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The Abduction of Calvin Fairbank

Back in the day on November 9th, 1852, Reverend Calvin Fairbank was kidnapped from Indiana and taken to Kentucky. The abolitionist minister was promptly incarcerated in Louisville for assisting the escape of a so-called fugitive slave and her assistant. Fairbank had already been imprisoned previously for similar supposed “crimes,” serving five years of a fifteen year sentence before being pardoned. This time around, as Indiana government and law enforcement officials allowed for his abduction, the dedicated abolitionist stood trial and was once more handed down a fifteen year prison sentence. Fairbank would go on to serve another twelve years in confinement where his health deteriorated. He was once again pardoned, this time by acting Governor Richard Jacob in 1864.

Reflecting on the years of his life lost in prison, Fairbank wrote, “I have suffered from hunger, cold, sickness, insult, corporal punishment, and discontent. But all these sink away into thin air, into dim, distant nothingness – I count them all joy for righteousness’ sake.”

For Uprising, this is your truth professa’ saying it’s no mystery why they conceal our people’s history