After the ‘King of the Underground Railroad’ escaped from slavery, he led 1,500 others to freedom

by KELLIE B. GORMLY

Jermain Wesley Loguen’s former enslaver offered to relinquish her claim on him in exchange for $1,000. But Loguen refused as a matter of principle, even turning down others’ offers to pay the fee. ILLUSTRATION by Meilan Solly/ via Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons under public domain

Jermain Wesley Loguen opened his home to fugitives fleeing the South. He publicized this work openly, risking arrest or even re-enslavement

Twenty-six years after he escaped from slavery in Tennessee and fled north, the Reverend Jermain Wesley Loguen received a letter at his home in Syracuse, New York, from the woman who still considered herself his owner. He had run away from Sarah Logue’s plantation in 1834, taking a mare named Old Rock with him. Now, Logue was in desperate need of money—and she planned to get it from Loguen.

In her February 1860 letter, Logue wrote that she “had determined to sell you.” A potential buyer had already made an offer, but Logue believed she had a better idea: She wanted Loguen to send her $1,000 (nearly $40,000 today) as compensation for her losses. In return, she would release her claim on him. Because of Loguen’s escape and horse theft, Logue claimed, she’d been forced to sell two of his siblings, Abe and Ann, as well as 12 acres of land. She hoped to buy back the land with the money sent by Loguen.

If Loguen refused, Logue warned that she would arrange for his sale to a different enslaver. “You may rest assured that the time is not far distant when things will be changed with you,” Logue wrote, adding, “You had better comply with my request.”

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