Henry D. Niles

Released
Full name:Henry Niles
Gender:Male
Era:1800s
State:Ohio
Support
Abolitionism
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Biography

Henry D. Niles was a defendant in the 1858 Oberlin–Wellington Rescue of the freedom-seeker John Price. On May 6, 1859 he was sentenced to 24 hours in the county jail, a 20-dollar fine and costs, with the marshal treating the Cleveland city limits as the boundary of custody rather than a jail cell.

Custody record

The contemporary History of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue records a May 6, 1859 sentence of twenty-four hours, but explains that the marshal used Forest City House as the rendezvous and Cleveland’s city limits as the bounds of custody. This was nominal custody, not documented confinement in a jail cell.

Sources: Source 1.

Case

Charges: Aiding the 1858 Oberlin–Wellington Rescue of John Price, a fugitive from slavery, in violation of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
Sentenced: May 6, 1859
Sentence: 24-hour sentence (May 6–7, 1859); custody was largely nominal within the Cleveland city limits.
Prosecutor: George W. Belden (U.S. district attorney)
Convicted: Yes
Plead: No contest (recorded as nolle contendere), May 6, 1859.

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