Jermain Wesley Loguen, born into slavery on this day in 1813, was an abolitionist, bishop of the AME Church, and author of "The Reverend J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman, a Narrative of Real Life".

At the age of 21, he escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad, and his home as a free man went on to become a major stop in the railroad. He also founded schools for black children in Utica and his city of resident, Syracuse, New York.

On October 1st, 1851, an enslaved man he was harboring known as "Jerry" was arrested under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The anti-slavery Liberty Party was holding its state convention in the city and, when word of the arrest spread, several hundred abolitionists broke into the city jail and freed Jerry. The event came to be widely known as the "Jerry Rescue".