Lewis Sheridan Leary

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

[edit] Life

Leary's father, a freeborn African American, was also a harnessmaker. His son was born at Fayetteville, North Carolina.

He was descended from an Irishman, Jeremiah O'Leary, who fought in the Revolution under General Nathanael Greene, and who married a woman of mixed blood, partly African, partly of Lumbee Indian stock of North Carolina.

In 1857, Lewis Leary moved to Oberlin, and married there. Later, he met John Brown in Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1858, he participated in the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, when fugitive slave John Price was forcibly removed from the custody of a U.S. marshall, and prevented from being returned to slavery in the south. Leary was not among the 21 men who were indicted and jailed for the rescue.^[1]

He may have been the first recruit from Oberlin, Ohio to Brown's army and left a wife and a six-month-old child at Oberlin. He was furnished money to go from Oberlin to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to join Brown and was accompanied by John A. Copeland. After his death, his child was educated by James Redpath and Wendell Phillips.

[edit] Death

During the Harpers Ferry raid he was mortally wounded. 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. His wife had not previously known of the planned raid. He is reported as saying: "I am ready to die."

A memorial service was held in Oberlin for Leary, John A. Copeland, and Shields Green, on December 25, 1859. A monument was erected in 1865 in Westwood Cemetery to honor the three. The monument was moved in 1977 to Martin Luther King, Jr. Park on Vine Street in Oberlin.^[2] 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.

S. Green died at Charleston, Va., Dec. 16, 1859, age 23 years.

J. A. Copeland died at Charleston, Va., Dec. 16, 1859, age 25 years.

L. S. Leary died at Harper's Ferry, Va., Oct 20, 1859, age 24 years."

[edit] References