COLUMBUS, Oct. 19th, 1853.

MR. EDITOR:—

Pursuant to public notice, a large and en
thusiastic meeting of colored citizens of Col
umbus, convened at the First Anti-Slavery
Baptist Church to take into consideration and
determine the best course to pursue in refer
ence to the kidnapping of one Lewis, who
was wickedly and clandestinely decoyed from
our county on Saturday, the 15th instant, and
dragged before a commissioner in Cincinnati,
to be tried as a fugitive slave.

The meeting was organized by D. JenkinsJenkins, David

David Jenkins (c. 1816–76) was a Black abolitionist from Columbus, Ohio. Born in Virginia and educated at Oberlin College, Jenkins was described by Martin R. Delany as a highly skilled craftsman: “[He] received by contract, the painting, glazing, and papering of some of the public buildings of the State, in autumn 1847. He is much respected in the capital city of his state, being extensively patronized, having on contract, the great ‘Neill House,’ and many of the largest gentlemen’s residences in the city and neighborhood, to keep in finish. Mr. Jenkins is a very useful man and member of society.” Interested in the elevation of Black people in Ohio, Jenkins organized a debating society in Columbus and was active in the Masonic Lodge and in the temperance and abolition movements. He organized the first state convention for Blacks in Ohio in 1844 and was elected vice president and appointed to the central committee during Ohio’s State Colored Convention held in Cleveland on 11 September 1852. Jenkins was a delegate from Ohio at the Colored National Convention held in Rochester in July 1853 and was appointed to its finance committee. During the Civil War, he served as a recruiting agent at Camp Delaware. Jenkins was elected vice president of the Equal Rights League Convention held on 21 September 1865 in Cleveland and was appointed sergeant at arms for the 1867 State Convention of Colored People in Columbus. Jenkins removed to Mississippi in 1872 and became a member of that state’s legislature. He died suddenly in Canton, Mississippi in 1876 and foul play was immediately suspected. Frederick Douglass' Paper, 15 September 1843, 1 October 1852, 20 May, 15 July 1853; Liberator, 21 July 1865; Daily Cleveland Herald, 25 July 1863, 21 September 1865; Ripley (Ohio) Bee, 10 July 1867; Ohio State Journal, 25 February 1870; Cincinnati Commercial, 17 April 1872; Cincinnati Daily Gazette, 27 September 1876; Cincinnati Daily Times, 13 September 1876; New York Age, 16 January 1892; 1870 U.S. Census, Ohio, Franklin County, 55; Delany, Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People, 118; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:73.
being chosen President, and C. H. Langston
appointed Secretary. The meeting was for
cibly addressed by Messrs. Jenkins, Taylor
Booker, Furgerson, Langston and others, on
the black, fiendish and damnable character
of the act we had met to consider.

The following committees were then ap
pointed: L. D. Taylor and J. Booker were
appointed to confer with Messrs. Birney and
[illegible] touching evidence that could be fur
nished in this county to establish the freedom
of the alleged fugitive. This conference was
immediately carried on by telegraph, and by
the advice of counsel, an effort is now be
ing made to get a writ of habeas corpus, and
have the man return here for trial.

A Committee consisting of C. H. Langston,
J. H. Johnson, Wm. B. Furgerson, John Book
er, L. D. Taylor, were appointed to draft res
olutions expressive of the sense of the com
munity, touching the inhuman and outrage
ous conduct of the fiends "which" felonious
ly dragged from our midst "a man and broth
er," without even the forms of law.

D. Jenkins, J. Jones and John Booker were
also appointed a committee to employ coun
cil and have the kidnappers brought to jus
tice if possible.

[We learn from Cincinnati that the man
LEWIS has escaped.—ED.]

The meeting then appointed the following
gentlemen to represent Franklin County
in the Convention, to assemble at Dayton, the
26th inst.

J. T. Ward, L. D. Taylor, J. Booker, James
Evans, C. H. Langston, E. Davis, J. H. John
son, D. Sulavoo, Isaac Johnson, P. Letchford
D. Trent, H. Johnson, J. Caviter, G. Sur
botts.

On motion the meeting adjourned to
meet on Monday to hear the reports of the
several committees.

D. JENKINS, Pres.

C. H. LANGSTON, Sec'y.