1. Calvin Fairbank was an American abolitionist and Methodist minister from New York state who was twice convicted in Kentucky of aiding the escape of slaves, and served a total of 19 years in the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Frankfort.
17 Facts About Calvin Fairbank
1. 2.
Calvin Fairbank was arrested in 1851 with the aid of the governor of Indiana, who was enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
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Calvin Fairbank was convicted again in Kentucky and served the full sentence of 15 years.
4.
Calvin Fairbank was born in 1816 in Pike, in what is Wyoming County, New York, to Chester Fairbank and his wife; he grew up in an intensely religious family environment.
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Calvin Fairbank began his career freeing slaves in 1837 when, piloting a lumber raft down the Ohio River, he ferried a slave across the river to free territory.
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The Methodist Episcopal Church licensed Calvin Fairbank to preach in 1840 and ordained him as a minister in 1842.
7.
At Oberlin, Fairbank met future AME bishop, John M Brown and the pair worked together in underground railroad activities.
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Calvin Fairbank was to help with the rescue, but Berry's wife failed to meet Fairbank as planned.
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Calvin Fairbank was tried in 1845 and sentenced to a 15-year term, five years for each of the slaves he helped free.
10.
Calvin Fairbank was pardoned in 1849 in an effort begun by his father.
11.
In 1851, Calvin Fairbank helped a slave named Tamar escape from Kentucky to Indiana.
12.
Over his combined imprisonment of more than 17 years, Calvin Fairbank was reported to have received 35,000 lashes in prison floggings.
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Finally, in 1864, three years into the American Civil War, Fairbank was pardoned by Acting Governor Richard T Jacob, who had long advocated the activist's release.
14.
Once free, Calvin Fairbank married Mandana Tileston, to whom he had been engaged for thirteen years, since his brief period of freedom in 1851.
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Calvin Fairbank died of cancer on February 12,1901, in Angelica, and was buried next to Calvin in the local cemetery.
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Calvin Fairbank was buried there in the Until the Day Dawn Cemetery.
17.
On October 22,2022, Rev Calvin Fairbank was inducted into the National Abolitionist Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro, New York.