Significance

In 1843, Wesleyan Methodists broke away from the Methodist Episcopal Church because they did not want to belong to a church that allowed slave owners to be members. As such, Wesleyan Methodists—both African American and European American--became some of the most active abolitionists and underground railroad supporters. Luther Lee was the Wesleyan minister in Syracuse in 1843 and from 1852-55. He was also an abolitionist lecturer, editor of the True Wesleyan, and active supporter of the underground railroad. At least family who were members of this church, the James Baker family, were freedom seekers themselves. This is the oldest church building still standing in Syracuse. With AME Zion Church members, the Unitarians, and the Congregationalists, the Wesleyans were also well-documented supporters of abolitionism and the underground railroad.

History

Converted to abolitionism while serving the Methodist church in Fulton, New York, Luther Lee preached his first anti-slavery lecture there in 1837. In 1839-40, he worked as an anti-slavery lecturer for the New York State Anti-Slavery Society. When the Wesleyan Methodist Connection was organized in Utica in 1843, Lee was one of its leaders, and he accepted the invitation of a small group from Syracuse, including Charles and Montgomery Merrick, who would become well-known abolitionists, to become their first minister. Meeting first in the Congregational Church and then, when the Unitarians built a new building, in the old Unitarian Church, the Wesleyans attracted many seceders from the Methodist Episcopal congregations. Although “my church was neither numerous nor wealthy,” Lee remembered, “a truer company of men and women never breathed.” In addition to his local work, Lee organized many other Wesleyan churches in the region and wrote prolifically for the True Wesleyan. (Lee, 252-53) He edited the True Wesleyan from 1844 to 1852.

While Lee was in New York City editing the True Wesleyan, he published an account of a group of nine freedom seekers, who came to the Wesleyan Church in Fulton, New York, probably forwarded by Wesleyans in Syracuse. They were “hotly pursued by worse than cannibals, and well nigh overtaken several times,” wrote P.M. Way, pastor of the Fulton Church.

The agent for the “under-ground rail-road” had to keep them hid three days in the woods, and carry them food—somewhat as God sent food to Elijah. Two of the number are members of the M.E. Church. . . .One of the fugitives is from a plantation where that noted slave-driver H.F. Slater, who is a proprietor, and owns the choicest pew in the big M.E. Church in Baltimore, took about fifty slaves on speculation for the Southern market.

The principal reason they assign for leaving their masters is the fear of being sold and driven South. One of the number is a blacksmith, an interesting and noble look fellow, for whom a large reward has been offered if returned to his mater “dead or alive.” Horrible! Is this a Christian country! Can Good look upon such things with impunity? We are to hold a public meeting this evening, and I hope to be able to introduce them appropriately to the community; and, before the sun sets to-morrow evening, we design having thewe “human cattle” introduced to Queen Victoria’s pasture.

P.M. Way

Fulton, N.Y., July 15, 1845

P.S. I break open this letter to say that news has just arrived that the man-hunters and owners of the above property are in Syracuse, and may be expected down today. We shall have, probably, to forward them on by the “under-ground rail-road.” (True Wesleyan, July 19, 1845)

In 1852, Luther Lee returned to Syracuse as pastor for the church he had organized nine years before. While in Syracuse, he also organized a Wesleyan reading room. In 1854, he engaged in a lengthy public debate with Samuel J. May over the doctrine of the Trinity, with Lee defending it and May opposing it. They spoke for eleven nights in City Hall, with two speeches apiece every evening. “Mr. May was a remarkable man,” wrote Lee, “not so much for his rpofound erudition, as for his gentlemanly bearing and benevolence. He was better known in the city than I was, but I offset his prestige by a frank, open, honest, and earnest manner.” This debate was published as Discussion of the doctrine of the trinity: between Luther Lee, Wesleyan minister, and Samuel J. May, Unitarian minister. (Syracuse: Wesleyan Book Room, 1854). (Lee, 285-86)

In 1855, Lee left Syracuse for Fulton and then to teach at Leoni College in Michigan. In 1856, he published Elements of Theology, outlining Wesleyan Methodist views, as well as several other works in succeeding years. Returning to Syracuse in 1860, he became a missionary for central New York, enduring a difficult winter of cold and sickness. (Lee, 197) He stayed until 1864, when he moved to Adrian, Michigan, to teach at a Wesleyan school.

In his autobiography, Luther Lee noted that “my life would appear imperfect indeed if nothing should be said about my connection with that wonderful institution, the ‘Under-ground Railroad.’”

The morality of assisting fugitive slaves was called into question by many in these early times; but I never had any scruples on the subject, nor had I much difficulty in defending myself on moral ground. My ground was that slavery was wrong, and hence all laws which aided and supported it must be wrong. Any law which requires a citizen to do a morally wrong act, or to omit the performance of a moral duty, has no binding force, and every citizen is bound to disobey all such laws, and take the consequences rather than to disobey God. (Lee, 320)

Lee gave several specific examples of his work aiding freedom seekers in New York City, but after Lee’s move to Syracuse in the spring of 1852, he did what he called “the largest work of my life on the Under-ground Railroad. I passed as many as thirty slaves through my hands in a month.” From Syracuse, they could get on a railroad car and ride all the way to the Canada, for free. “The fact was,” wrote Lee, “I had friends, or the slave had, connected with the railroad at Syracuse, of whom I never failed to get a free pass in this form: ‘Pass this poor colored man,’ or ‘poor colored woman,’ or ‘poor colored family,’ as the case might be. The conductors on the route understood these passes, and they were never challenged.” “My name, the name of my street, and the number of my residence, came to be known as far south as Baltimore, and I did a large business.” (Lee, 332)

In this period, Lee’s congregation included several African Americans, some of whom were themselves freedom seekers. James Baker, President of a meeting of African Americans to protest the Fugitive Slave Act, was one of these. Like so many, he and his family fled to Canada. (Wesleyan Church records, as reported by Dennis Connors, OHA)

Other sources confirm Lee’s assessment of the numbers of freedom seekers who went through his home. Charles Merrick, a member of the Wesleyan Church, remembered that “one year, I recorded the number of fugitive slaves that came under my personal observation from the first of January to the first of May, and there were sent by letter, via the ‘underground railroad,’ during that time, forty-three or forty-four of the unfortunates to Luther Lee, from Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.” Merrick also confirmed Lee’s assertion that people associated with the overground railroad helped transport freedom seekers. “Horace White was then the president of the railroad,” Merrick recalled, “and he humanely provided me with free passes for the fugitives on the road to Canada and freedom. Dollars, the indispensable ‘sinews of war’ in all cases, were required, and I collected from three to five dollars apiece from those locally interested in the glorious cause, in order that those fleeting from oppression might not arrive wholly destitute in a foreign land.” (Sperry, )

Just before Lee left Syracuse, abolitionists rallied to support two people who had been arrested in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, under the Fugitive Slave Law. Lee was called upon for the last speech. “It was getting late,” Lee recalled, “the people were weary, and I must strike boldly or fail.”

I planted my feet on the rock of eternal right. I affirmed that slavery is wrong—a moral wrong, a violation of every commandment of the decalogue, that no law can make it right to practice it, or support it, or to in any way aid and abet it; that the Fugitive Slave Law is a war upon God, upon his law, and upon the rights of humanity; that to obey it, or to aid in its enforcement, is treason against God and humanity, and involves a guilt equal to the guilt of violating every one of the ten commandments. I never had obeyed it—I never would obey it. I had assisted thirty slaves to escape to Canada during the last month. If the United States authorities wanted any thing of me, my residence was at 39 Onondaga-street. I would admit that they could take me and lock me up in the Penitentiary on the hill; but if they did such a foolish thing as that I had friends enough in Onondaga County to level it with the ground before the next morning. The immense throng rose upon their feet and shouted, “We will do it! We will do it!” (Lee, 335-36)

Site

A church pamphlet [n.d.] noted that The lot on which this church stands was purchased January 4, 1846, for $400. The building was erected about the same time at a cost of $2500. (Church pamphlet; Bruce, 506) Brackets and other Italianate features were probably added to this church at a later date. Late-nineteenth century changes included stained-glass windows and changes in the bell tower. Luther Lee lived at 39 Onondaga Street, across the street from this church.

Carved into the walls of the basement of this church were a series of seven faces. Documentation by Douglas Armstrong and Luann Wurst, of the Anthropology Department at Syracuse University, suggested that these faces date o the nineteenth century. Certainly, they pre-date an 1898 fire, which affected the surface of two of them. Along with a long bench on the north wall and a jog in the basement passage, these faces suggest the possibility that freedom seekers may have used this basement for shelter. A campaign spearheaded by the Preservation League of Central New York resulted in the preservation of these faces, and they will become a centerpiece of a new exhibit at the Onondaga Historical Association in 2003.

Sources

Armstrong, Douglas V. “Proposal for the Preservation of a Significant Freedom Trail Site in Central New York: The Wesleyan Methodist Church and African American Sculptures of the ‘Underground Railroad,’ Syracuse, New York.” Syracuse: Preservation Association of Central New York, 1997.

Friend of Man, June 1839.

Kostlevy, William C. “Luther Lee and Methodist Abolitionism.” Methodist

History, 20:2 (1982), 90-103.

Lee, Luther. Autobiography of the Rev. Luther Lee. New York; Phillips and

Hunt, 1882. Repr. New York: Garland Publishing, 1984.

McGuire, Dan, “Buyer of historic church will get its history too.” Herald-

Journal, March 05, 1987.

Way, P.M. “Fugitive Slaves.” True Wesleyan. July 19, 1845. Thanks to

Christopher Densmore for locating this article.

“Wesleyan Methodist Church,” compiled report [ n.p., n.d.]

Further Research Needs

Further research in anti-slavery newspapers may reveal much more about Lee’s abolitionist work, as well as about the underground railroad activities of this congregation. A comparison of Wesleyan Church records at the OHA with lists produced by this project of abolitionists and of African Americans in Syracuse from 1850-60 will also reveal the names of abolitionist and African American members.