One of the most publicized acts of resistance to slavery took place in Syracuse, New York on October 1, 1851. On that date, William “Jerry” Henry, an escaped slave, was rescued from Federal Marshalls enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. Jerry Henry was a former slave who escaped from Missouri and fled to Syracuse. A large rescue party was formed and twice he was liberated from the slave-catchers.
Henry was born in North Carolina in 1811. His “owner” moved Jerry Henry to Hannibal, Missouri when the child was seven years old. In 1843, Jerry escaped from slavery and headed north. Jerry was almost captured in Chicago and Milwaukee. Six years after his escape, Jerry arrived in Syracuse. That city was then a fast-growing metropolis with more than 22,000 people living in it in 1850. The city was a principal stop on the Erie Canal with the canal running right through the middle of the city.
Jerry was a skilled carpenter and cooper and his skills meant that he could pursue his livelihood near the canal. The canal no longer goes through the center of the city, but the route of modern day Erie Blvd. traces the old route of the canal.
The Jerry Rescue Monument is in Clinton Square in downtown Syracuse. It was unveiled in 1990. It is within sight of the Syracuse Civil War monument.
Before Jerry was captured in Syracuse, the city was a major stronghold of the Underground Railroad and the Abolitionist Movement. It had experienced a rescue mission more than a decade before. In 1839 a Mississippi couple brough their slave to Syracuse in September. Black workers at Syracuse’s most well appointed hotel reached to the enslaved woman, Harriet Powell, and asked her if she would like her freedom. When she said “Yes,” the workers told local Abolitionists about her desire to be liberated. The Black workers and the Abolitionists made plans for her escape. She went out the back door of the Hotel Syracuse where she met a Black man who was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She was spirited away to a farm where another member of the Underground Railroad hid her. Eventually she was taken to the estate of Gerrit Smith in Peterboro where she was able to hide out. Smith was one of the wealthiest Abolitionists in the country. He helped her get to Canada.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a relative of Gerrit Smith and she met Harriet when she was hiding in his house. She later wrote that she spent two hours with Harriet; “We all wept together as we talked, and, when Cousin Gerrit returned to summon us away, we needed no further education to make us earnest abolitionists.” When the slave owner turned up at Smith’s estate, Smith invited him to search the premises and sat down for dinner with the owner. Harriet was already on her way to Canada.
After Harriet got to Kingston in Canada, the woman who received her, Charlotte Hales, wrote to Gerrit Smith:
“Although a stranger I am persuaded I need not apologise for addressing you. Harriet Powell is residing with me and has done so since she came to Kingston. She is most anxious to hear of her Mother and sister, and particularly wishes you would write to the former: if you could obtain any information respecting them and forward it to Harriet, the poor girl would be most thankful. She received your letter of Decr. for which she is much obliged, she desires me to tell you that she is quite contented & very comfortable in her present situation. I am teaching her to read, and if she continue with me I may teach her writing. I find her a girl of good moral principles, but very ignorant concerning the things wh. [which] belong to Salvation; I am happy to say she seemed willing to receive instruction and as she now enjoys many religious privileges I trust she will be truly converted to God. We have heard many reports of Mr. Davenport’s determination to get her again if possible, we also understood men were employed to kidnap her, I scarcely think the latter is true, but it was sufficient to put us on our guard, and we do not allow her to go out unprotected. Harriet begs me to give her very kind love to you, Mrs. Smith and Laura & any of her kind friends you may see; she wishes me to tell you that she feels very grateful to you all, for your great kindness in assisting her to obtain her freedom. She finds a great difference between the winter here & in Mississippi, but is likely to stand it well.
Harriet says she has not any wish to return, and as long as this is the case we are resolved to protect her.
I hope you will be kind enough to write to Harriet as soon as you can obtain any satisfactory information. With best wishes for your success in your labour of love”
The Harriet Powell incident demonstrated that in Syracuse Black and white abolitionists could work together. The Syracuse people were also able to mobilize other abolition committees in towns throughout Central New York including Dewitt, Peterboro, Skaneateles, and other centers of population. Also, the Underground Railroad transported Harriet two hundred miles to Canada. The Americans also relied on the ready welcome of their Canadian allies to take in and care for a woman whom none of them were familiar with.
With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the Syracuse abolitionists were not just taking on the slaveowners, they were committing civil disobedience against the Federal government and they were at war with the two major political parties of the time, the Democrats and the Whigs. Secretary of State Daniel Webster in May 1851 branded Syracuse as a “laboratory of abolitionism, libel, and treason.” It did not stop the abolitionists, it may have encouraged them to take up Jerry’s case.
A local Black Abolitionist added his weight to the cause. Frederick Douglass had moved to Rochester in 1848, one city away.
Jerry was arrested on October 1, 1851. He was taken to the U.S. Commissioner Joseph Sabine. Abolitionists gathered and helped him to escape. Jerry made it to the Erie Canal but he was soon captured. Jerry was now put in a cell at the Police Justice offices in the city. 2,500 people surrounded the building and they stormed it. The abolitionists were able to free him and they used the Underground Railroad to transport him to Kingston in Canada.
Two weeks after the Jerry Rescue, Rev. Samuel J. May, who had taken part in the events, made a speech to the Convention of Citizens, of Onondaga County explaining the rescue:
“But 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. There was no concert of action except that to which a common humanity impelled the people. Indignation flashed from every eye. Abhorrence of the Fugitive Slave Bill poured in burning words from every tongue. The very stones cried out.”
Jerry lived out the rest of his days in Canada. He died before slavery in the United States was ended.
The Sculpture shows an imagined scene in which “Jerry” has broken shackles on his wrists. The white man helping him is Gerrit Smith. Smith did not actually help Jerry until after his escape. Rev. Jermain W. Loguen is the African American on the right of Jerry.
There is a marker at the monument explaining the Jerry Rescue.
Near the Jerry Rescue monument there is the Civil War monument on Clinton Square. Two blocks away is the Erie Canal Museum at 318 Erie Blvd East where the impact of the Canal is detailed.
For lunch, try out Dinosaur Bar-B-Que at 246 W. Willow St., Syracuse, NY. The barbeque is good and the prices are reasonable. This is the original restaurant.
The Jerry Rescue Monument is at the intersection of Clinton Street and Water Street.
Note: All color photos in this post were taken by Patrick Young except as noted.
