This Day in History

Jan. 27, 1847: Crosswhites Escaped to Canada

Time Periods: 1800
Themes: African American, Slavery and Resistance
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Adam Crosswhite

Adam Crosswhite. Source: Archives of Michigan

On Jan. 27, 1847, several hundred citizens of Marshall, Michigan, helped Adam and Sarah Crosswhite escape from being kidnapped.

The Crosswhites had escaped from slavery in Kentucky and were living in Marshall with their four children when slave catchers came to kidnap them.

The townspeople detained the slave catchers while the Crosswhites fled to Canada. Learn more about their story from the Seeking Michigan archives. Also, the National Archives has papers related to their case, including a deposition given by the Crosswhites in Canada, as described in a National Archives Researcher News (Fall, 2016) article.

This is considered to be one of the cases that led to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

In the related resources below is a lesson on the people’s history of the Abolition Movement.

Related Resources
collage of six Black abolitionists in the United States.
Teaching Activities (Free)

‘If There Is No Struggle…’: Teaching a People’s History of the Abolition Movement

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools. 16 pages.
In this lesson, students explore many of the real challenges faced by abolitionists with a focus on the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Teaching Activities (Free)

Poetry of Defiance: How the Enslaved Resisted

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez.
Through a mixer activity, students encounter how enslaved people resisted the brutal exploitation of slavery. The lesson culminates in a collective class poem highlighting the defiance of the enslaved.

Black Abolitionists (Profile) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History
Profiles

Black Abolitionists

Profiles. Zinn Education Project. 2014.
Brief biographies of 25 Black abolitionists.

Audio

Seizing Freedom Podcast

Podcast. Written and hosted by Kidada E. Williams. 2021.
A Black history podcast tells stories “drawn from archives of voices from American history that have been muted time and time again.”

The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law Convention, Cazenovia, New York. The Edmonson sisters are standing wearing bonnets and shawls in the row behind the seated speakers. Frederick Douglass is seated, with Gerritt Smith standing behind him, and with Abby Kelley Foster the likely person seated on Douglass's left.
This Day in History

April 15, 1848: The Escape on the Pearl Schooner

Seventy-seven enslaved people attempted to flee Washington, D.C. by sailing away on a schooner called The Pearl.

Fugitive Slave Act poster
This Day in History

Sept. 18, 1850: Fugitive Slave Act Passed

The U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

Jerry Rescue Monument in Syracuse, New York.
This Day in History

Oct. 1, 1851: The Jerry Rescue

Abolitionists freed a man captured under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in Syracuse, New York.

Oberlin Rescuers | Zinn Education Project
This Day in History

Sept. 13, 1858: Oberlin Wellington Rescue

Eighteen-year-old John Price was arrested by a federal marshal in Oberlin, Ohio under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.