Oswell Wright

Born in Maryland in the early 1810s, Oswell Wright bought land in Corydon in May 1849. In November 1857, Kentuckians arrested Wright and two white men, Charles and David Bell, and they were indicted and jailed in Kentucky for aiding the escape of a fugitive slave. The Bells were rescued in a jailbreak in 1858. Wright was convicted in May 1859, completed his sentence in the Kentucky Penitentiary, and was released in June 1864. A free black man, Wright lost his own freedom for helping a slave escape. He died in Corydon on March 31, 1875. The Underground Railroad was a widespread network of diverse people in the nineteenth century who aided slaves escaping to freedom from the southern U.S.

Corydon, Indiana · United States