A poor Black stranger by the name of John Price arrived in Oberlin, Ohio, the site of Oberlin College, where he was given refuge. Slave hunters, operating under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, seized Price with the goal of returning him to slavery in Kentucky. Charles Langston was part of a party of Oberlin residents, all staunchly antislavery, who rescued Price. Langston was arrested and charged for violation of the Fugitive Slave Act. He was found guilty, but he was allowed to speak in his own defense at the conclusion of the trial.