The Famous Fugitive Slave Rescue Which became Known As the “Jerry Rescue”

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A complete issue of the New York Herald, October 3, 1851, 8pp., disbound, VG. From the front page, “The Fugitive Slave Riot at Syracuse,” runs eight inches and tells the story of rescuing fugitive slave Jerry (Henry). In small part, “A plank was then used as a battering ram and an entrance forced .. Resistance was made by the officers ... A carriage was in readiness near Britnalls Hotel, into which he was hurried, and which bore him out of town ... There was no attempt to recapture Jerry ...”Background: On October 1, 1851, William Henry was arrested in Syracuse under the Fugitive Slave Law. The anti-slavery Liberty Party was holding its state convention in the city, and when word of the arrest spread, several hundred abolitionists including Charles Augustus Wheaton broke into the city jail and freed Jerry. The event came to be widely known as the Jerry Rescue. In the aftermath, the Congregationalist minister Samuel Ringgold Ward had to flee to Canada to escape persecution because of his participation. Following his escape and subsequent rescue, Henry was hidden in Syracuse for several days until he was taken first to the Orson Ames House at Mexico, New York and then to Oswego where he crossed Lake Ontario into Canada. A total of 26 of the rescuers were tried for their actions but only one conviction resulted.The suspects were bailed out by a number of people including U.S. Senator and former governor of New York, William H. Seward. Nine others, including Rev. J. W. Loguen, himself a fugitive slave, were charged but fled to Canada.

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