Lewis Sheridan Leary (March 17, 1835 – October 20, 1859) was an African-American harnessmaker from Oberlin, Ohio, who joined John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, where he was killed.

In 1858, Leary participated in the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, when fugitive slave John Price was forcibly taken from the custody of a U.S.

As a result of negotiations between state officials (who had arrested the US Marshal and his party) and federal officials, only Simon Bushnell and Charles Henry Langston were tried; both were convicted, and served light sentences, in part because of Langston's eloquent speech in their defense.

In 1869 the widow Mary Patterson Leary married again, to the Ohio abolitionist Charles Henry Langston.

He survived his terrible wounds for eight hours after the capture of Brown's men, during which he was well treated and able to send messages to his family.

[4] A memorial service was held in Oberlin for Leary, John A. Copeland, and Shields Green, on December 25, 1859.

[5] The inscription reads: These colored citizens of Oberlin, the heroic associates of the immortal John Brown, gave their lives for the slave.

Et nunc servitudo etiam mortua est, laus deo (And now slavery is also dead, praise be to God).