Our Common Humanity: The Oberlin Wellington Rescue (Part One)

Bodwin Productions Presents “A Common Humanity,” The Story of the Oberlin Wellington Rescue (1858).  “A Common Humanity” tells the true story of the 1858 Oberlin Wellington Rescue, an armed confrontation in which Oberlin residents restored the freedom of their Black neighbor John Price, who was abducted by a hired slavecatcher and former owner. The Oberlin Wellington Rescue illustrates the deep passion and division in America over slavery, foreshadowing our Civil War.

In 1858, a slavecatcher named Jennings paid a young man to lure John Price, a Black formerly enslaved individual, away from the protection he enjoyed in the City of Oberlin, where he lived openly for two years. Jennings and Bacon, the former slave owner, intended to transport Price to the nearby town Wellington, to board a train to return to Cincinnati and present Price to a local Judge to reestablish Bacon’s right as owner and return to Kentucky. Armed residents of Oberlin, perhaps as many as 500, rode out to Wellington, ultimately rescuing Price from a third floor hotel room and spiriting him back to Oberlin.
Having lost the ability to try and return Price, thereby showing the South that the North was serious in its desire to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law, the Federal government tried the rescuers, the thirty or more who helped Price regain freedom.  This is the story of a community rising up against slavery, illustrating the deep passion and emotional division between North and South that led to the ensuing Civil War.