Letter from J. W. Loguen.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ESQ: MY DEAR
FRIEND:—I would not intrude myself upon
the columns of your paper, if I did not feel
deeply interested in the same great cause
that it so ably advocates, and that it is doing
so much to forward. I am anxious that you
should have a long list of learned and able
correspondents, knowing that this would give
more credit and character to your columns
than the writings of a poor, obscure and un
lettered fugitive, such as I am—and especial
ly of one who is not only a fugitive, but a
prisoner, under the hellish Fugitive Slave
Law, for loving liberty, not only for myself,
but also for a brother Jerry. For this, I (with
others) to be tried in an American Court,
on the fourth Tuesday of September next,
at Canandaigua. In this I glory, I can well
assure you. I once traveled nine hundred
miles through the American wilderness, hav
ing many rivers to swim, many swamps to
traverse, many mountains to climb, and
many four-footed blood hounds to fight, be
cause I loved liberty better than I did sla
very. The Lord was on my side and helped
me through. And now, sir, I am to be tried
in a Republican Court of Justice for the
same horrid crime—for loving liberty for a
brother. Well, as I am no Baltimore platform
man, I am glad of it. I go for agitating, and
agitating again. I believe that slavery
has yet to be done away with, either by agi
tation or bloodshed. And I sometimes think
that I care not which. But of course, I
leave all this with the God of the oppressed,
hoping that one way or the other may open
quickly. My dear friend, I have an old
grey-headed mother, and sisters, and brothers,
all in slavery at this time. And, as God is
my judge, I would much rather, to-day, hear
of them swimming in blood, and nobly con
tending for their rights, even at the cost of
their own lives, than have them remain pas
sive slaves all the rest of their days. I would
willingly yield up my life, even on this con
secrated soil of Syracuse, rather than be a
slave again; and I feel ready to try titles at
any time with the slaveholder, or his meaner
lickspittles of the North. Death is sweeter
than slavery.

When I took up my pen, I did so with the
intention of saying something with regard
to my late tour in the good Temperance
State of Maine. I had a glorious time, I as
sure you, with the noble Maine Law men.—They are not only opposed to making man a
slave to rum, but they are also opposed to
making him a slave to his brother man—I
mean, of course, the true Maine Law men;
for they have hypocrites to contend with in
the temperance cause, just as we have them
in other good causes. They say that all
good causes have an affinity to each other—that one cannot progress without helping on
the others. So, I believe that all true tem
perance men are also abolitionists, and that
abolitionists are all temperance men and
women. The Maine Law is working glori
ously, under the guidance of such noble
souls as the Hon. NEAL DOW, Rev. A WILLEY,
GENERAL FESSENDEN, and many others of
like note, in Portland and elsewhere. Clean
work is made by the Maine Law, I assure
you. I traveled more than two hundred
miles in that State, and found there many
true friends of the slave. I also found three
gentlemen who are travelling in that State,
all the time, as lecturing agents. One of
them, named John Marshall, is trying to do
something to help our friend and brother,

Calvin FairbanksFairbank, Calvin

Born in Wyoming County, New York, the Reverend Calvin Fairbank (1816–98) was a Methodist preacher and abolitionist in Jeffersonville, Indiana. There, he helped forty- seven fugitive slaves escape from Kentucky. Later caught and sentenced to 300 lashes, he also served a four-year prison term. Undeterred, Fairbank resumed his Underground Railroad activities. He was arrested again in 1852 and sentenced to fifteen years in a Kentucky prison for another attempted slave rescue. Finally, in early 1864, Kentucky’s acting governor, Richard T. Jacob, pardoned and released Fairbank, who subsequently returned to upstate New York. Calvin Fairbank, Rev. Calvin Fairbank during Slavery Times(1890; New York, 1969), 3, 157, 184, 186, 191; Siebert, Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom, 157–59. , out of trouble. The
names of the other two, are —— Gurley
and Henry Gloucester. The latter is well
known in parts of the far West. He is a
brother of the Rev. James N. Gloucester, of
New York. They are all colored men, and
are doing good work. It is so said in
Maine. I should think it would be well, and
might do good, if these gentlemen would re
port themselves through Frederick Douglass'
Paper, in order that the world might know
what we are doing to help ourselves. For
the world is watching that publication. It
is, in truth, our world-wide organ. I think
they might do much in Maine to help the
Frederick Douglass' Paper. Do you rejoin,
"Ah! and so might you, brother Loguen!"
Well, I will. Please put me down for fifty
new subscribers, this year, commencing the
1st day of August, 1853; and if I do not ful
fill my engagement, I hope you will expose
me to the world for gross neglect of duty.

I left Maine, where I found many willing
to hear anti-slavery truth, long before I
wished, in order to attend the GREAT ROCH
ESTER CONVENTION; and I rejoice that I did
so. I regard that Convention as an era
in the history of the free colored people of
this country; and, as one not regarded as
being free by the laws of this land, I feel
deeply interested in the doings of that body.
The sight of the noble men whom I beheld
there was reviving to my soul. I had no
idea that such men lived, as yet, in the United
States. I had been accustomed to look at a
few who were mostly to be seen upon the
surface of the water. I tell you, my dear
sir, that we slaves (as the law calls us) thank
Almightly God for raising up such noble free
men as were in that Convention. Although
it was thought not to be wise, by some of the
delegates, to put any one of that assembly in
a very conspicuous position, unless he had
been born free, or in some way come in po
session of his freedom by law, I know that
you, friend Douglass, and many other noble
minds, did not sympathize was any such
idea, and would not do so, for a moment. So
I, as being identified with the slave portion
of this land, would not hear of such a thing,
but felt that I was regarded as a man among
men, and I yet feel so. I know that you and
many others are too pure to entertain such
feelings, and that you regard a man as a man,
be he bond or free. So, I am going to give
all my powers, to carry into effect, the doings
of that Convention, God helping me. Ex
cuse, my dear sir, the length of this letter,
as I do not trouble you often; and believe
me ever in the cause of oppressed hu
manity.

Sincerely yours,

J. W. LOGUENLoguen, Jermain Wesley

Jermain Wesley Loguen (c. 1810-72), son of a slave mother and his Tennessee owner, escaped to freedom in Canada in 1835. After working as a farm laborer and a hotel porter, he attended the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, New York. Loguen taught school in several New York communities and then became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. After passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Loguen moved to the comparative safety of Syracuse, where he was active in the Underground Railroad. In 1851, when indicted for his part in the Jerry Rescue, Loguen briefly fled to Canada. He later supported Gerrit Smith's Radical Abolition party and aided John Brown to recruit men for the Harpers Ferry raid. After the Civil War Loguen was elected a bishop of his denomination and championed missionary work among the freedmen. New York Daily Tribune, 1 October 1872; San Francisco Elevator, 5 October 1872; Quarles, Allies for Freedom, 39-44, 65-66, 73-75; idem. Black Abolitionists, 66-67, 154, 188; DAB, 11:368-69. .

SYRACUSE, Aug. 5th, 1853.