Reverend Calvin Fairbank © House Divided Project, Dickenson College Reverend Calvin Fairbank served nearly twenty years in prison for helping forty-­seven enslaved men and women reach freedom in the North. Born in 1816, Fairbank began transporting runaways across the Ohio River in 1837. Once in Ohio he took them to Levi Coffin who would escort them further north and into Canada. He helped rescue Lewis Hayden, who would go to be one of Boston’s most prominent black abolitionists. This rescue was also the cause of his first imprisonment in 1845. He was sentenced a second time in 1852 for helping an enslaved woman named Tamar. Kentucky Lieutenant Governor Richard Jacob pardoned him in 1864. 1 Calvin Fairbank was born November 3, 1816 in Pike (now Wyoming County), New York. His parents raised him with an “innate sense of impartial liberty and equality, of inalienable right without regard to race, color, descent, sex or position” (Fairbank 8). In his autobiography Fairbank credits his dedication to abolitionism to an encounter with a formerly enslaved woman. His family was attending a quarterly Methodist meeting and made the acquaintance of an enslaved woman. The woman told them about her experiences in slavery, including being separated from her husband and family. Fairbank was profoundly affected by her story and vowed to oppose slavery from then on. “My heart wept, my anger was kindled, and antagonism to slavery was fixed upon me” (Fairbank 7). He moved to Lima, New York in 1839 to attend seminary and was ordained as a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1842 (Fairbank 6). He also attended Oberlin Theological Seminary but left to devote his time to helping runaways escape. He first began helping the enslaved in April 1837. While drifting down the Ohio River on a wooden raft, Fairbank spotted a black man walking along the banks of the river and offered to help him escape slavery in Virginia (now West Virginia). The man, Sam Johnson, boarded the raft, and Fairbank took him to Ohio (Fairbank 12). He directed Johnson to find refuge with a Mr. Schneider who would help him the rest of the way. Fairbank began venturing into Southern states to rescue more enslaved people. He rescued a young girl who was the product of five generations of incest (Fairbank 18). During many of his rescues he would take fugitives to Levi Coffin who would help them get to Canada. He also met John Rankin and other Ripley, Ohio abolitionists as he helped fugitives escape slavery. One of his most daring ventures was purchasing a young enslaved woman at a Lexington auction block. Eliza was her master’s daughter and was, as Fairbank describes her, more white than black. She was self-­‐educated and was accomplished in literature and social manners (Fairbank 26). Perhaps angry about her husband’s infidelity and jealous of Eliza’s accomplishments, Eliza’s mistress made arrangements for her to be sold on the auction block. While in prison awaiting auction, Eliza recognized Fairbank and tapped on a window to get his attention. He met with her and immediately agreed to help her. Fairbank went to Cincinnati to ask Levi Coffin, Solomon P. Chase, Nicholas Longworth and Samuel Lewis to help him raise money to purchase her. He returned to Lexington with twenty-­‐two hundred seventy-­‐five dollars in cash, and a note permitting him to bid up to twenty-­‐five hundred “if necessary to save the girl” (Fairbank 27). Two thousand people from around the country attended the auction. Among them was a “short, thick-­‐necked, black-­‐eyed” Frenchman from New Orleans who had previously agreed to purchase Eliza from her mistress (Fairbank 27). The auctioneer presented Eliza to the audience, taking time to note her “exquisite qualities as a mistress for any gentleman” and began the bidding at two hundred and fifty dollars. Soon the bidding was higher than most could afford, or were willing to pay, leaving Fairbank and the Frenchman to a bidding war. When Fairbank bid twelve hundred dollars, the Frenchman asked, “how high are you going 2 to bid?” Raising the bid another one hundred dollars, Fairbank replied “higher than you do, Monsieur…you cannot raise money enough to take her” (Fairbank 28). Eager to elevate the war, the auctioneer unbuttoned Eliza’s dress, exposing her entire body to the crowd, and shouted, “Look here, gentlemen! Who is going to lose such a chance as this? Here is a girl fit to be the mistress of a king!” (Fairbank 29). His boorish display excited the crowed and reengaged several other men to bid for her. To regain control Fairbank bid fourteen hundred and seventy-­‐five dollars. The Frenchman countered with a final bid five dollars higher. As the auctioneer prepared to bring his gavel to the block and announce the sale, Fairbank bid fourteen hundred and eighty-­‐five dollars, winning Eliza and ending the bidding war. He took her to Cincinnati where it had been arranged that a white family would adopt her and conceal her black ancestry (Fairbank 33). A year later, Fairbank was imprisoned in Lexington, Kentucky for helping Lewis Hayden escape. In his plan to help Lewis Hayden and his family, Fairbank would need to pass through Ripley, Ohio—a small abolitionist town on the banks of the Ohio River. He left Kentucky to learn the route to Ripley and to meet with abolitionists like John Rankin. After initially being mistaken as a slave catcher, the Ripley abolitionists agreed to help the Hayden family once Fairbank delivered them across the river. He recruited Vermont abolitionist Delia A. Webster to help him take the Haydens out of Kentucky (Fairbank 47). On Saturday September 28, 1844 Fairbank, Webster and the Hayden family left Lexington and headed for Ripley, Ohio. As planned, Fairbank took the family through Ripley, Ohio, where he left Webster, and continued further into Hopkins, Ohio. He returned to Ripley to gather Webster so they could return to Lexington. Upon entering the city, the pair was followed and taken to prison (Fairbank 49). Fairbank and Webster were indicted on three charges that combined carried a sixty-­‐
year sentence. Their lawyers, Sam Shy and Leslie Coombs, were able to get them tried separately. Webster was sentenced to two years in prison; Fairbank was sentenced to fifteen years. He represented himself during his trial and boldly addressed the jury saying: Gentlemen of the jury, ‘but for the grace of God there goes John Bunyan.’ Had I been born and educated here, I might have been as you are. But thank God I am what I am, and I would that ye all were as I am, except these bonds. Your Honor, and gentlemen of the jury, are you aware that by the strict rules of legal interpretation you have no legal slavery? That there is not a slave legally held in the United States of America? There is not a state in the Union in which slavery exists by positive law. (Fairbank 53) The jury found him guilty and sentenced him to fifteen years of hard labor at the penitentiary in Frankfort, Kentucky. Fairbanks began his sentence on February 18, 1845. In 1849 his father arrived in Kentucky with signed petitions demanding his son’s pardon. Sadly his father became ill and died of cholera months after his arrival 3 (Fairbank 56). His father’s efforts were not in vain. On August 23, 1849 Governor John J. Crittenden pardoned Fairbank after spending four years, ten months and twenty-­‐four days in prison. After his release Fairbank made his way to Cincinnati where famous abolitionists Levi Coffin, Samuel Lewis, Solomon P. Chase and Laura Haviland welcomed him openly. He toured the Midwest speaking about his experiences. While in Detroit he was reunited with the Coleman family—an enslaved family he helped in 1841. He stayed with this family for several days before continuing to Sandusky, Ohio (Fairbank 64). While in Sandusky, he helped six enslaved men and women escape to Canada. He returned to New York visiting Buffalo and Little Genesee—where his mother and brothers lived—before returning to his hometown. In Boston he became acquainted with William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Abbey Foster, Gerrit Smith, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and other internationally known abolitionists. He worked with these abolitionists to fight the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and was present at the Liberty Party Convention of 1851. In the midst of these activities, Fairbank felt compelled to return to Kentucky and bring his father’s body back to New York. In November 1851 he returned to Kentucky. Before he could locate and transfer his father’s body, he agreed to help rescue and enslaved woman named Tamar from the auction block in Louisville. He got Tamar into Indiana before he was captured and taken to prison. With his trial date not until February 18, 1852, Fairbanks’ colleagues, including Laura Haviland and Lewis Hayden, used the coming months to raise awareness of his predicament and work to postpone the trial date in order to secure defense (Fairbank 97). Their efforts were unsuccessful and Fairbank was tried without defense and sentenced to another fifteen years in prison. His prison sentence was brutal, receiving thousands of rawhide lashes. Lieutenant Governor Richard Jacob pardoned him on April 28, 1864, but the abuse he suffered in prison took a significant toll on his health, making it difficult to earn a living. Calvin Fairbank died in poverty in Angelica, New York on October 12, 1898. 4 Works Cited & Further Reading Fairbank, Calvin. Rev. Calvin Fairbank During Slavery Times: How He “Fought the Good Fight” to Prepare “The Way”. Chicago: R. R. McCabe & Co., 1890. Siebert, Wilbur. The Underground Railroad from slavery to freedom. London: Macmillan & Co., 1898. 5