In 1844 when Adam Crosswhite discovered that his owner had plans to sell his wife and children, Crosswhite and his family escaped from Kentucky and traveled along the Underground Railroad until they reached Marshall. They liked the community, which had about 250 white residents and 50 black ones, and so decided to stop traveling and make Marshall their home.
Three years later, Francis Giltner located the Crosswhites (his escaped slaves) and sent four slave catchers to Marshall to bring his property back. There was a confrontation between the slave catchers and more than 150 Marshall citizens who came to the aid of the Crosswhites. The slave catchers ended up being arrested for assault, battery and housebreaking when they would not leave town without the family. While the slave catchers were in jail, Marshall leaders helped the Crosswhites escape to Canada.
Giltner sued the leaders of the Marshall incident for the cost of his escaped slaves, but soon discovered that he was not going to get a fair trial in Michigan due to the fact that so many citizens were sympathizers. He took his case further up the court system and eventually won a settlement of $1,925 - an astronomical sum in those days. People from all along the Underground Railroad donated as much money as they could, and eventually the entire fine was paid.
This incident ultimately led to the passing of the “Fugitive Slave Act of 1850”, which guaranteed that escaped slaves had no rights, could not have a trial, and could be held in jail until the slave catchers were leaving the area. This new Federal law also meant that it became easy for slave catchers to capture any black they found and swear on an oath that this person was the escaped slave they were chasing - and bring them south and into slavery - even if they had never been a slave before!
In 1854 Erastus Hussey (remember him from Major Conductor - UR3?) was elected to the Senate on the Freesoil ticket, and passed the Personal Liberty Law making the capture of refugee slaves illegal within the State of Michigan. It also stated that slaves could not be put in jail by slave catchers, that they had a right to defend themselves and that prosecutors were required to defend fugitives. This statue trumped the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and stopped slave catchers within Michigan.
The Crosswhites returned to Marshall when it was safe for them and lived there until they died, their headstones are near the cache. The Crosswhite Affair has been called the “defining moment in the Underground Railroad history of Michigan”, and a plaque to commemorate it was placed on a boulder where the Crosswhite cabin once stood, at N 42° 16.376 W 084° 56.921. The politics involved with this case made it one of the leading causes for the start of the Civil War.