The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom: A comprehensive historySiebert, Wilbur Henry
History
The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom: A comprehensive history
Siebert, Wilbur Henry
Fugitive slaves -- United States; Underground Railroad
In spite of his incarceration for aiding slaves to escape, and in
the face of the heavier penalties laid by the new Fugitive Slave
Law, passed shortly after his release from prison, Calvin Fairbank
was soon engaged in similar enterprises. He declares, "I resisted
its [the law's] execution whenever and wherever possible."[494] A
little more than two years after his pardon Mr. Fairbank was again
arrested, this time in Indiana, for carrying off Tamar, a young
mulatto woman, who was claimed as property by A. L. Shotwell, of
Louisville, Kentucky. Without process of law Mr. Fairbank was taken
from the State of Indiana to Louisville, where he was tried in
February, 1853. He was again sentenced to the state prison for a
term of fifteen years, and while there was frequently subjected to
the most brutal treatment. Altogether Mr. Fairbank spent seventeen
years and four months of his life in prison for abducting slaves;
he says that during his second term he received at the hands of
prison officials thirty-five thousand stripes.[495] Having served
more than twelve years of his second sentence, he was pardoned by
acting Governor Richard T. Jacob. It was a singular occurrence
that finally enabled Mr. Fairbank to regain his liberty. Among the
friends upon whose favor he could rely was the lieutenant-governor
of Kentucky, Richard T. Jacob, the son-in-law of Thomas H. Benton,
of Missouri. Mr. Jacob was a man of strong anti-slavery tendencies,
notwithstanding his political prominence and his private interests
as a wealthy planter. The governor, Thomas E. Bramlette, was opposed
to extending the executive clemency to so notorious an offender as
Mr. Fairbank. Early in 1864 General Speed S. Fry was detailed by
President Lincoln to enroll all the negroes of Kentucky, but he
came into collision with Governor Bramlette, who sought to prevent
General Fry from carrying out his orders. Upon receiving information
to this effect the President summoned the executive of Kentucky to
Washington to answer to charges; and thereupon Mr. Jacob became
acting governor. On his first day in office the new executive of
Kentucky was accosted by General Fry with the remark, "Governor,
the President thinks it would be well to make this Fairbank's day."
On the morning following, the prisoner received a full and free
pardon.[496]
[494] _Ibid._
[495] _Rev. Calvin Fairbank During Slavery Times_, pp. 138, 144.
[496] _Rev. Calvin Fairbank During Slavery Times_, pp. 11,
104-143. See also the _Chicago Tribune_, Sunday, Jan. 29, 1893,
p. 33.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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