Today in our History – October 4, 1850 - Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen speaks about the Fugitive Slave Act
GM – LIF – Today’s American Champion was an African-American abolitionist and bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and an author of a slave narrative.
Today in our History – October 4, 1850 - Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen (February 5, 1813 – September 30, 1872) gives speech in Syracuse, NY about the Fugitive Slave Act.
A month after the infamous Fugitive Slave Act was passed by Congress, Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen (1813-1872), a fugitive slave from Tennessee, persuaded his adopted hometown, Syracuse, New York, to declare that city a refuge for liberated slaves. On October 4, 1850, the people of Syracuse filled city hall to hear a discussion of the recently passed law. Samuel Ringgold Ward, a well-known minister and anti-slavery activist, spoke in opposition to the Act. Ward was followed by Rev. Loguen (1813-1872). Like Ward who was also a fugitive slave, Loguen knew firsthand the horrors of the institution and the immediate danger he faced by the passage of the new Act. He appealed to his fellow citizens to honor the Constitution by dishonoring the law that would reenslave him and others. He argued that his continued freedom depended upon the willingness of his white fellow citizens to resist the law and protect him if he were threatened. Following his plea that Syracuse be made an “open city” for fugitive slaves, the meeting voted 395 to 96 in favor of his proposal. Loguen later became a Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Jarm Logue was born to a slave woman named Cherry, in Davidson County, Tennessee, and her owner, a white man named David Logue. At age 21, he successfully escaped bondage on his second attempt with the help of his mother, stealing his master's horse and following the Underground Railroad north, finally crossing into Canada. Jarm Logue added an "n" to the end of his last name, learned to read, worked various jobs in Canada and New York, studied at the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, New York, and opened schools for black children in Utica and Syracuse, New York.
Loguen settled in Syracuse, where his house became a major depot (stop) on the Underground Railroad. Loguen was involved in rescuing William Henry, a cooper and a former slave. On October 1, 1851, Henry, known as "Jerry", was arrested 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 broke into the city jail and freed Jerry. The event came to be widely known as the Jerry Rescue.
Loguen became an elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and took the middle name Wesley after John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement. He held various church posts and was appointed bishop in 1868.
Loguen became a popular abolitionist speaker and authored an autobiography, The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman, a Narrative of Real Life (1859). The wife of his former master, Sarah Logue, wrote Loguen demanding $1000 compensation. Loguen wrote a scathing reply which was published in The Liberator.[
Loguen married Caroline Storum, who was born near Jamestown, New York. She was biracial, from a free and educated abolitionist family. Jermain and Carolina had six children. Their daughter, Amelia, married Lewis Henry Douglass, oldest son of the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass, in 1869.[3] Amelia (Helen Amelia) and Lewis followed in their parents' footsteps, passionate for justice and education for the enslaved and newly freed.
After the Civil War and Lewis's safe return home, Amelia and Lewis rejoined the Loguen family in Syracuse, dedicated to teaching, reuniting and rebuilding broken, destitute families after slavery. During the early 1860s, Amelia assisted her father while he preached (and ushered slaves to safety) in and around Binghamton, NY, an hour from Syracuse. She taught children (often from her own pocketbook) on Hawley Street at "School no. 8 for Colored children". As black churches in that time often had to double as school rooms, Miss Amelia held adult night classes at the AME Zion church in Binghamton as well.
Another daughter, Sarah Loguen Fraser, became one of the first African-American women to become a licensed medical practitioner, and later became the first female doctor in the Dominican Republic. Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!