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While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Washington, Indiana. In
April, 1853, George,
a negro man, was arrested and claimed by a
Mr. Rice, of Kentucky, as his slave. Judge
Clemens ordered his surrender to Rice, who
took him to Louisville, and there sold him
to a slave-trader, who took him to Memphis,
Tennessee. Here a man from Mississippi
claimed that George was his slave, obtained
a writ of replevin, and took possession of
him.
Joshua Glover,
colored man, claimed as the slave of B.S.
Garland, of St. Louis County, Missouri, was
arrested near Racine, Wisconsin, about the
10th of March, 1854. Arrest made by five
men, who burst suddenly into his shanty, put
a pistol to his head, felled him to the
ground, handcuffed him, and took him in a
wagon to Milwaukee jail, a distance of
twenty-five miles. They swore that if he
shouted or made the least noise, they would
kill him instantly. When visited, says the
Milwaukee Sentinel, "We found him in his
cell. He was cut in two places on the head;
the front of his shirt and vest were soaking
and stiff with his own blood." A writ of
habeas corpus was immediately issued; also a
warrant for the arrest of the five men who
assaulted and beat him in his shanty.
Thousands of people collected around the
jail and court-house, "the excitement being
intense." A vigilance committee of
twenty-five persons was appointed to watch
the jail at night and see that Glover was
not secretly taken away. The next day, at
about five o'clock, P.M., a considerable
accession of persons being made to the
crowd, and it appearing that every attempt
to save Glover by the laws of Wisconsin had
been overruled by United States Judge
Miller, a demand was made for the man. This
being refused, an attack was made upon the
door with axes, planks, &c. It was broken
in, the inner door and wall broken through,
and Glover taken from his keepers, brought
out, placed in a wagon, and driven off at
great speed.
S.M. Booth, editor of the Milwaukee Free
Democrat, Charles Clement, of the Racine
Advocate, W.H. Waterman, and George S.
Wright were arrested for aiding and abetting
the rescue of Glover. Booth was subsequently
discharged by the Supreme Court of
Wisconsin, on the ground that the Fugitive
Slave Law is unconstitutional. He was,
however, re-arrested, and held to answer in
the United States Courts, on the same
charge; the offered bail was refused, and he
was lodged in jail. The case was
subsequently tried before the District Court
of the United States, at Milwaukee, on the
question as to the right of a State
judiciary to release prisoners under a writ
of habeas corpus, who may be in the lawful
custody of United States officers; and also
to determine the constitutionality of the
Fugitive Slave Law. (Washington Star,
September 20, 1854.) The Attorney General,
Caleb Cushing, made himself very active in
pushing forward this case. Mr. Booth, early
in 1855, was fined one thousand dollars and
sentenced to one month's imprisonment. John
Ryecraft, for same offence, was sentenced in
a fine of two hundred dollars and
imprisonment for ten days. All for acts such
as Christianity and Humanity enjoin. On a
writ of habeas corpus, Messrs. Booth and
Ryecraft were taken before the Wisconsin
Supreme Court, sitting at Madison, and
discharged from imprisonment. This, however,
did not relieve them from the fines imposed
by the United States Court. The owner of the
slave brought a civil suit against Mr.
Booth, claiming $1,000 damages for the loss
of his slave. Judge Miller decided, July,
1855, that the $1,000 must be paid.
Edward Davis,
March, 1854. As the steamboat Keystone
State, Captain Hardie, from Savannah, was
entering Delaware Bay, bound to
Philadelphia, the men engaged in heaving the
lead heard a voice from under the guards of
the boat, calling for help. A rope was
thrown, and a man caught it and was drawn
into the boat in a greatly exhausted state.
He had remained in that place from the time
of leaving Savannah, the water frequently
sweeping over him. Some bread in his pocket
was saturated with salt water and dissolved
to a pulp. The captain ordered the vessel to
be put in to Newcastle, Delaware, where the
fugitive, hardly able to stand, was taken on
shore and put in jail, to await the orders
of his owner, in Savannah. Davis claimed to
be a free man, and a native of Philadelphia,
and described many localities there. Before
Judge Bradford, at Newcastle, Davis's
freedom was fully proved, and he was
discharged. He was again arrested and placed
in jail on the oath of Captain Hardie, that
he believed him to be a fugitive slave and a
fugitive from justice. After some weeks'
delay, he was brought to trial before United
States Commissioner Samuel Guthrie, who
ordered him to be delivered up to his
claimant on the ground that he was legally a
slave, though free-born. It appeared in
evidence that Davis had formerly gone from
Pennsylvania to reside in Maryland, contrary
to the laws of that State; which forbid free
colored persons from other States to come
there to reside; and being unable to pay the
fine imposed for this offence (!) by the
Orphan's (!) Court of Harford County, was
committed to jail and sold as a slave for
life, by Robert McGaw, Sheriff of the
County, to Dr. John G. Archer, of Louisiana,
from whom he was sold to B.M. Campbell, who
sold him to William A. Dean, of Macon,
Georgia, the present claimant. Thus a
free-born citizen of Pennsylvania was
consigned, by law to slavery for life:
In May, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
was enacted.
Anthony Burns,
arrested in Boston, May 24, 1854, as the
slave of Charles F. Suttle, of Alexandria,
Virginia, who was present to claim him,
accompanied by a witness from Richmond,
Virginia, named William Brent. Burns was
arrested on a warrant granted by United
States Commissioner Edward Greeley Loring,
taken to the court-house in Boston, ironed,
and placed in an upper story room under a
strong guard. The hearing commenced the next
morning before Mr. Loring, but was adjourned
until Saturday; May 27, to give the counsel
for A. Burns time to examine the case. On
Friday evening, (26th,) an attack was made
upon the court-house by a body of men, with
the evident design of rescuing Burns; a door
was forced in, and one of the marshal's
special guard, (named Batchelder,) was
killed, whether by the assailants or by one
of his own party is uncertain, it being
quite dark; upon the cry of Batchelder that
he was killed, the attacking party retreated
and made no further attempt. The trial of
the case proceeded on Saturday, again on
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, when the
Commissioner said he would give his decision
on Friday. During the trial, Burns was
continually surrounded by a numerous
body-guard, (said to be at least one hundred
and twenty-five men,) selected by Watson
Freeman, United States Marshal, from the
vilest sinks of scoundrelism, corruption,
and crime in the city to be Deputy Marshals
for the occasion. These men, with every form
of loathsome impurity and hardened villainy
stamped upon their faces, sat constantly
around the prisoner while in the court-room,
the handles of pistols and revolvers visibly
protruding from their breast pockets. A
company of United States troops, from the
Navy Yard, occupied the court-house, and
guarded all avenues to the United States
court-room. The testimony of numerous highly
respectable witnesses was adduced to show
that Anthony Burns was in Boston a month
earlier than the time at which he was said
to have left Richmond. R.H. Dana, Jr. and
Charles M. Ellis, counsel for Burns, made
very eloquent and able arguments in his
behalf. Seth J. Thomas and E.G. Parker were
the counsel for Suttle, the case being
constantly watched and aided by the United
States District Attorney, Benjamin F.
Hallett, who was in regular telegraphic
communication with the President of the
United States, (F. Pierce,) at Washington.
An effort was made, and followed up with
much patience, to buy Burns's freedom,
Suttle having offered to sell him for
$1,200. The money was raised and tendered to
Suttle, when difficulties were interposed,
especially by Mr. Attorney Hallett, and the
attempt failed. Suttle afterwards declared
he would not sell Burns for any sum, but
that he should go back to Virginia. On
Friday morning, June 2d, Commissioner Loring
gave his decision, overriding all the
testimony in Burns's favor, using certain
expressions which fell from Burns in the
first heat and confusion of his arrest, as
testimony against him, and concluding with
ordering him to be delivered up to the
claimant. Some four hours were consumed in
getting Court Street, State Street, &c., in
a state of readiness for the removal of the
prisoner. A regiment of Massachusetts
Infantry had been posted on Boston Common,
under command of Col. Benjamin Franklin (!)
Edmands, from an early hour of the day, in
anticipation of the Commissioner's decision.
These troops, which had been called out by
the Mayor, Jerome V.C. Smith, were marched
to the scene of the kidnapping, and so
placed as to guard every street, lane, and
other avenue leading to State Street, &c.,
the route through which the slave procession
was to pass. No individual was suffered to
pass within these guards; but acts of
violence were committed by them on several
individuals. Court Square was occupied by
two companies of United States troops,
(chiefly Irishmen,) and a large field-piece
was drawn into the centre. All preparations
being made, Watson Freeman (United States
Marshal) issued forth from the court-house
with his prisoner, who walked with a firm
step, surrounded by the body-guard of
criminals before mentioned, with drawn
United States sabers in their hands, and
followed by United States troops with the
aforesaid piece of artillery. Preceded by a
company of Massachusetts mounted troops,
under command of Colonel Isaac H. Wright,
this infamous procession took its way down
Court Street, State Street and Commerce
Street, (for the proprietors of Long Wharf
refused to allow them to march upon their
premises, through a public highway in all
ordinary cases,) to the T Wharf, where the
prisoner was taken on board a steam
tow-boat, and conveyed down the harbor to
the United States Revenue Cutter Morris; in
which he was transported to Virginia.
It may not be amiss to have
given, in a single instance, this
somewhat detailed account of the
process of seizing, trying, and
delivering up a man into slavery,
whose only crime was that he had
fled from a bondage "one hour of
which is fraught with more misery
than ages of that which our fathers
rose in rebellion to throw off,"
Thomas Jefferson, the Virginian
slaveholder, himself being witness.
Anthony Burns, having been sold into
North Carolina, was afterwards
purchased with money subscribed in
Boston and vicinity, for the
purpose, and returned to Boston.
The illegality of the Mayor's
conduct in ordering out the
military, and giving to the Colonel
of the regiment the entire control
of the same, was fully shown by
different and highly competent
writers, among whom was P.W.
Chandler, Esq., whose two articles,
in the Boston Advertiser, deserve to
be remembered with respect. The
Mayor's excuse was that he desired
to keep the peace. But these
Massachusetts troops received pay
for their day's work from the United
States Government. Judge Hoar, in a
charge to the Grand Jury, declared
the act of the Mayor, in calling out
the militia, to be an infraction of
law.
Stephen
Pembroke, and his
two sons, Robert and Jacob, 19 and 17 years
of age, were arrested in New York almost
simultaneously with the seizure of Burns in
Boston; claimed as the slaves of David Smith
and Jacob H. Grove, of Sharpsburg,
Washington County, Maryland. They escaped
May 1st, and came to New York, followed
closely by their masters, who discovered
their retreat in Thompson Street, and
pounced upon them by night. At 8-1/2
o'clock, next morning, they were taken
before United States Commissioner G.W.
Morton, "where the case came up for the most
summary and hasty hearing that has ever
characterized our judicial proceedings."
Dunning and Smith were counsel for the
masters, but the fugitives had no counsel;
and the hearing was finished, and a warrant
granted to the slave claimants before the
matter became known in the city. When Mr.
Jay and Mr. Culver hastened to the
court-room to offer their services to the
prisoners, as counsel, they were assured by
officers, and by Commissioner Morton
himself, that the men wanted no counsel, and
were not in the building. On search,
however, it was found they were in the
building, locked up in a room. They said
they desired counsel and the aid of friends.
A writ of habeas corpus was obtained, but
before it could be served the three men had
been removed from the State, and were on
their way to Baltimore. [See the published.
Card of E.D. CULVER, Esq.] Stephen Pembroke
was the brother, and his sons the nephews of
Rev. Dr. Pennington, of New York City,
Pastor of a Presbyterian (colored) Church.
Stephen Pembroke was purchased and brought
back to New York, ($1,000 having been
contributed for that purpose,) and related
his experience of the slave's life, at a
public meeting, held in the Broadway
Tabernacle, July 17, 1854. His sons had been
sold, and remained in slavery.
James Cotes, free
man of color, residing in Gibson County,
Indiana, went to Jeffersonville, (Ind.,) to
take the cars for Indianapolis. On going to
the depot, at 6, A.M., for the morning
train, he was knocked down, "beat over the
head with a brick-bat, and cut with a
bowie-knife, until subdued. He was then
tied, and in open daylight in full view of
our populace, borne off bleeding like a
hog." He was undoubtedly taken to the jail,
in Louisville. On crossing the river to
Louisville he met the captain of a
steamboat, who knew him to be a free man.
(About June 1, 1854.) The kidnapper was
arrested and held to bail in the sum of
$1,000, to take his trial at next Circuit
Court.
Near Cedarville, Ohio, May 25, 1854, about
noon, "a colored man, of middle age and
respectable appearance, was walking on the
Columbus and Xenia turnpike. He was alone. A
man in a buggy overtook him, and invited him
to ride, saying he was a friend to the
colored man, and promising to assist him in
obtaining his liberty." He took the colored
man to the house of one Chapman, "three
miles south of Selma, in Greene county."
There Chapman and the other, (whose name was
William McCord,) fell upon the colored man,
struck him with a colt upon the head, so
that he bled severely, and bound his hands
behind him. "Soon after the negro got loose
and ran down the road; McCord ran after him,
crying 'Catch the d——d horse thief,' &c.,
Chapman and his son following; negro picked
up a stone, the man a club and struck him on
the head, so that he did not throw the
stone. He was then tied, and helped by
McCord and Chapman to walk to the buggy.
McCord asked Chapman, the son, to accompany
him to Cincinnati with the colored man,
promising to give him half the reward ($200)
if he would. They then started, driving very
fast." "We had not gone over two or three
miles," said Chapman, "before the negro
died, and after taking him two or three
miles further, put him out, and left him as
now discovered,"—viz. in a thick wood, one
mile south of Clifton. The above facts are
taken from the testimony given at the
coroner's inquest over the body. "The jury
gave in substance the following
verdict:—Deceased came to his death by blows
from a colt and club in the hands of one
William McCord, assisted by the two Chapmans."
Chapman, the son, said that McCord made him
a proposition to join and follow kidnapping
for a business, stating that he knew where
he could get four victims immediately.
McCord was taken and lodged in Xenia jail.
The Chapmans bound over to take their trial
for kidnapping.—Wilmington (Ohio) Herald of
Freedom.
Columbus, Indiana. A Kentuckian endeavored
to entice a little negro boy to go with him,
and both were waiting to take the cars, when
mischief was suspected, and a crowd of
people proceeded to the depot, and made the
kidnapper release his intended victim.
(June, 1854.)—Indiana Free Democrat.
_______ Brown, a resident of Henderson,
Kentucky, was arrested for aiding four
female slaves to escape from Union County,
Kentucky, to Canada. United States Marshal
Ward and Sheriff Gavitt, of Indiana, made
the arrest. He was lodged in Henderson
jail.—Evansville (Ind.) Journal, June 2,
1854.
Several Kentucky planters, among
them Archibald Dixon, raised $500 in
order to secure Brown's conviction
and sentence to penitentiary.
Transcriber's note: The following note
appears as a footnote to this section
without specific reference to any of the
cited cases.
Nine slaves left
their masters in Boone County, Kentucky, on
Sunday, June 11, 1854, having three horses
with them. Arrived at the river, they turned
the horses back, and taking a skiff crossed
at midnight to the Ohio shore. After
traveling two or three miles, they hid
during Monday in a clump of bushes. At night
they started northward again. A man, named
John Gyser, met them and promised to assist
them. He took them to a stable, where they
were to remain until night. He immediately
went to Covington, Kentucky, learned that
$1,000 reward was offered for their
apprehension, and gave information of their
place of concealment. At evening a strong
band of Kentuckians, with United States
Deputy Marshal George Thayer, assisted by
three Cincinnati officers, surrounded the
stable and took the nine prisoners, on a
warrant issued by United States Commissioner
Pendery. They were all given up to their
claimants, and taken back to Kentucky.
A New Orleans correspondent of the New York
Tribune, in a letter dated July 3, 1854,
writes, "During a recent trip up the river I
was on several steamers, and on every boat
they had one or more runaway slaves, who had
been caught and were being taken in irons to
their masters."
On the Steamer Alvin Adams, at Madison,
Indiana, a man was arrested as a fugitive
and taken to Louisville, Kentucky. He was
claimed as the slave of John H. Page, of
Bowling Green. The Louisville Journal,
edited by a Northern man, stigmatised him as
a "rascal," for his attempt to be free.
(July, 1854.)
Two colored men, on their way to Chicago,
were seized and taken from the cars at
Lasalle, Illinois, by three men, who said
they were not officers. The colored men were
known to be free; one was "a respectable
resident of Chicago." Some of the passengers
interfered; but it being night, and very
dark, and the cars starting on the colored
men were left in the hands of their
kidnappers.
Chicago, Illinois. Three men from Missouri,
with a warrant from the Governor of that
State, to take a certain fugitive slave,
seized a man whom they met in the street,
bound him with a handkerchief, and to
quicken his steps beat him with the butt of
a pistol. He succeeded in shaking off his
captors and fled, a pistol-bullet being sent
after him, which did not hit him. He made
good his escape. The men were arrested and
held to trial for assault with deadly
weapons. By an extraordinary conspiracy on
the part of District Attorney Hoyne, Sheriff
Bradley, and others, these men were taken
from jail to be carried to Springfield,
Illinois, two hundred miles distant, to
appear before Chief Justice Treat, that he
might inquire "whether said alleged
kidnappers were justly held to bail and
imprisoned." It was so suddenly done that
the counsel for the kidnapped man and for
the State of Illinois had not time to reach
Springfield before the men were discharged
and on their way to Missouri. The Grand Jury
of the County (in which Chicago is) had
found a true bill against them, of which the
Sheriff professed to be ignorant, (which was
deemed hardly possible,)—under which bill
they would probably have been convicted and
sentenced to the State Prison. Thus the
omnipotent Slave Power reaches forth its
hand into our most Northern cities, end
saves its minions from the punishment which
their lawless acts have justly
merited.—Chicago Daily Tribune, Sept. 21,
1854.
The three kidnappers published a
statement in the St. Louis
Republican of September 26.
Henry
Massey, at Philadelphia, September,
1854, was brought before United States
Commissioner E.D. Ingraham, claimed by
Franklin Bright, of Queen Anne's County,
Maryland, as his slave. Arrested in
Harrisburg.
Harvey, arrested
near Cumminsville, Ohio,—escaped,—taken
again in Goshen, about ten miles from
Cincinnati, and lodged in the jail of that
city. An investigation of the case was had
before United States Commissioner Pendery,
and the slave remanded to the custody of his
master.—Cincinnati Commercial, September 22,
1854.
Byberry, Pennsylvania, September 18, 1854. A
carriage load of suspicious looking men came
to this place in the afternoon. They waited
until nightfall, when they burst into the
house of a colored family, "seized the man
in presence of his wife and another woman,
threatening to shoot them if they
interfered—dragged him out, beating him over
the head with a mace. The poor fellow
continued to scream for help until his voice
was stifled by his groans; they forced him
into their carriage and drove off, before
any effectual assistance could be offered."
He was a sober and industrious man, and much
respected. His wife was left heartbroken,
with one child.—Norristown (Pa.) Olive
Branch.
The Frankfort (Ky.) Yeoman, of November 18,
1854, said:—"Kidnapping free negroes in
Ohio, and deluding our slaves from their
masters to recapture and sell them, is an
established profession of a gang located
upon the borders of the Ohio River,
combining with negro-traders in the interior
of this State." The names of some employed
in this business are given, two of whom,
having been arrested and imprisoned,
threatened to burn the city of Frankfort for
interrupting their business.
Jane Moore, a
free colored woman, at Cincinnati, November,
1854, seized in the house of her sister,
(Sycamore Street,) beaten, and with the help
of a deputy marshal from Covington,
Kentucky, carried over to Covington, and
lodged in jail, on pretence of her being a
fugitive slave. She was taken before the
Mayor of Covington, "who heard the case with
impartiality." Her freedom was established,
and she released.
At Indianapolis, Indiana, December, 1854,
Benjamin B. Waterhouse was indicted for
harboring fugitive slaves, contrary to the
provisions of the Fugitive Law. He was found
guilty, but the jury recommended him "to the
favorable consideration of the Court, and
stated that the evidence was barely
sufficient to convict." He was fined fifty
dollars and to be imprisoned one hour, and
the government to pay the costs.—-Chicago
Tribune.
A Proposition for Kidnapping, on a large
scale, was made by John H. Pope, "police
officer and constable," in a letter dated
"Frederick, Maryland, United States of
America, January 1, 1855," and addressed to
Mr. Hays, Sheriff of Montreal, Canada. "Vast
numbers of slaves," says Mr. Pope, "escaping
from their masters or owners, succeed in
reaching your Provinces, and are, therefore,
without the pale of the 'Fugitive Slave
Law,' and can only be restored by cunning,
together with skill. Large rewards are
offered and will be paid for their return,
and could I find an efficient person to act
with me, a great deal of money could be
made, as I would equally divide. * * * The
only apprehension we have in approaching too
far into Canada is the fear of being
arrested; and had I a good assistant in your
city, who would induce the negroes to the
frontier, I would be there to pay the cash.
On your answer, I can furnish names and
descriptions of negroes."
This letter was published, doubtless at the
Montreal Sheriff's request, in the Montreal
Gazette, January 13, 1855.
The case of Solomon
Northup, though not under the Fugitive Law,
is so striking an illustration of the power
which created that law, and of the constant
danger which impends over every colored
citizen of the Northern States, fast
threatening to include white citizens also,
that it must not he passed over without
mention. He was kidnapped in 1841, from the
State of New York, and kept in slavery
twelve years. Two men, named Merrill and
Russell, were arrested and tried as his
kidnappers, and the fact fully proven. But
the case was got into the United States
Courts, and the criminals went unpunished.
[end of note]
