Marshall

A vibrant economic and political hub of Calhoun County, Marshall vied with Lansing for the status of Michigan's state capitol in 1847. During the 1840's, Marshall residents expressed strong antislavery sentiments through the press, political organizations and community resistance to slavery. In addition to hosting a meeting of the Michigan Antislavery Society in 1842, Marshall residents helped create one of Michigan's most notable responses to slavery in 1847. Four years earlier, Sarah, Adam and the four Crosswhite children escaped the enslavement of Francis Giltner in Carroll County Kentucky and settled in Marshall. In 1847, Giltner sent his nephew David, grandson Francis Troutman others to Marshall to recapture the Crosswhite family. Arriving in Marshall in the dark, early morning hours, Giltner and Troutman broke into the Crosswhite home and attempted to convince Sarah and Adam to either return to Kentucky or seek the assistance of the court system to determine their status. Several African Americans residents arrived first at the scene and were soon joined by European American residents. Adam first considered accompanying them to the court, but then joined Sarah in her refusal to go with them.

Having first assisted Giltner and Troutman, the Deputy Sheriff arrested the Kentuckians for assault, battery and housebreaking. Two days later, the Marshall justice of the Peace fined them for the crime. While the sheriff held Giltner and Troutman in jail, the Crosswhites escaped to Jackson, Detroit and then Buxton, Ontario in Canada. A year later, Frances Giltner took federal legal action in the U.S. Circuit Court for the Eastern District in Detroit against seven black and white residents of Marshall and one black man from Kalamazoo for assisting the Crosswhite's in their escape to Canada. The jury could not reach a verdict and in a second trial against only one of the original defendants, Charles Gorham. In that trial Judge John McLean found in favor of Giltner and ordered him to pay the Kentuckian compensation for the loss of the Crosswhites.

Sherwood, John C. One Flame in the Inferno, Heritage Battle Creek, 1999

Giltner v. Gorham et al, Circuit Court of the United States District of Michigan, Federal Records