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ROLE OF OBERLIN’S RELIGIOUS ROOTS IN 1858 RESCUE OF FUGITIVE SLAVE IS FOCUS OF NEW BOOK

JANUARY 10, 2003--"The often disregarded but important role of Oberlin’s religious roots" in one of the pivotal events in U.S. history is delineated in a book just released by the Oberlin College Archives.

The 1858 Oberlin-Wellington Rescue: A Reappraisal by Roland M. Baumann, archivist and adjunct professor of history at Oberlin College, re-examines the 1858 rescue of the fugitive slave John Price from Kentucky slave catchers in Wellington and the subsequent trial of the 37 rescuers in 1859.

"Price’s rescue was sparked by activists from the village of Oberlin, which has led to views that the Oberlin fervor displayed in this event properly earned it the sobriquet of being ‘the town that started the Civil War,’" Baumann says.

But in his book he details how their commitment to "religious obligation, equal educational opportunity, and political pacifism" impelled the Oberlinians to free Price "without the usual violence and mobbing associated with rescues of runaway slaves in the 1840s and 50s."

Baumann also emphasizes that among those rescuers were a number of black Americans who played a significant role in the event: "Oberlin’s residents embraced a form of racial harmony during the 1840s and 1850s that resulted in a ‘golden era of race relations."

"Twelve of the twenty-five rescuers from Oberlin who were arrested were black. Surely Oberlin was not typical of Lorain County in this respect, much less of Ohio and other Northern states," points out Frederick J. Blue in the Forward. Blue is emeritus professor of history at Youngstown University.

The impetus for Baumann’s 52-page work was the approach of the 150^th anniversary of the 1858 rescue as well as a long-standing awareness that "a scholarly, more interpretive and abridged version of this dramatic story was needed for the growing audience of readers interested in Oberlin’s Underground Railroad past," says Baumann, who is also a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists and a founding member of the Academy of Certified Archivists.

Media Contact: Betty Gabrielli