Biography
Charles Langston was a free Black abolitionist and educator (and grandfather of the poet Langston Hughes). Charles Langston was one of the leaders of the 1858 Oberlin–Wellington Rescue, in which black and white townspeople freed the recaptured freedom seeker John Price. Tried in Cleveland and convicted under the Fugitive Slave Act, he delivered a famous address to the court on why he could not respect a law that denied his people justice; he was jailed and fined. (Recorded as Charles Henry Langston)
Charles Langston was an abolitionist, educator and grandfather of the poet Langston Hughes. In 1858 he led the Oberlin–Wellington Rescue, in which abolitionists freed an escaped slave John Price after he was caught by slave catchers. He was convicted under the Fugitive Slave Act after he stated to the court he could not respect a law that denied his people justice. He was sentenced to twenty days in jail and a fine.
PDF464 expressly dates Langston sentencing hearing May12,1859; PDF472 completes sentence: $100,20days from date in Cuyahoga County Jail.
