A deep community spirit, called "True Bands", meant that people would look after each other and build up schools, churches, and other resources to support one another.
[4] Vigilance committees were organized by black men and women in southwestern Ontario to counter American slave catchers.
[5] Members of the organization included Lucy Stanton Day,[6] James Henry Harris, G. W. Brodie,[7] Ann Shadd Cary, Thomas Cary, Isaac Shadd, William Howard Day, Martin Delany, Osborne Perry Anderson,[2] John James Pleasant, and Mary Ellen Pleasant.
[8] Members of the Chatham community were notified in September 1858 that a white man was traveling with a black boy through Canada and to Detroit, Michigan.
W. R. Merwin transported a 10-year-old boy[9] or teen Sylvanus Demarest on a train from London, Ontario, to Detroit, Michigan, in the United States.
[1][11] Isaac Shadd, publisher of The Provincial Freeman and leader of the Chatham Vigilance Committee,[7] led the rescue and was arrested in 1858 for his role.
Residents of his community, including Oberlin College faculty and students, liberated him in what was called the Oberlin–Wellington Rescue.