Many people are familiar with the Underground Railroad, a passageway that was essential for escaped slaves to make their way to freedom. One man made the journey to Canada with the help of Central New Yorkers.

A historical expert explained how that rescue in the 1800s made an impact on the national movement to end slavery.

William "Jerry" Henry was a freedman living in Syracuse who was one day put in jail. A group of abolitionists broke him out, and the rest is history.

The story starts in Hanover Square in October of 1851, one year after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. It's where Jerry was a cooper, making barrels.

"There was a Liberty Party convention happening in the city, sort of one of these great historical coincidences," said Robert Searing, curator of history for the Onondaga Historical Association.

That’s when Jerry was arrested by police.

"And Wheaton just happen to see him arrested, and Wheaton runs down to the Liberty Party convention and basically says, 'Jerry has been arrested,'" said Searing.

Then, abolitionists created a plan.

"They see this as an opportunity to not only rescue Jerry in a very, violent, dramatic way, but that this will send shockwaves through the country," Searing explained.

"All the guards in the jail except for one went to dinner. All the stores around the jail closed early," said Allie Proud, president of the Mexico Historical Society.

A crowd of people broke into the jail with tools from a nearby hardware store.

"(Jerry) was bloodied and his clothes are torn. Take him, grab him, they pass him, essentially I often use the thing like a rock-and-roll concert, like crowd surfing out into the throngs," said Searing.

Jerry was free once again, but on the run. With help from a blacksmith, his cuffs were removed. Jerry spent time hiding in Syracuse before being transported to Mexico, New York.

Once in Mexico, he spends a night in this house, before spending more than a week in a barn that's no longer standing.

"The phrase 'the Jerry level' actually becomes a phrase that makes its way around the vernacular, basically. Being, 'are you ready to do what it takes to fight the institution of slavery? Are you ready to get to the Jerry level?'" said Searing.

The importance of the event documented in writing by Frederick Douglass.

"It is, in many respects, the sort of the opening shot in the decades-long sectional crisis that leads to the Civil War in April of 1861," said Searing.

After Jerry hid out in Mexico, he rode in a grain wagon to Oswego, where he got a ship to Kingston, Canada, sealing his freedom. But Jerry only lived two more years after his rescue.

For more locations to visit with significance to Black history, head to parks.ny.gov/history/black-history.