Jermain Wesley Loguen

Jermain Wesley Loguen Synopsis

A gripping biography of a man who escaped slavery and became a key figure in the American abolitionist movement

Jermain Wesley Loguen (1813-1872) was a fugitive from slavery, an abolitionist, and a minister, teacher, and political activist. He worked alongside Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, and his home in Syracuse, New York, was among the most publicized Underground Railroad stations in the northern states. Loguen's political commitments in the years before the Civil War were carried out at great personal risk, for he had liberated himself from slavery in Tennessee and was in constant danger of being captured and reenslaved under the Fugitive Slave Law. Defiantly, however, he refused to purchase his own freedom, an act that he believed would have legitimized the rights of slaveholders. After emancipation, Loguen extended his work to aid freedpeople in the South and provide for local Black communities' education, welfare, and safety throughout upstate New York and Canada.

In this engaging study, Angela F. Murphy follows Loguen from his early years through his transformation into one of the brightest stars in the constellation of abolitionists and reformers in New York, bringing context to the dangers he faced as a fugitive and shining a light on his steadfast determination to create a better world.