Flight of the 28

He pretended to be a farmer, but when John Fairfield went to Boone County, Kentucky in 1853, he wasn’t there to sell vegetables. He was there to free slaves—as many as he could find who were willing to risk escape. If they were caught running away, slaves would be beaten, killed, or sold further down South so they couldn’t try to escape again. Fairfield finally found twenty-eight slaves who wanted to escape. His plan was to take a boat full of people up the Ohio River to Cincinnati, Ohio. Then the slaves could stay in safe houses all the way to Canada. Sadly, however, the team was slowed down by muddy riverbanks and didn’t reach Cincinnati until dawn. Twenty-eight fugitive slaves faced traveling through a city in broad daylight. No one had any idea what to do, so Fairfield went to find help, while the slaves huddled in a ravine by the river.  With every passing minute, their fear of capture grew and grew. 

Levi Coffin, Fairfield’s friend and fellow abolitionist, had many safe houses on the other side of Cincinnati, but Fairfield’s twenty-eight still had to make it through the city without being identified. Desperate and scared, the two friends devised a plan. Weslan Cemetery was one of the first to allow black and white burials, and Coffin knew that. Fairfield could pose as an undertaker leading a funeral procession made up of black and white people. The slaves would cross through town posing as mourners at the procession. Weslan Cemetery was not far from one of Coffin’s safe houses, and the party could hide there on their way to Canada. It was crazy, but it was a plan. As the group started down the city streets they were all terrified of being caught and captured. But, incredibly, viewers saw them following a coffin and bowed their heads in respect of the dead. All the slaves entered Weslan cemetery and eventually made it to Canada.