Oberlin-Wellington Rescue Case

views updated

OBERLIN-WELLINGTON RESCUE CASE

OBERLIN-WELLINGTON RESCUE CASE. The Oberlin-Wellington rescue case grew out of a rescue party's release of a fugitive slave in 1858 in Oberlin, Ohio; the slave had been in the custody of a federal officer at the village of Wellington, nine miles south of Oberlin. The rescuers, mostly citizens of Oberlin and students of the college, were indicted under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. From their jail in Cleveland, they published a newspaper, The Rescuer; through the barred windows they addressed mass meetings of sympathizers; and in their cells


they entertained correspondents of eastern newspapers and deputations from churches and philanthropic societies. The indictments were shortly dismissed, and the rescuers were freed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Shipherd, Jacob R. History of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue. New York: Da Capo Press, 1972.

Gilbert HobbsBarnes/a. r.

See alsoAntislavery ; Fugitive Slave Acts .