Jermain Loguen Published His Slave Narrative and Defied Recapture Publicly

Jermain Loguen, AME Zion bishop in Syracuse who had escaped Tennessee slavery by horse, published 'The Rev. J.W. Loguen as a Slave and as a Freeman' (1859). When his former enslaver wrote demanding $1,000 or his return, Loguen published his refusal in the Syracuse Standard: 'I stand among a free people, who, I thank God, sympathize with my rights and the rights of mankind.' His defiance was celebrated throughout the North.