Adam Crosswhite (1799-1878) was a freedom seeker at the center of a controversial fugitive slave rescue in 1847 that led many slaveholders to call for harsher federal fugitive slave legislation. Crosswhite, wife Sarah, and their four children John Anthony, Benjamin Franklin, Cyrus Jackson, and Lucretia, escaped from Kentucky in 1843 and settled at Marshall, Michigan. When slave catchers caught up with the Crosswhites there in January 1847, local residents defended the family and aided their escape.
ROLES: Freedom Seeker