This page needs to be proofread.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
53

fell thirteen feet to the tow-path of the canal; he managed to get away in the shadow of the building, and found his way to a surgeon’s office.

Jerry was found lying on the floor, bloody, almost naked, and bound in chains. He had proved himself a hero by fighting the whole United States in the persons of the President’s special Commissioners. He was provided with clothes and money, and the poor fellow never saw the city of Syracuse again by daylight. The next time we heard from him he was making barrels in Canada.

J. W. Loguen, (colored,) and several others, were equally active with Jo Norton in the Jerry rescue, but Jo was enthusiastic, brave and unselfish, strong, and nimble as a cat, and no one doubted his ability to lead in such an affray. The natural kindness of his disposition would lead him to prefer breaking the marshal’s arm to save his own life, rather than to break his head. Rev. J. W. Loguen, and several others, were arrested and taken to Albany, where they were tried for rescuing the slave, but the jury failed to agree upon a verdict. They were then sent for trial to Canandaigua, with the same result, and the prosecution was finally abandoned. For more than a year the Jerry rescue trials kept the State in great excitement, but no verdict was obtained against any one The Fugitive Slave Law was brought into contempt, and Northern dough-faces were taught a salutary lesson.

Joe could not be made to believe that it was possible to carry him out of Syracuse as a fugitive, but he might be taken to Albany or elsewhere to be tried for the part he had taken in behalf of Jerry, and away from his friends he would be liable to be arrested and carried back to slavery, for Col. H. had long known where he was. Therefore he concluded to sell his property and go to Canada. He settled in Toronto, where he was re-