 1839-1851," master's thesis (Syracuse University, 1934). For discussions of the activities of specific anti-slavery leaders who were active in Syracuse see Ronald Burke, Samuel Ringgold Ward, Christian Abolitionist (New York: Garland Publishing, 1995); Ralph V. Harlow, Gerrit Smith:Philanthropist and Reformer (New York: Henry Holt, 1939); Donald Yacavone, Samuel Joseph May and the Dilemmas of the Liberal Persuasion, 1797-1871 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991); Hunter, To Set the Captives Free. Personal accounts of their involvement in anti-slavery also exist for several of these anti-slavery leaders. See Samuel J. May, Some Recollections of Our Anti-Slavery Conflict (New York, 1968); Samuel J. May, The Fugitive Slave Law and Its Victims (American Antislavery Society, 1861); Jermain Wesley Loguen, The Rev. J.W. Loguen, As A Slave and As A Freeman: A Narrative of Real Life (New York: Negro Universities Press, 1968); Samuel Ringgold Ward, Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro (New York: Arno Press, 1968).

(11) Charles Wheaton, a local white anti-slavery man helped with making handbills and newspaper announcements. Prominent black anti-slavery activist Jermain Loguen, who was himself a fugitive slave, had returned to Syracuse after an absence of several years when the Fugitive Slave Law was enacted because he felt safe from capture in the town. According to his narrative, he promoted the meeting "like a moving firebrand." Loguen, Narrative, 389-90.

(12) May, Recollections, 350. These Vice Presidents were: E. W. Leavenworth, Horace Wheaton, John Woodruff, Captain Hiram Putnam, Captain Oliver Teall, Robert Gere, L. Kingsley, and Dr. Lyman Clary.

(13) Loguen, Narrative, 358-359,364. John Wilkinson, T.T. Davis, and V.W. Smith are mentioned as such men by Loguen.

(14) Jayme Sokolow, "The Jerry McHenry Rescue and the Growth of Northern Antislavery Sentiment During the 1850s," Journal of American Studies, December 1982, 443. Sokolow argues that the agitation against the Fugitive Slave Law arose from many of the same motives from which agitation against anti-slavery had grown. Both were seen as a disruption to the solidarity of the community.

(15) May, Recollections, 350.

(16) Religious Recorder, October 10, 1850.

(17) Syracuse Journal, October 7, 1850.

(18) May, Recollections, 351.

(19) Religious Recorder, October 10, 1850.

(20) Ibid.

(21) May, Recollections, 371.

(22) Loguen, Narrative, 393.

(23) Ibid.

(24) May, Recollections, 352; Gurney S. Strong, Early Landmarks of Syracuse (Syracuse: Photocopy of select chapters at Onondaga Historical Association Research Center, 1894), 274.

(25) Loucks, "The Anti-Slavery Movement in Syracuse," 51.

(26) Hunter, To Set the Captives Free, 115. The members of the committee were: Charles Wheaton, Jermain Loguen, Lyman Clary, Vivus Smith, Charles Sedgewick, Hiram Putnam, Elias Leavenworth, Abner Bates, Beorge Barnes, Patrick Agan, Robert Raymond, and John Thomas.

(27) These meetings include: a second Syracuse meeting in protest of the law on October 11; the New York State Convention in protest of the law held in Syracuse on January 8 and 9; a gathering of prominent abolitionists in March called by Samuel May; and the Seventeenth Annual Convention of the American Antislavery Society in May 1851. Reports of these meetings can be found in issues of The Syracuse Standard (October 14, 1850; January 9 & 10, 1851; March 5 & 7 1851; May 8 & 10, 1851); The New York Tribune (January 9, 11, 14 & 15 1851; April 16, 1851; May 9, 1851); and The Liberator (March 21, 1851).

(28) Jerry was born into slavery in North Carolina. He was owned by the Henry family, who eventually settled in Marion County, Missouri. He escaped sometime in 1843. After failing to capture Jerry, his owner sold him to a neighbor. Ownership of Jerry exchanged hands again, finally ending up on July 8, 1851 with John McReynolds, the original owner's brother-in-law. McReynolds heard that Jerry was in Syracuse and asked his neighbor, James Lear, who knew Jerry by sight to retrieve him. The Syracuse Standard, October 7, 1851; More detailed accounts of Jerry's background can be found in Hunter, To Set the Captives Free, 122-33; Sokolow, "The Jerry McHenry Rescue," 432-33.

(29) "Trial of Henry Allen U.S. Deputy Marshall for Kidnapping" (Syracuse: Power Press of the Daily Journal Office, 1852).

(30) Loguen, Narrative, 400; "Parrish B. Johnson's Recollections, 1895," in The Jerry Rescue, Franklin H. Chase (Syracuse: Onondaga Historical Association, 1924).

(31) The size of the crowd was buttressed by residents of surrounding Onondaga County who were meeting near the city on this day at the Onondaga County Fair.

(32) "Mrs. Margaret Sabine's Reminescences, 1897," in The Jerry Rescue, Franklin H. Chase (Syracuse: Onondaga Historical Association, 1924).

(33) Syracuse Standard, October 3, 1851.

(34) May, Recollections, 375-6.

(35) "The Holmes Story, 1894," in The Jerry Rescue, Franklin H. Chase (Syracuse: Onondaga Historical Association, 1924); The Carson League Paper, October 7, 1851.

(36) "The Holmes Story, 1894."

(37) May, Recollections, 376.

(38) Ibid.

(39) "Merrick Reminescences, 1893," in The Jerry Rescue, Franklin H. Chase (Syracuse: Onondaga Historical Association, 1924); Loguen, Narrative, 410; Yacavone, Samuel Joseph May, 145.

(40) Loguen, Narrative, 409.

(41) May, Recollections, 377.

(42) Carleton Mabee, Black Freedom: NonViolent Abolitionists from 1830 to the Civil War (New York: McMillan, 1970), 307.

(43) Loguen, Narrative, 405-06.

(44) Colonel Vandenburg was an Underground Railroad operative in Syracuse. Strong, Early Landmarks of Syracuse, 284.

(45) According to Loguen the Sherriff had indicated that he was sympathetic to the rescue, but felt a duty to uphold the law. Loguen, Narrative, 410.

(46) It is not known if an attempt was made to disband the Washington Artillary. Sokolow, "The Jerry McHenry Rescue," 435; W. Freeman Galpin, "The Jerry Rescue," New York History, January 1945, 28-29.

(47) Galpin, "The Jerry Rescue," 30; Earl E. Sperry, The Jerry Rescue (Syracuse: Onondaga Historical Association, 1924), 25; Loguen, Narrative, 411.

(48) New York Tribune, October 4, 1851.

(49) Loguen, Narrative, 410-11.

(50) "Merrick Reminescences, 1893."

(51) Loguen, Narrative, 411. Few sources indicate a central role for any women in the rescue or in the agitation against the Fugitive Slave Law. However, historian Carol Hunter discusses the influence of wives with their husbands in Syracuse anti-slavery circles. Deborah Bannett, Charles Sedgewick's wife, is credited with bringing him into the abolition movement. Ellen Wheaton, Charles Wheaton's wife, was also active in anti-slavery. Her diary illustrates the supportive role that many wives played in their husbands anti-slavery efforts. In addition to supporting his activities, she attended women's antislavery meetings herself, and her diary contains commentary on the politics of anti-slavery in Syracuse. Hunter, To Set the Captives Free, 116; Ellen Birdseye Wheaton, Diary, 1846-1857 (Boston: Marymount Press, 1923).

(52) These shots may have been the blank shots fired by the canon of the Washington Artillary who succeeded only in dispersing enough of the crowd to enable the rescuers to spirit Jerry away more easily. Galpin, "The Jerry Rescue," 28-29.

(53) There was dispute over how Fitch sustained the injury. Newspapers first reported that it was the result of his fall from the second story window. Fitch claimed that his arm was broken by the blow from the crowd. An eyewitness confirms this second view in his reminescense, "A quiet appearing man standing by thought that that arm should be broken. And it was broken." "Merrick Reminescences, 1893."

(54) Sokolow, "The Jerry McHenry Rescue," 436.

(55) New York Tribune, October 8, 1851.

(56) New York Tribune, October 1, 1851.

(57) Loguen, Narrative, 420-21.

(58) "Mrs. Lucy Watson's Statement, 1894," in The Jerry Rescue, Franklin H. Chase (Syracuse: Onondaga Historical Association, 1924), 43-44.

(59) Ella B. Moffet, "Jerry's Rescue-The Story," Syracuse Herald, November 1, 1898, 44.

(60) Ibid.

(61) Loguen, Narrative, 421-22.

(62) Moffet, "Jerry's Rescue-The Story," 44.

(63) Loguen, Narrative, 423.

(64) Sokolow, "The Jerry McHenry Rescue," 436-37.

(65) National Antislavery Standard, October 9, 1851.

(66) E. B. Loughlin, "Syracuse Newspapers and the Anti-Slavery Question, 1840-1860," unpublished paper (Onondaga County Public Library, Local History and Geneology Department), 4.

(67) Syracuse Star, October 25, 1851.

(68) Ibid., October 3, 1851.

(69) Ibid., October 4, 1851.

(70) Onondaga Historical Association Bulletin (Syracuse: Onondaga Historical Assocoiation, 1961), 5. This pamphlet contains a list of all the names of the petition signers as well as a demographic analysis of the signers.

(71) Syracuse Star, October 27, 1851.

(72) New York Tribune, October 30, 1851.

(73) Ibid., October 4, 1851.

(74) The Carson League, October 8, 1851.

(75) "Speech of Rev. Samuel J. May to the Convention of Citizens of Onondaga County in Syracuse, on the 14th of October, 1851," in Legal and Moral Aspects of Slavery, Selected Essays (New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969), 3.

(76) Ibid., 19.

(77) Syracuse Standard, October 15, 1851.

(78) The Carson League, October 28, 1851.

(79) New York Tribune, October 27, 1851.

(80) Syracuse Standard, November 25, 1851.

(81) Ibid.

(82) National Antislavery Standard, November 6, 1861.

(83) Ibid., November 13, 1851; Yacavone, Samuel Joseph May, 148.

(84) Yacavone, Samuel Joseph May, 148.

(85) Syracuse Standard, October 14, 1851. The Onondaga County Fair met near Syracuse every Fall and had been underway on the day of Jerry's arrest.

(86) Ibid., October 16, 1851.

(87) Ibid.

(88) National Antislavery Standard, November 13, 1851; "Merrick Reminescences, 1893," 33.

(89) Sperry, The Jerry Rescue, 27.

(90) Loguen would return home in 1852. Marshall Allen promptly arrested him, but took pains to arrange bail ahead of time with Loguen's friends so that he would not have to take Loguen to jail and arouse the ire of abolitionists. Loguen was never tried for charges associated with the rescue. Loguen, Narrative, 434-36.

(91) Those arrested included: Enoch Reed, Prince Jackson, William Thompson, Harrison Allen, W.L. Salmon, J.B. Brigham, Ira H. Cobb, James Davis, Moses Summers, Montgomery Merrick, L.H. Salisbury, W.L. Crandall, and Stephen Porter. The first four names are those of black men, and the rest were white. Loguen, Narrative, 442.

(92) Reed died before he could be sentenced. James P. Colligan, "The Syracuse Post Standard and the Jerry Rescue," unpublished paper (Onondaga County Public Library, Local History & Geneology Department, 1967), 30

(93) "Old Letters Bring to Light Leading Role of Sedgwick at Jerry Rescue Trial" (Syracuse, New York: Onondaga Historical Association, 1932).

(94) Loguen, Narrative, 442.

(95) Ibid., 442-43.

(96) "Old Letters Bring to Light Leading Role of Sedgwick at Jerry Rescue Trial."

(97) Yacavone, Samuel Joseph May, 150.

(98) New York Tribune, October 3, 1851; Harlow, Gerrit Smith:Philanthropist and Reformer, 301.

(99) "Trial of Henry Allen U.S. Deputy Marshall for Kidnapping."

(100) Harlow, Gerrit Smith:Philanthropist and Reformer, 301.

(101) "Trial of Henry Allen U.S. Deputy Marshall for Kidnapping."

(102) Frederick Douglass accused the judge of accepting bribes from Democrats in exchange for this action. Yacavone, Samuel Joseph May, 150; Frederick Douglass' Paper, July 1, 1852.

(103) The celebrations stalled out with the Civil War, but were renewed on an irregular basis in subsequent years. In 1914, a Syracuse doctor, Alfred Mercer, left in his will $600 for the Onondaga Historical Society as a Jerry Rescue Fund to be used in order to have someone deliver an address on the Jerry Rescue every five years on the October 1 to commemorate the rescue. Sperry, The Jerry Rescue.

(104) May, Recollections, 383; New York Tribune, October 2, 1852.

(105) Loucks, "The Anti-Slavery Movement in Syracuse," 44.

(106) Ernst Held, "Gerrit Smith Reminescences," in The Jerry Rescue, Franklin E. Chase (Syracuse: Onondaga Historical Association, 1924).

(107) For example, on October 11 it was announced that sixty fugitives had been through town in the previous month, Syracuse Standard, October 11, 1851. On November 19, 1854, an estimate of two hundred "passengers" for the previous year was printed, Syracuse Standard, November 19, 1854. Note that the 1851 total is proportionally very high. This is probably due to the proximity of the date to the passage of the 1850 legislation.

(108) Ibid., November 25, 1854, May 7, 1857, June 15, 1857.

(109) Examples of each of these kinds of announcements can be found respectively in: Syracuse Standard, January 25, 1854; Syracuse Standard, June 22, 1854.

(110) May, The Fugitive Slave Law and Its Victims, 303.

(111) Syracuse Standard, September 30, 1857.

(112) Ibid., June 12, 1854.

Angela Murphy (1)

(1) Angela Murphy is a graduate student at the University of Houston. She is currently working on her doctoral dissertation, "American Abolition, Irish Freedom, and Immigrant Citizenship: Transatlantic Exchanges on the Meaning of Liberty."