Footsteps to Freedom 1999: Day Four

Update posted on Tue, Jan 25, 2000, at 12:42:27 PM Pacific Daylight Time.

Westwood Cemetery
Oberlin, OH

Multimedia Available for this Event. Go to Multimedia Page.

The story of Lee Howard Dobbins is a sad one. He was a four-year-old slave foster child running from Kentucky with a slave woman named Miriam. Upon reaching Oberlin, Lee was too sick to continue the journey so a family agreed to care for him while Miriam and her family continued their flight north. It was too dangerous for them to stay in Oberlin for any length of time. Lee died of consumption on March 26, 1853. Nearly 2,000 citizens of Oberlin turned out for his funeral at First Church. Lee Howard Dobbins is buried in Westwood Cemetery.

We had the opportunity to view performances of "John Price" by Jerry Gore, "Chauncy Wack" by Scott Medwid (see our Monroe House visit), and "Mrs. Mary Fairchild" by Sam Lyle-Medwid. Also helping out were Scott and Sam's daughters, who were a big hit with our group. Clara (in red) was "Alice Fairchild," and Glenna (in blue) was "Glenna Fairchild." The re-enactments described from three perspectives the famous Wellington-Oberlin Rescue.

Citizens of Oberlin came out in numbers to rescue John Price, an escaped slave, who had lived in Oberlin, more or less openly, for about three, no doubt, worry-filled years, before he was arrested on September 13, 1858 and taken to the nearby town of Wellington to await a train which would carry him back to his former owner in Kentucky. Price was being held in a rooming house by a slave catcher and two United States federal marshals, operating under the authority of the 'fugitive slave' section of the Compromise of 1850, which put more teeth than ever into the legislation that required every public official to act as a slave catcher, if required. The staunch abolitionists of Oberlin found this law unacceptable, and thus, when John Price was enticed out of Oberlin and arrested, the Oberlinians rallied, and 200 to 300 of them set out after Price. The Oberlinians located Price, carried him away from the authorities by threat of force. Price spent the night back in Oberlin, and departed the next day for Canada, never to be heard of again. This event resulted in the arrest and fining of between 30-40 Oberlin men. Oberlin later brought counter charges against the slavecatcher. Oberlin's defiance of the Federal Fugitive Slave Act became a national issue.

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