Jackson

Ripon, Wisconsin claims to have birthed the Republican party in March of 1854, but Jackson, Michigan also claims this status by pointing to the fact that the large numbers of anti-slavery activists who resented the Kansas Nebraska Act organized the first formal meeting on July 6,1854. Whether the formation of that party came from a formal or informal meeting, Jackson County residents and African Americans passing through, made that county a pulse of activity well before the July 1854 meeting known as "Under the Oaks." Three years after Michigan's first meeting of the Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society in Ann Arbor in 1836, William M. Sullivan of Jackson formed Michigan's first anti-slavery newspaper, the American Freeman. In 1839, the newspaper's name changed to the Michigan Freeman under the editorship of Seymour B. Treadwell who had recently moved to Jackson from New York State. While living in Rochester, New York, he participated in anti-slavery activity he began in Albion New York in 1830 and published a book entitled American Liberties and American Slavery Morally and Politically Illustrated in 1838. Treadwell continued his anti-slavery activity as an active member of the Liberty and Free Soil Parties who advocated for the abolition of slavery.

In 1841, the Michigan Freeman became the Signal of Liberty, the national newspaper for the Liberty Party that called for the immediate abolition of slavery. With its' new home in Ann Arbor, the Signal published local, state, national and international news as it related to the struggle against slavery. Signal editors frequently interviewed African Americans who passed through Washtenaw County as they escaped slavery in places like Missouri and Kentucky. One such Jackson story appeared within the first year of its' publication.

On June 5, 1841 an African American man known only as Sylvester, arrived in Ann Arbor on his way to Canada after narrowly escaping the men who sought to return him to slavery in Missouri. Sylvester however, had not just arrived from Missouri, but from an unrevealed length of time in the fledgling Jackson Prison. Sylvester reported to the editors of the Signal, Theodore Foster and/or Guy Beckley, that while he was enslaved in Missouri, he had worked as a blacksmith and served as a steward on the Mississippi and its branches. Having frequently visited states without slavery, Sylvester reported that he wanted to receive the benefits of his labor and escaped to Detroit. During the time he lived in Detroit, an officer of the law attempted to recapture another African American who had escaped from slavery. African Americans in the community failed in their attempt to rescue him and Sylvester was accused and convicted of "attempting to kill by snapping a pistol at a white man during the affray." The judge sentenced Sylvester to five years in the temporary prison. Some time after, Sylvester received a pardon from what appears to be governor James Wright Gordon and, before prison officials released Sylvester, someone notified Missourians of the situation. Three people who sought to recapture him arrived in the Jackson area in April and visited a local church. While the Missourians listened to a sermon on the death of the president William H. Harrison, Sylvester left the prison, stopped in Ann Arbor and moved on to Canada. Gordon would go on to help raise funds to help pay for U.S Circuit Court fines for Charles T. Gorham and others in the trial to determine the legal status of Adam and Sarah Crosswhite in 1848.

John Edgar Kephart, A Voice for Freedom.

Morrice Dixon Ndukwu Anti-Slavery in Michigan 1979.

Signal of Liberty, Bentley Historical Library

The Michigan State Prison Jackson 1837-1928, Michigan Historical Library Website.