History of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue

The Oberlin?Wellington Rescue of 1858 was a key event in the history of abolitionism in America. John Price, a Black man who had been enslaved on a farm in Mason County, Kentucky, fled to Oberlin, Ohio, in 1856 where he lived and worked for two years. On September 13, 1858, a group of men seized Price and took him nine miles south to the Wadsworth House hotel in Wellington, Ohio to begin the journey back to enslavement in Kentucky. By noon that day, news had reached Oberlin and inspired abolitionists to march south to secure Price's release. Six hundred citizens from Oberlin and Wellington surrounded the Wadsworth House. When it became clear that negotiations with the captors were not successful, the crowd sprang into action: three men rushed the door guards to begin a diversionary struggle in the hotel. Theology student Richard Winsor led Price out through a window to a buggy and rushed him back to Oberlin. Future Oberlin College President James Fairchild harbored Price in his home until Price's escape to Canada was secured.…