It has been a whirlwind week! I started two short term projects and am preparing to give a Skype tour for a local tour company in the coming week. After all of that madness, I am taking a long and well deserved weekend to have lunch and do some shopping at Findlay Market before feeling "the wrath" of a soggy Saturday. I decided to go to Third and Main Streets near The Banks dining and entertainment district. As most people would pass this building up, it is a very important peace of both Ohio's and Cincinnati's African American history.
This was the former law office of Samuel P Chase, who was a well known lawyer, politician, abolitionist, and advocate for fugitive slaves. He was most notable for defending slave Samuel Watson. Watson was being transported on the Ohio Belle from Arkansas to Virginia and went missing before being captured by his handler. This matter was taken to court before a Judge N. C. Reed, who had to decide if Watson was a free man or if Watson should be recaptured as a fugitive slave, as Ohio was a free state. Chase was one of three attorneys who represented Watson. Chase made a very strong case for Watson, but in the end Reed determined that Watson was a fugitive slave, and therefore, was returned to Virginia with his handler to spend the rest of his life as a slave.
Though Chase lost the case, many freed blacks were very impressed about Chase's efforts. To thank him for his hard work, Chase was presented with an engraved silver platter on May 6, 1845 at the Union Baptist Church, the second oldest African American church in Cincinnati. The pitcher now sits in the Cincinnati Museum Center.
What a difference wandering aimlessly makes!
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