Not on Our Watch: the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue of 1858

Presented by The Groveport Heritage and Preservation Society & Kelton House Players

A historical reenactment based on the Nat Brandt book The Town that Started the Civil War.

On the eve of the Civil War, 37 ordinary citizens, both black and white, from the towns of Oberlin and Wellington were arrested for violating the Fugitive Slave Law. They had helped a young fugitive John Price escape to freedom in Canada. Democratic President James Buchanan wanted these upstarts from Ohio’s Western Reserve punished to the full extent of the law. The rescuers refused to post bail stating the law was unconstitutional and unlawful in God’s eyes. Thus, the stage was set for a major states’ rights conflict against the federal government that threatened to tear the nation apart in 1859 with the northern states seceding from the Union. Hear the rescuers explain the story in their own words.