Adam Crosswhite

Adam Crosswhite was born into slavery on October 17, 1799, in Bourbon County, Kentucky. His mother was an enslaved woman, and his father was his first enslaver. His father gave him to his paternal aunt, Miss Crosswhite when he was a boy. His aunt married Ned Stone, a slave dealer, who later sold him for $200 to a man with the Troutman surname. When he was 20, Crosswhite was traded to Francis Giltner of Carroll County, Kentucky. Two years later, he married a woman named Sarah. Crosswhite fathered seven children by 1844. When he learned that Giltner intended to sell his eldest child, Crosswhite made plans to runaway with Sarah and four children in August 1843. ==Flight==

They traveled by skiff to Madison, Indiana, where they were met by conductors on the Underground Railroad. Traveling further north to Newport, Indiana, they were taken in and hidden by Quakers for several days because slave catchers were closing in on them. A local man portrayed himself as a slave hunter and offered to guide the Kentuckians to the hiding place of the Crosswhite family. He led them into a dense swamp and made an excuse to leave them. The slave catchers were lost in the woods all night. The family split up, with Sarah and two of their younger children traveling together and Crosswhite pushing on to southern Michigan. They met up five weeks later and settled in Marshall, Michigan, where there was an African-American community of about 50 people, most of whom fled Kentucky to escape slavery. They met up with some friends from Kentucky, and Crosswhite was offered employment. He purchased a house on the edge of town on East Mansion Street. His children attended the district school. His fifth child was born free in Michigan. ==Attempted recapture==

Fearing that he and his family would be captured and returned to slavery, he arranged with his neighbors that he would signal that his family was in danger by firing a single shot from a gun. Giltner hired Francis Troutman as his agent to locate the Crosswhites, who with the help of a spy from Kalamazoo, or more than 150 people. Later in the morning, Charles T. Gorham, a successful banker in Marshall, and several other leading citizens arrived to support and help resolve the dispute. Troutman was overwhelmed by the number of Marshall residents who prevented the Crosswhites from being abducted. They argued that Michigan was a free state under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the state constitution. Some stated that it was the Crosswhites' God-given right to be free. Urged on, Crosswhite decided to have the sheriff arrest Troutman and the other Kentuckians for breaking into his house and causing a disturbance. Local attorney John Van Arman represented the Crosswhites, giving a "scathing arraignment of the defendants" for breaking down the door, brandishing weapons, and attempting to separate the youngest child from its family. The slave catchers were convicted and fined $100. Troutman was to be tried in a higher court. Francis Giltner decided that, since he could not recapture the Crosswhite family, he sued Marshall residents that had protected the Crosswhites, including Charles T. Gorham. Giltner filed for $4,500 () in damages. The case Giltner v. Gorham et. al. was held at the U.S. Circuit Court of Michigan beginning on July 21, 1848. During the trial, Giltner's witnesses attested to the value of the Crosswhite family members. In October 1848, Crosswhite and his wife gave their depositions in Chatham. The trial was dismissed when the jurors could not agree. A second trial began on November 10 of that year, which resulted in fines of $1,925 () and costs, but there was no award for the value of the Crosswhites. Abolitionists, including Zachariah Chandler and Alanson Sheley, paid a large portion of the fine. ==Freedom==

Aided by Marshall residents, the Crosswhites were hidden and transported through the night to Jackson, where they boarded a train early in the morning. George Ingersoll traveled with the family, ensuring that they safely boarded the train to Detroit and made it across the Detroit River to Windsor, Ontario. ==Later years==

The Crosswhite family returned to Marshall after the end of the Civil War. and the Crosswhites are interred at the Oakridge Cemetery in Marshall. ==Legacy==

The Crosswhite affair received national attention, and pro-slavery factions called for a stricter fugitive law, which led to the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. As a result, there was a sterner gulf between the anti-slavery and pro-slavery movements. George M. Fuller wrote of the significance of the act, "perhaps as much as the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, aroused the North to resistance, brought together the anti-slavery Democrats, Whigs, Free-Soilers, into a new party, the Republican party, and that initiated the train of circumstances which led to the triumph of that party in 1860 and the preservation of the Union after four years of war." ==Popular culture==

• — Juvenile literature about the Crosswhite family • The Adam Crosswhite affair is documented at the Buxton National Historic Site and Museum in Ontario, Canada. ==Notes==