An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted on 10/17/2025,
Adam Crosswhite's birthday
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"If the slaveholder has the right to seize a fugitive from slavery in a free State, let him appeal to the proper tribunals to maintain that right, instead of midnight seizure, backed by a display of bowie knives and seven shooters."
--The Signal Of Liberty, an abolitionist newspaper from the 1840s, founded by the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society
Everybody put some respect on the name of Adam Crosswhite: born enslaved in 1799 Kentucky and passed around to several owners; eventually liberated himself (and his wife Sarah and their four children John Anthony, Benjamin Franklin, Cyrus Jackson, and Lucretia) by way of the Underground Railroad in 1843. Crosswhite's harrowing tale is often held up as an example of barrier-testing; that is to say, pushing the legal extent of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 (which we uncomfortably talked about in Lesson #123). The family had made their way to Indiana where, fearing professional slave-catchers, were hidden away by Quakers for a week. Another local actually went as far as to pose as a professional slave-catcher to draw off the hunt --neatly misleading the Crosswhites' pursuers into a swamp where they remained lost for a full day! Unfortunately this didn't end the pursuit and Adam and Sarah ultimately decided to split up with two children each; reuniting more than a month later in Marshall, Michigan, again with the help of anonymous-but-quietly-determined total strangers. #ihavefriendseverywhere
Marshall was a particularly tightly-knit community with a strong antislavery sentiment; here Adam found work and the family even bought a house. But the terrifying weeks of being fugitives had left a mark; Adam and Sarah knew they would forever be looking over their shoulders. And this wasn't unfounded; word eventually reached the Crosswhites that their former owner, Francis Giltner, had hired an agent in an attempt to locate his "missing property;" Adam made coded signal arrangements with his neighbors, and on January 26, 1847 at approximately 4:00am, a group of armed men --including a self-identified attorney and Giltner's own grandson-- forced their way into the home, ostensibly to "enforce" the Fugitive Slave Act. The town went into action and sounded the alert. Adam headed into town to fetch his own attorney; while he was away the "enforcers" attempted to bargain with Sarah to either willingly accompany them back to Kentucky, or ...and this was presumably an attempt at seeming "reasonable," to only let them take her children. Keep in mind these Kentuckians were not sworn law enforcement officers but were merely hired mercenaries muddying the circumstances under the colour of law. Boy, it sure is good we don't see that sort of thing in America any more, huh?
Anyway, to further emphasize present-day similarities, in very short order more than a hundred Black residents (as well as a significant handful of sympathetic whites, including banker Charles Gorham), surrounded the invading posse of Kentuckian bounty hunters. Despite accounts of brandished weapons there never appears to have been an actual physical altercation, and the crowd managed to cause enough disruption not only for the Crosswhites to be able to escape to nearby Jackson (where they would eventually make their way safely into Ontario, Canada), but also to shame the invaders into departing empty-handed. Later, the Deputy Sheriff of Marshall arrested some of the invading Kentuckians for breaking and entering. The next step for Giltner was perhaps more unexpected for the time than it would be today: to file a lawsuit against the people of Marshall, Michigan in the U.S. Circuit Court for the Eastern District in Detroit. Among the names specifically mentioned in the suit was Gorham; eventually culminating into the pivotal case Giltner v. Gorham. To summarize the outcome: after two trials (the first resulting in a hung jury), Giltner won the case but his "property" was not returned to him; he was instead compensated a fraction of the stated "value" of the Crosswhites. The defense's reliance on the legal wording of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 did not sway the jury (since Michigan had, by that time, been a state for more than 10 years), but the fine itself was ultimately paid by an alliance of prominent abolitionists, including Detroit mayor Zachariah Chandler. Adam did briefly return to Michigan to testify during these proceedings, but otherwise the family would remain in Ontario until after the Civil War.
The unfolding of Giltner v. Gorham had received national attention, and the verdict further strengthened the political clout of the slaveowning Southern states, imposing tougher penalties for Underground Railroad activists and other forms of aiding and abetting escaped slaves. In a larger context, the verdict also gave rise to Congress's "new and improved" version of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, widely agreed to be one of the underlying instigators of the Civil War. Yet at the same time the case's aftermath also had a reverse effect by bolstering the resolve of anti-slavery Democrats, Whigs, and Free-Soilers; uniting them into what would ultimately become known as: the Republican Party.*
* - Which was the progressive, antiracist party of the time, I hasten to add; at the time it was the Democrats who drew most of their identity from Angry Grievance Politics! The 180-degree sociocultural swivel would happen later.
Visit the Buxton National Historic Site & Museum, site of the Crosswhite's home during their time living in Ontario
Next lesson - Watch this space