The “Jerry Rescue” (1851)

Wed Oct 01, 1851

Image

Image: A monument to the Jerry Rescue

On this day in 1851, arrested fugitive slave William “Jerry” Henry was broken out of jail by hundreds of abolitionists in Syracuse, New York. Jerry and prominent members of the rescue fled to Canada afterward.

Earlier that year, the pro-slavery Secretary of State Daniel Webster had warned that the new Fugitive Slave Act (passed in 1850) would be enforced even “here in Syracuse in the midst of the next Anti-Slavery Convention.” The arrest was considered a message that the locally-unpopular law would be enforced by federal authorities.

The abolitionist Liberty Party was holding a state convention in Syracuse and, when Jerry’s arrest became known, several hundred abolitionists broke into the city jail and freed him. The event came to be widely known as the “Jerry Rescue”.

Jerry himself was hidden in Syracuse for several days, then was taken to the Orson Ames House in Mexico, New York, and from there to Oswego, before crossing Lake Ontario into freedom in Canada. Many of the prominent members of the jailbreak also fled to Canada, including Reverend J.W. Loguen and Minister Samuel Ringgold Ward.

  • lumpenproletariat@quokk.auEnglish
    91·
    6 months ago

    You could all do this to ICE facilities if you’se actually gave a fuck.

    People power works, it can get you into the capitol and within metres of countless pieces of shit, and it can get you into a shitty concentration camp.

    • humble_boatsman@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      61·
      6 months ago

      I’ll just leave this for thought. While not entirely the same situation as protesting or marching on a ICE facility. You will be shot and the authority in charge will be excused. Protests are happening. Assaulting a federal facility is not going to work.

      You will be shot

      • lumpenproletariat@quokk.auEnglish
        41·
        6 months ago

        Because they weren’t risking getting shot storming a gaol?

        Likewise I remember the extremely large body count as your armed forces started shooting into crowds of magats as they stormed the capitol, bravely defending them from all entering.

        Those federal facilities sure are fickle.

        • Optional
          2·
          6 months ago

          They were specifically prohibited from shooting, questioning, or “interfering” with the Jan6 seditionists by the coup plotters.

        • humble_boatsman@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          K.

          Developing a strategic plan, the committee ensured Jerry would escape to freedom. They devised a plan that would rely on resistance without violence. Participants were carefully instructed to avoid injuring anyone. Stealthy and swift, the final plan would conceal Jerry in New York until it was safe for him to cross over the border to Canada. A horse and buggy would be stationed near the police station to transport Jerry. At a prearranged signal, the crowd would break into the police office building, surrounding the guards while Jerry was ushered out to the buggy.