The following extract is taken from 'Scots in the USA' by Jenni CALDER, published by the Luath press in Edinburgh ,2006
(contact George Russell for more details at g_g_russell@yahoo.com).
At page 120 ...
"Two prominent Scottish abolitionists were William Steel from Biggar in Lanarkshire, and JAMES BROWNLEE from Glasgow. Steel had emigrated to Virginia with his parents in 1817. aged 8. Later he was in Ohio and worked with the underground railroad which smuggled escaped slaves across the border in Canada. JAMES BROWNLEE was 26 when he emigrated, and like Steel, became an active abolitionist in OHIO. He proposed a resolution against the Fugitive Slave Act , passed in 1850, which facilitated the recapture of supposed runaways and in practice meant that any black person, free or otherwise, could be picked up. Brownlee called upon people to 'neither aid nor abet, the capture of a fugitive slave, but, on the contrary, (to) harbour and feed, clothe and assist, and give him a practical godspeed toward liberty'."
Maybe someone with access to the Ohio legislative records could amplify the context of this for us, for inclusion in the next edition of the 'Brownlee Family' ?
Submitted by George Russell 1st August 2006.