We believe the significance and impact of the events surrounding the escaped slave named William Henry, a 40-year-old cooper from Missouri who called himself "Jerry," should be cemented in our area in the form of a holiday. The Jerry Rescue occurred on October 1, 1851, and involved the public rescue of a fugitive slave who had been arrested in our city, Syracuse, New York.

This movement for change in our city was created by the 2018-2019 8th Grade Social Studies Students at John T. Robert's K-8 School located in The Syracuse City School District. With the #BlackLivesMatter Movement and studying Syracuse's impact on The Abolition Movement and The Civil War, students decided this historic event must be celebrated and shared. Below is a fragment of the letter students' composed for their government representatives. 

"Upon learning about the history of our city, we students were captivated by this story. We went home and asked family and friends if the knew the story, The Jerry Rescue. We returned to class alarmed upon discovering so little people have heard of it. We students approached our teacher with this idea, to give Jerry a holiday in order to bring awareness to our city of a time where Blacks, Whites, and all ethnic backgrounds worked together to stop segregation and racism in our country." -The 8th Class of 2018-2019 at Roberts SCSD 

 

The Story of Jerry's Rescue. 

A story about another time Syracuse protested against government brutality because all lives matter. 

    Almost two hundred years ago, slavery was abolished in New York. Freedom seekers sought refuge in New York from the southern states.  Abolitionists began organizing escape routes from the South to ensure the black lives were successful in their escape. Many settled in Syracuse, attracted by its expanding economic opportunities and relative safety. By 1850, more than five hundred escaped slaves prospered in Syracuse.

    On September 18, 1850, The US Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act. This law said that all runaway slaves had to be returned to their masters in the South, even if they had gained their freedom by escaping to Northern “free states”. [NPS Jerry Rescue]  Daniel Webster, Secretary of State at the time, proclaimed from a balcony facing Syracuse City Hall, “The law will be executed in all the great cities, even here in Syracuse.” [Knoblauch, E]   Webster threatened to enforce the law, regardless of the upcoming Anti-Slavery Convention held in Syracuse. [University Buffalo] Webster wanted to make it clear The Fugitive Slave Act was law. 

    William “Jerry” Henry was a well educated former slave from Missouri who settled in Syracuse, New York in 1843. [Knoblauch, E] By 1851, he worked in downtown Syracuse as a barrel-maker. [OHA] [WAER]  Around noon on October 1st, 1851 at work, Jerry was seized by five Federal U.S. Marshals from Rochester, Auburn, Syracuse, and Canandaigua, and accompanied by the Syracuse police.  He was originally told the charge was theft until after he was shackled. After being arrested, Jerry was informed he had been arrested under the Fugitive Slave Law. Jerry tried to resist but was subdued. [Knoblauch, E]

    Word of Jerry’s arrest quickly spread to the abolitionist Liberty Party, which hosted several hundred abolitionists each year in Syracuse. [Knoblauch, E] Leaders of the local Abolition movement began to plan Jerry’s rescue. [Knoblauch, E]  This included Underground Railroad Stationmaster Jermain Loguen, a former slave from Tennessee who came to Syracuse in 1841 as a Methodist minister. Also present were Reverend. Samuel May, a Unitarian minister, leading American social reformer Gerrit Smith, and at least 20 others. [OHA][Knoblauch, E][McAndrew, M] 

    Jerry’s arraignment took place that same day in the Townsend Building in Clinton Square, Syracuse, in the second floor office of the US Commissioner Sabine, who tried the case. [Schomburg] Men and women, both black and white, gathered in Commissioner Sabine’s office. Though Jerry had briefly escaped, he was quickly recaptured.  The first attempt to free Jerry was unsuccessful. [University Buffalo] Sabine’s office was left a wreck. [Schomburg]  Rev. Samuel J. May described this attempt later in a speech; “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 because he assumed God made him to be a man, not a slave? …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.” [OHA] 

    Jerry’s arraignment was put off until evening and relocated to a larger room within the Townsend Building. There are reports that the wife of Commissioner Sabine had leaked information to the abolitionists. [Knoblauch, E]  The leaders of the Abolition movement alerted residents of  the new time of Jerry’s arraignment with church bells. Crowds gathered, filling Clinton Square. 

    This time, the crowds were equipped for a more serious rescue attempt. An ex-slave named Samuel Ward proclaimed, “We have arrested him, confined him and chained him on purpose to inflict upon him the curses of slavery. They say he is a slave. What a term to apply to an American! How does this sound beneath the pole of liberty and the flag of freedom?” Ward then said residents were responsible for allowing such corrupted men to be elected. He asks the crowd, “Do you promise, so help you God, so to vote? As that your sanction never more shall be given to laws which empower persons to hunt, chain and cage men in our midst?” [University Buffalo] Ward was reminding the people that voting is where their power really lies;  The American Dream, and the premise of democracy is that the power lies, with the people. [Waldby, K]

    Despite deputy marshals shooting the crowd from the building’s windows, it became clear the overwhelmingly large crowd of 2-3,000 people were determined to enter. The crowd overcame the deputy marshals and flooded the building. One deputy marshal broke his arm jumping out the window to escape the crowd. [Knoblauch, E]  The crowd broke into the jail and forced the marshals to free William "Jerry" Henry. [McAndrew, M] They used a battering ram to break down the jail door. [McAndrew, M]

    Although Jerry was injured, Rev. Samuel May, and Revered Jermain Wesley Loguen helped him escape. Jerry was kept hidden in the home of a local butcher known for his anti-abolitionist sentiments. Later, he was taken in a wagon to Mexico, then Oswego to the home of William Lynman Salmon. From there, Jerry boarded a ship and crossed Lake Ontario into Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Henry dies two year later at the age of 41, but as a free man. [University Buffalo][McAndrew, M] 

    The day after Jerry’s escape, Gerrit Smith preached at the Liberty Party convention, “[Secretary of State] that Daniel Webster, while in Syracuse last Spring, exultingly and insultingly predict that fugitive slaves would be taken away from Syracuse and even from anti-slavery conventions in Syracuse. The attempt to fulfill this prediction was delayed until the first day of October, 1851, when the Liberty party of the State of New York held their annual convention in Syracuse.  The attempt was defeated by the mighty uprising of 2,500 brave men.  Resolved, we rejoiced that the City of Syracuse- the anti-slavery city- the city of anti-slavery conventions, our beloved and glorious city of Syracuse- still remains undisgraced by the fulfillment of the satanic prediction of the satanic Daniel Webster.” [Knoblauch, E]

    Nineteen indictments were served against Jerry’s rescuers. Rev. Loguen was among them. Loguen, was also a fugitive from slavery, escaped to Canada until tensions in Syracuse eased. [University Buffalo] All nineteen suspects were bailed out by William Seward (former New York governor, later US Senator and of the Seward's folly fame). [Knoblauch, E][University Buffalo] 

    Shortly after the rescue, the city of Syracuse renamed the Townsend Block the ‘Jerry Rescue Building’ in commemoration of the event. The building was largely commercially used, erected in 1829 on the south side of Clinton Square. [Freethought] This was the site of annual celebrations of the rescue with speakers who included figures such as Gerrit Smith, Frederick Douglas, Thomas Wentworth Higgins, and Harriett Tubman. Some of the addresses are preserved in the Syracuse University Collection. [Knoblauch, E] In 1990, The Jerry Rescue was memorialized with a monument in Clinton Square in downtown Syracuse. The sculpture, by Sharon BuMann, depicts Jerry as he was being broken out of jail across the street where the actual jail stood.  At his sides in the sculpture are May and Loguen. [WAER]  

    A national example had been set for the rest of America in resisting the Fugitive Slave Act because Syracuse has ALWAYS believed #BlackLivesMatter. 

 

Bibliography

 

Bolt, Chris. “Jerry Rescue Facts, Slaves Hidden at Restaurant, Women's Rights Abolitionist: Unknown Underground.” WAER. Syracuse University, February 27, 2017. https://www.waer.org/post/jerry-rescue-facts-slaves-hidden-restaurant-womens-rights-abolitionist-unknown-underground

Calzo, Nicola Lo. “Explore the Underground Railroad's 'Great Central Depot'.” Visit the Underground Railroad's 'great central depot' in Syracuse, New York, February 28, 2019. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/02/great-central-depot-underground-railroad-new-york/#close

“Jerry Rescue Monument.” Freethought Trail. Accessed June 6, 2020. https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:jerry-rescue-monument/

Knoblauch, Edward H. “The Jerry Rescue.” New York History Net. Accessed June 6, 2020. http://www.nyhistory.com/gerritsmith/jerry.htm

McAndrew, Mike. “Bold Raid Freed a Man.” CNY Central News. Syracuse.com, February 14, 2005. https://www.syracuse.com/news/2005/02/bold_raid_freed_a_man.html

NPS Teacher Lesson Plans. “An American Story - THE JERRY RESCUE of 1851.” nps.gov. NPS.gov, n.d. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwia7aKRiOzpAhUaG80KHQCrCToQFjAAegQIBRAB&url=https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/teachers/lessonplans/The-Jerry-Rescue Activities.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0uX_l5givTP6NPtwFWaTvG.

“Today in History: The Jerry Rescue.” Onondaga Historical Association. Onondaga Historical Association, October 2, 2017. https://www.cnyhistory.org/2014/10/jerry-rescue/

“What Are Teamwork Skills: Build Skills For Life And Work: Young Professional.” Youth Employment UK, n.d. https://www.youthemployment.org.uk/young-professional-training/teamwork-skills-young-professional/

“William ‘Jerry’ Henry's Escape.” African American History of Western New York 1830 to 1865. University Buffalo. Accessed June 6, 2020. http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/henry.william.jerry.html