Editing Hudson, Ohio (section)

===An abolitionist center===
Ohio's [[Western Reserve]] "was probably the most intensely antislavery section of the country".<ref>{{cite book
|title=His Soul Goes Marching On. Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid
|editor-first=Paul
|editor-last=Finkleman
|editor-link=Paul Finkleman
|location=[[Charlottesville, Virginia]]
|publisher=[[University Press of Virginia]]
|year=1995
|isbn=0813915368
|first=Bertram
|last=Wyatt-Brown
|chapter='A Volcano Beneath a Mountain of Snow': John Brown and the Problem of Interpretation
|pages=9–38, at p. 19}}</ref> Hudson, with the Reserve's first college, was for a time its intellectual capital.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} The founders of Hudson were abolitionists, although founder David Hudson favored the soon-to-be-discarded strategy of "[[American Colonization Society|colonization]]": sending free Blacks "back to Africa". Another founder, [[Owen Brown (abolitionist, born 1771)|Owen Brown]], father of [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]], also from Connecticut, was a fervent abolitionist. The latter, who arguably did more to end slavery in the United States than any other person, grew up and was educated in Hudson from 1805 to 1825. There is a marker at the site of his family's home, at the intersection of Ravenna and South Main Streets.

There is also a historical marker at the location of the first meetinghouse of the First Congregational Church, at East Main and Church Streets, reading: "In August, 1835, church members unanimously adopted a resolution declaring that slavery is 'a direct violation of the law of Almighty God.' At a November 1837 prayer meeting, church member and anti-slavery leader John Brown made his first public vow to destroy slavery."<ref>{{cite web
|title=First Congregational Church of Hudson
|date=September 26, 2010
|first=Kevin
|last=Gray
|access-date=July 19, 2019
|publisher=Historical Markers Database
|url=https://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=36192}}</ref>

Thousands of [[fugitive slaves]], heading for freedom in Canada, passed through Hudson; it was a stop on the [[Underground Railroad]]. Owen Brown was very active in assisting the fugitives.<ref>{{cite web
|title=Hudson and the Underground Railroad
|author=The Friends of Freedom Society, Ohio Underground Railroad Association
|access-date=July 18, 2019
|url=https://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=36201
|date=2010}}</ref> As of 2019, 21 locations in and around Hudson associated with the Underground Railroad have been identified.<ref name=Caccamo>{{cite web
|title=Underground Railroad Sites in Hudson, Ohio
|first=James F.
|last=Caccamo
|year=2019
|publisher=Hudson Library and Historical Society
|access-date=July 15, 2019
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727223034/https://www.hudsonlibrary.org/historical-society/underground-railroad-sites-in-hudson-ohio/
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=July 27, 2021
|url=https://www.hudsonlibrary.org/historical-society/underground-railroad-sites-in-hudson-ohio/}}</ref> and in 1992 there appeared a book by James Caccamo, ''Hudson and the Underground Railroad''.

Hudson's period of anti-slavery leadership ended in the early 1830s. [[Beriah Green]], the lone professor of theology at the college, was influenced by [[William Lloyd Garrison]]'s new newspaper, ''[[The Liberator (newspaper)|The Liberator]],'' and his ''Thoughts on African Colonization''. He preached four fiery anti-slavery sermons, which so inflamed the college that nothing else was being discussed, the president said, and the town was torn apart.<ref name=Caccamo/> Green, expecting to be fired, left to become president of the [[Oneida Institute]], on condition Blacks be admitted on the same terms as whites. Oneida, near [[Utica, New York]], replaced Hudson as the nation's leading abolitionist center.