Branegan, George [Poynts vs. Branegan]

According to author Charles Lindquist, it was reported in the Michigan Freeman on October 13, 1839, that slaveholders from Maysville, KY had tried and failed three times to seize a slave named George Branegan who was living in Adrian, MI, and later they failed in Jonesville, MI. Branegan was a cook at the Jonesville Exchange.

When the slaveholders eventually took Branegan into custody in Jonesville, they were confronted by a vigilance committee that prevented them from taking him back to Kentucky. The case went to court: Poynts vs. Branegan. When the authenticated laws of Kentucky, showing that one man could own another, could not be produced in one hour as requested by the judge, Branegan was set free.

For more see The Antislavery-Underground Railroad Movement: in Lenawee County, Michigan, 1830-1860, by C. Lindquist; and Places of the Underground Railroad: A Geographical Guide, by Tom Calarco, Cynthia Vogel, Kathryn Grover, Rae Hallstrom, Sharron L. Pope, and Melissa Waddy-Thibodeaux.