author

John Hossack

1806–1891

Best remembered for turning principle into action, this Scottish-American abolitionist became nationally known after being prosecuted for helping a fugitive slave escape capture in Illinois. His surviving speech and trial record offer a vivid first-person glimpse of the moral battles that helped define the years before the Civil War.

1 Audiobook

Speech of John Hossack, Convicted of a Violation of the Fugitive Slave Law Before Judge Drummond, Of The United States District Court, Chicago, Ill.

Speech of John Hossack, Convicted of a Violation of the Fugitive Slave Law Before Judge Drummond, Of The United States District Court, Chicago, Ill.

by John Hossack

About the author

Born in Elgin, Scotland, on December 6, 1806, he later settled in Illinois and became part of the antislavery movement in the American Midwest. His home near Ottawa is remembered as a stop on the Underground Railroad, and his name entered the public record after he helped Jim Gray, an enslaved man seeking freedom, avoid slave catchers.

In 1860, he was convicted under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, a case that made him widely known. Rather than retreat quietly, he left behind a powerful speech defending his actions, making his work valuable not only as history but also as a direct expression of conscience in a deeply divided era.

He died on November 8, 1891. Today, he is remembered less as a literary figure in the usual sense than as a courageous witness whose words preserve the human stakes of the fight against slavery.