WILLIAM WHIPPER HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1804
The Underground Railroad was “incorporated” in Columbia, Pennsylvania after General Thomas Boudes, a slaveholder, declined to surrender an escaped slave to authorities.
The New Jersey legislature enacted “An act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery” (P.L. 1804, chap. 103, p. 251). This law required the registration of births of slaves’ children born after July 4, 1804 and declared such children to be “free,” but bound as servants to the owners of their mothers for a period of 25 years for males and 21 years for females. No provision was made for slaves born before July 4, 1804, slaves such as Betsey Stockton who had been born in Princeton as the property of Robert Stockton, a local attorney, in 1798, who thus at this point was about six years of age. (She would be presented to Stockton’s daughter and son-in-law, the Reverend Ashbel Green, then President of Princeton College, as a gift. In that new capacity, she would be permitted to attend evening classes at the Princeton Theological Seminary, manumitted, and accepted into membership by the American Board of Commissions for Foreign Missionaries.) PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Subsequent to this legislation, no further legislation would be enacted in New Jersey substantially affecting the manumission of slaves.
February 22, Wednesday: William Whipper was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Nancy, a black house slave, and her white slavemaster. His father would have him taught to read and write by the private tutor who educated his white half-siblings.
The Trevithick, Richard Trevithick’s 2d steam locomotive, made the initial verified trip on rails of a motorized vehicle but collapsed the rails (hey, that’s something that can be fixed). It would be put to work in Pennydarnen, South Wales.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 22nd of 2nd M 1804 / Many Mercies we receive from the Bountiful giver of all good things. And on my own part I acknowledge that both from within & without I receive more than I deserve. Afresh visitation of divine love, at this time attends my mind for which I desire to be thankful & merit a continuance thereof believing that humility of mind is a profitable & safe state to be in —— ———————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1818
The last of the original grove of black walnut trees that had been preserved in Philadelphia, a tree in front of the office of J. Ridgeway opposite the State House on Chestnut Street, was in this year chopped down.
Richard Harlan graduated at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. He would be employed as a teacher of anatomy in Joseph Parish’s private medical school, and publish a text on the human brain, ANATOMICAL INVESTIGATIONS. He would practice as a physician in Philadelphia.
A group of manumitted persons, from Henrico County, Virginia, arrived in Columbia, Pennsylvania. The citizens of Columbia began a Columbia Abolition Society. Located just north of the Mason/Dixon line separating Pennsylvania from slaveholding states such as Maryland, Columbia would be important as a waystation on the Underground Railroad. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1820
Since Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Johnson and Mary “Polly” Johnson are not listed as having their own New Bedford household in the federal census of this year, clearly at that point they had not yet become householders. In all likelihood they were at that time living in the home of the young Quaker merchant Charles Waln Morgan, who moved from Philadelphia to New Bedford in that year, since in Mrs. Morgan’s journal we find the notation “Polly Johnson (came to us 1st mo 22nd 1820),” and since Rhoda Durfee, a child of Polly’s first marriage, and Nathan Johnson, also worked for the Morgans.
Since 1790, the town of Columbia, Pennsylvania had included a proportionately large free black population, and by this point that community had grown to include 288 persons. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1821
Another group of manumitted persons, from Hanover County, Virginia, arrived in Columbia, Pennsylvania.
After many years of lobbying by the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, the Pennsylvania Legislature approved funding to build Eastern State Penitentiary to house 250 inmates. Four architects submitted designs for this massive new structure. The design of John Haviland, a British architect who had settled in Philadelphia, was selected, and he was awarded $100. William Strickland, whose design had been rejected, was hired to oversee the construction.
The citizens of Philadelphia sent a petition in regard to bankruptcy to the federal Congress: The poor African, ...devoid of the intellectual torments which are produced by dependence and subjection, to a mind nurtured in the habits of liberty and intelligence, stands on ground far more enviable that than maintained by the insolvent debtor. (It is clear from the text of this 1821 petition that said “insolvent debtors” who were sending this missile off in the direction of the federal Congress, who although “nurtured in the habits of liberty and intelligence” were presently reduced to “dependence and subjection,” were all and only white people completely lacking in any recognition of or sympathy for the intellectual torments that come with being nonwhite in a racist culture.)
Dr. Thomas Low Nichols, in FORTY YEARS OF AMERICAN LIFE, 1821-1861 (NY: Stackpole Sons, originally issued in 1864, reissued in 1937), would characterize the following four decades of his experience as a period of constant unsettled scratching and scraping to keep ahead of the Joneses. It is clear that, where he is speaking of “everyone” and of “all,” actually he is confining his attention to the American white people: Every one is tugging, trying, scheming to advance — to get ahead. It is a great scramble, in which all are troubled and none are satisfied. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1828
At the age of 24 William Whipper lectured about the commitment he had made to Christian non-resistance against offensive aggression (this address would be published in New-York in 1837). HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1834
Nathan Johnson and the Reverend Jacob Perry, minister of the African Christian Church (New Bedford’s first black religious congregation — remember, Johnson had in 1822 petitioned the all-white Quakers for membership in the Religious Society of Friends, and had of course been utterly stonewalled on account of his race) and president of the New-Bedford Union Society (its first antislavery society, formed not by the all-white New Bedford Friends but by the local free people of color), attended the 5th National Negro Convention in Philadelphia. This Convention adopted a nonviolent declaration similar to the Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society, as written by half-black William Whipper of Pennsylvania.
SERVILE INSURRECTION
In this year John Brown was acting as a postmaster under President Andrew Jackson, at Randolph, Pennsylvania — evidently this job was a political plum issued as a reward for support. He wrote his brother Frederick Brown that he purposed to make active war upon the institution of human slavery, by bringing together some “first-rate abolitionist families” and by undertaking the education of young blacks. If once the Christians of the free states would set to work in earnest teaching the blacks, the people of the slaveholding states would find themselves constitutionally driven to set about the work of emancipation immediately. This letter was officially franked and sent for free by Postmaster Brown, as was then the practice.
Stephen Smith joined with David Ruggles, John Peck, Abraham Shadd, and John B. Vashon, who were the initial black agents for Freedom’s Journal and later for The Emancipator, in soliciting subscriptions and collecting what were termed “arrearages.” ABOLITIONISM HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER Spring: From this point until early in 1835, Jones Very would be chewing and stewing over George Gordon, Lord Byron’s CHILDE HAROLD.
White rioting began in a number of American municipalities, such as Columbia, Pennsylvania, in which there had come to be a black presence.
Summer: White rioting that had begun that spring in a number of Northern cities, inclusive of the town of Columbia, was continuing into the summer. The number of black residents in that locale of Pennsylvania had been increasing. To some white residents they were a necessary evil because they provided a labor force for lumber merchants along the river, especially during the busy season, but for other white residents and in other seasons of the year, some white residents were considering them an unnecessary evil.
Traveling to England, Robert Purvis was equipped with letters of introduction from William Lloyd Garrison to a number of British reformers including Daniel O’Connell and Sir Thomas Foxwell Buxton. A passport had been first denied, and had then been granted only through the intervention of the President, Andrew Jackson. Purvis was probably the first black American to receive a US passport. When the passport controversy hit the gazettes, a Virginia slaveholder who was ticketed to travel on same ship to England pressured the shipping line to deny Purvis passage, and he was forced to take passage on another vessel. (On the return trip Purvis would deliberately obtain a ticket on the same vessel as that Virginian in order to eat and drink with this racist and his cronies and, tall and handsome, dance with the Southern white ladies — on the last day of the voyage he would with glee and aplomb disclose his racial identity to his new white “friends.”)1
1. For a comparison situation, during our own timeframe: The Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. of the Abyssinian Baptist Church of Harlem was “white to all appearances, having blue eyes, an aquiline nose, and light, almost blond, hair.” During his freshman year at Colgate University, his roommate only learned of his racial identity by meeting his father, Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., after which he was no longer able to be friends or roommates. During his college years, Powell worked as a bellhop at a summer resort in Manchester, Vermont. During the summer of 1926 Abraham Lincoln’s dying son Robert Todd Lincoln visited this resort. Lincoln was a man of such “Negrophobia” that he could not bear to be waited on by a black person or to have one of them touch his luggage, his automobile, or any of his possessions, and was known to have whacked the knuckles of a helpful black servant with his cane. However, at this resort the dying man did not decline Powell’s services — as he took him to be a white boy! HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER August 16, Saturday: Charles Darwin was clambering up Mount Campana in Chile.
In Canton, Viceroy Lu K’un restricted trade with foreigners.
There was white rioting in Columbia, Pennsylvania that evening, with windows in the homes of some of the colored residents being shattered.
Richard Henry Dana, Jr. sailed away on his excellent adventure as a common seaman.
AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT, A REPORT FROM OUR SAILOR: The next morning was Saturday, and a breeze having sprung up from the southward, we took a pilot on board, hove up our anchor, and began beating down the bay. I took leave of those of my friends who came to see me off, and had barely opportunity to take a last look at the city, and well-known objects, as no time is allowed on board ship for sentiment. As we drew down into the lower harbor, we found the wind ahead in the bay, and were obliged to come to anchor in the roads. We remained there through the day and a part of the night. My watch began at eleven o’clock at night, and I received orders to call the captain if the wind came out from the westward. About midnight the wind became fair, and having called the captain, I was ordered to call all hands. How I accomplished this I do not know, but I am quite sure that I did not give the true hoarse, boatswain call of “A-a-ll ha-a-a-nds! up anchor, a-ho-oy!” In a short time every one was in motion, the sails loosed, the yards braced, and we began to heave up the anchor, which was our last hold upon Yankee land. I could take but little part in all these preparations. My little knowledge of a vessel was all at fault. Unintelligible orders were so rapidly given and so immediately executed; there was such a hurrying about, and such an intermingling of strange cries and stranger actions, that I was completely bewildered. There is not so helpless and pitiable an object in the world as a landsman beginning a sailor’s life. At length those peculiar, longdrawn sounds, which denote that the crew are heaving at the windlass, began, and in a few moments we were under weigh. The noise of the water thrown from the bows began to be heard, the vessel leaned over from the damp night breeze, and rolled with the heavy ground swell, and we had actually begun our long, long journey. This was literally bidding “good night” to my native land.
August 17, Sunday: Charles Darwin reached the top of Mount Campana in Chile.
Birth of Edward Fisher Nott.
An instrument for force feeding should a slave attempt to escape through self-starvation:
That evening, like the evening before, there was white rioting in Columbia, Pennsylvania, with more windows in the homes of colored residents being shattered. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER August 18, Monday: Marshall Field, who would found a Chicago-based store chain, was born.
That morning:2 Frederick Douglass’s NARRATIVE
Long before daylight, I was called to go and rub, curry, and feed, the horses. I obeyed, and was glad to obey. But whilst thus engaged, whilst in the act of throwing down some blades from the loft, Mr. Covey entered the stable with a long rope; and just as I was half out of the loft, he caught hold of my legs, and was about tying me. As soon as I found what he was up to, I gave a sudden spring, and as I did so, he holding to my legs, I was brought sprawling on the stable floor. Mr. Covey seemed now to think he had me, and could do what he pleased; but at this moment –from whence came the spirit I don’t know– I resolved to fight; and, suiting my action to the resolution, I seized Covey hard by the throat; and as I did so, I rose. He held on to me, and I to him. My resistance was so entirely unexpected that Covey seemed taken all aback. He trembled like a leaf. This gave me assurance, and I held him uneasy, causing the blood to run where I touched him with the ends of my fingers. Mr. Covey soon called out to Hughes for help. Hughes came, and, while Covey held me, attempted to tie my right hand. While he was in the act of doing so, I watched my chance, and gave him a heavy kick close under the ribs. This kick fairly sickened Hughes, so that he left me in the hands of Mr. Covey. This kick had the effect of not only weakening Hughes, but Covey also. When he saw Hughes bending over with pain, his courage quailed. He asked me if I meant to persist in my resistance. I told him I did, come what might; that he had used me like a brute for six months, and that I was determined to be used so no longer. With that, he strove to drag me to a stick that was lying just out of the stable door. He meant to knock me down. But just as he was leaning over to get the stick, I seized him with both hands by his collar, and brought him by a sudden snatch to the ground. By this time, Bill came. Covey called upon him for assistance. Bill wanted to know what he could do. Covey said, “Take hold of him, take hold of him!” Bill said his master hired him out to work, and not to help to whip me; so he left Covey and myself to fight our own battle out. We were at it for nearly two hours. Covey at length let me go, puffing and blowing at a great rate, saying that if I had not resisted, he would not have whipped me half so much. The truth was, that he had not whipped me at all. I considered him as getting entirely the worst end of the bargain; for he had drawn no blood from me, but I had from him. The whole six months afterwards, that I spent with Mr. Covey, he never laid the weight of his finger upon me in anger. He would occasionally say, he didn’t want to get hold of me again. “No,” thought I, “you need not; for you will come off worse than you did before.”
Also, that day, the corpse of Elijah Pierson, or what was supposed to be that corpse, was being disinterred and the stomach taken for examination. The examiners would consider that the condition of the stomach indicated that Pierson had been poisoned.
That evening, like Saturday evening and Sunday evening, there was white rioting in Columbia, Pennsylvania, with windows in the homes of colored residents being shattered.
2. Bill Smith was another slave hired from his owner by Edward Covey. Hughes, whom Frederick Douglass says he kicked, was a white man, Edward Covey’s cousin. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER August 19, Tuesday: In Bridgewater, New York, Prudence Crandall got married with a Baptist itinerant preacher named Calvin Philleo. The Reverend Philleo was substantially older than her and had previously been married to Elizabeth Wheeler and had a son, Calvin Wheeler Philleo, born in about 1822 in Suffield, Connecticut, who would be adopted by Prudence and who would become a Hartford attorney, author, and politician (Free Soil Democrat).3
The C.F. Durant balloon made an ascension.
That night the municipal rioting became even more serious in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Many of the members of the white mob were juveniles, of course, but there were some older and supposedly wiser heads among them, for they were fired by something that had just happened, in the early part of the evening. According to some, local blacks had attacked a white man who was watching over a lot on the town’s outskirts; according to others, a white property owner subjected to violence had been obliged to mount an appropriate defense. The office of Stephen Smith and his partner William Whipper was trashed. A band of whites, not more than 50 strong, marched on the town’s black neighborhood. They heaved rocks at a number of the houses, did quite a bit of shouting, and fired off their weapons, generally toward the sky. This went on until like one o’clock in the morning. Most of the frightened black residents fled into the dark hills above the town, with a few taking refuge in Bethel’s Woods and remaining there in hiding for several days without food or shelter until they were advised that it was fairly safe to return to their homes. The help of Dave “Dare Devil” Miller, high sheriff of the county, was solicited, and he swore in a considerable number of “deputies” in Lancaster who came to Columbia to calm the rioting. There would be some arrests, particularly of those suspected to be leaders, and some would be brought to trial — of course, no-one would be convicted. RACISM
August 20, Wednesday: In 1777 Friend Moses Brown had gone into his harvest field and called his laborers together, and offered to pay them extra wages if they would be willing to dispense with the usual allowance of distilled spirits that employers of that period provided to their laborers. At this point he confided to his journal that “I have never Since being now 57 years furnished Any Spirits in Harvest or Hay Time, & I have My business done better and the Laborers come in and go out More Quiet and Satisfactory to them & their Family than they used to do when Spirits were freely Given and Used by them.”
Aboard the Pilgrim, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. began to learn the ropes, but some of these “ropes,” such as the rope known as race relations, Dana already knew with sufficient precision. For instance, at numerous points in his nautical narrative there would be references to “the cook” by occupational title, and he would repeatedly be characterized as simple-hearted and as old and as African, but one thing we will never learn is that for our adventurous author a black person has a name.
That evening the inhabitants of Columbia, Pennsylvania assembled in their town hall and: Resolved, That a paper “setting forth the consequences of the present excitement in the town and containing a pledge to assist in the suppression of disorder, which was signed by a large number of citizens, be read”; which having been done, it was Resolved, That our civil magistrates do forthwith legally appoint a strong and efficient police for the protection of the persons and property of the peaceable inhabitants of this borough. Resolved, That this special police shall consist of fifty. Resolved, That whereas an undue excitement has lately originated in this borough, endangering the lives and property of the citizens generally; and whereas, it is an imperative duty of every good citizen to use his influence together with every 3. We don’t know who the Reverend Philleo’s parents were, and this is extraordinarily unusual as a family name. The Greek term “philieo” occurs in JAMES 4:1-3 and indicates “to love” or “to have an affection for” or “to be the friend of.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
means in his power to prevent and suppress the like occurrence again; it is therefore HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
Wednesday, Aug. 20th. We had the watch on deck from four till eight, this morning. When we came on deck at four o’clock, we found things much changed for the better. The sea and wind had gone down, and the stars were out bright. I experienced a corresponding change in my feelings; yet continued extremely weak from my sickness. I stood in the waist on the weather side, watching the gradual breaking of the day, and the first streaks of the early light. Much has been said of the sun-rise at sea; but it will not compare with the sun-rise on shore. It wants the accompaniments of the songs of birds, the awakening hum of men, and the glancing of the first beams upon trees, hills, spires, and house-tops, to give it life and spirit. But though the actual rise of the sun at sea is not so beautiful, yet nothing will compare with the early breaking of day upon the wide ocean. There is something in the first grey streaks stretching along the eastern horizon and throwing an indistinct light upon the face of the deep, which combines with the boundlessness and unknown depth of the sea around you, and gives one a feeling of loneliness, of dread, and of melancholy foreboding, which nothing else in nature can give. This gradually passes away as the light grows brighter, and when the sun comes up, the ordinary monotonous sea day begins. From such reflections as these, I was aroused by the order from the officer, “Forward there! rig the head- pump!” I found that no time was allowed for day-dreaming, but that we must “turn to” at the first light. Having called up the “idlers,” namely, carpenter, cook, steward, etc., and rigged the pump, we commenced washing down the decks. This operation, which is performed every morning at sea, takes nearly two hours; and I had hardly strength enough to get through it. After we had finished, swabbed down, and coiled up the rigging, I sat down on the spars, waiting for seven bells, which was the sign for breakfast. The officer, seeing my lazy posture, ordered me to slush the main-mast from the royal-mast-head, down. The vessel was then rolling a little, and I had taken no sustenance for three days, so that I felt tempted to tell him that I had rather wait till after breakfast; but I knew that I must “take the bull by the horns,” and that if I showed any sign of want of spirit or of backwardness, that I should be ruined at once. So I took my bucket of grease and climbed up to the royal-mast-head. Here the rocking of the vessel, which increases the higher you go from the foot of the mast, which is the fulcrum of the lever, and the smell of the grease, which offended my fastidious senses, upset my stomach again, and I was not a little rejoiced when I got upon the comparative terra firma of the deck. In a few minutes seven bells were struck, the log hove, the watch called, and we went to breakfast. Here I cannot but remember the advice of the cook, a simple-hearted African. “Now,” says he, “my lad, you are well cleaned out; you haven’t got a drop of your ’long-shore swash aboard of you. You must begin on a new tack,– pitch all your sweetmeats overboard, and turn-to upon good hearty salt beef and sea bread, and I’ll promise you, you’ll have your ribs well sheathed, and be as hearty as any of ’em, afore you are up to the Horn.” This would be good advice to give to passengers, when they speak of the little niceties which they have laid in, in case of sea-sickness. I cannot describe the change which half a pound of cold salt beef and a biscuit or two produced in me. I was a new being. We had a watch below until noon, so that I had some time to myself; and getting a huge piece of strong, cold, salt beef from the cook, I kept gnawing upon it until twelve o’clock. When we went on deck I felt somewhat like a man, and could begin to learn my sea duty with considerable spirit. At about two o’clock we heard the loud cry of “Sail ho!” from aloft, and soon saw two sails to windward, going directly athwart our hawse. This was the first time that I had seen a sail at sea. I thought then, and have always since, that it exceeds every other sight in interest and beauty. They passed to leeward of us, and out of hailing distance; but the captain could read the names on their sterns with the glass. They were the ship Helen Mar, of New York, and the brig Mermaid, of Boston. They were both steering westward, and were bound in for our “dear native land.”
Resolved, That in case of any attempt to disturb or molest the peace and quiet of any of the inhabitants of the borough in future it shall be the duty of every respectable citizen to give his assistance to the police and unite in going forward to the rioters or other disturbers of the peace, requesting them HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER immediately to desist and disperse; and in case of refusal, to take the name of every person concerned, and prosecute them to the extent of the law. Resolved, That each citizen does pledge himself to volunteer his services as above, in case of disorder, or to go immediately at the request of any respectable person. Resolved, That these proceedings be published; whereupon the meeting adjourned. R.E. Cochran, Chairman A. Green, Jr., Secretary.
The men appointed to patrol the borough would perform their duties as indicated, but excitement levels would remain high.
August 22, Friday: Robert Spear, the Chief Burgess of Columbia, Pennsylvania, issued a proclamation: Proclamation. Whereas there is at present an undue excitement in this town, and whereas there have been unlawful assemblages doing much damage and destroying the peace of the borough, and whereas numerous assemblages of people of color are particularly to be avoided, I do hereby command and enjoin it upon all colored persons from and after the Issuing of this Proclamation and until publicity revoked, to cease from the holding of all public religious meeting whatsoever, of any kind, after the hour of 8 o’clock in the evening, within the borough limits. And I do further request of and enjoin it upon all good citizens to aid in the suppression of all disturbances whatsoever, and particularly to aid in the execution of this Proclamation and in all proper ways to prevent the good order of the town from being destroyed, the laws broken and the lives and property of the citizens endangered, so that all persons concerned, or aiding or abetting in such disturbances may be arrested and dealt with according to the utmost extent of the law. Given under my hand and seal of office as Chief Burgess of the borough of Columbia, August 22, 1834. Robert Spear.
August 23, Saturday: There was a meeting of the white working men and others favorable to their cause in the town of Columbia, Pennsylvania, in the evening in the town hall. After appointing Dr. Thomas L. Smith as chairman and Joseph M. Watts as secretary, there was no dissent to a preamble and resolutions: When a body of citizens assemble to concert measure for the protection of those inestimable rights secured to them by the constitution, they owe to the public a distinct statement of the grievances they meet to redress, so that disinterested and patriotic persons may not labor under any mistake or imbibe prejudices against them. We therefore, willingly detail to the people the causes that urged us to meet this evening, confident that the intelligent will approve and coincide with us in support of our measures. We cannot view the conduct of certain individuals in this borough, who by instilling pernicious ideas into the heads of the blacks, encourage and excite them to pursue HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER a course of conduct that has caused and will continue to cause great disturbance and breaches of the peace, and which we are fearful if not checked will ultimately lead to bloodshed, without feeling abhorrence, disgust and indignation. The practice of others in employing Negroes to do that labor which was formerly done entirely by whites, we consider deserving our severest animadversions: and when it is represented to them that the whites are suffering by this conduct, the answer is, “The world is wide, let them go elsewhere.” And is it come to this? Must the poor honest citizens that so long have maintained their families by their labor, fly from their native place that a band of disorderly Negroes may revel with the money that ought to support the white man and his family, commit the most lascivious and degrading actions with impunity, and wanton in riot and debauchery. Who in this town does not know in what manner many Negroes spend their leisure hours; and who, but one that has lost all sense of right and justice, would encourage and protect them? As the negroes now pursue occupations once the sole province of the whites, may we not in course of time expect to see them engaged in every branch of mechanical business, and their known disposition to work for almost any price may well excite our fears, that mechanics at no distant period will scarcely be able to procure a mere subsistence. The cause of the late disgraceful riots throughout every part of the country may be traced to the efforts of those who would wish the poor whites to amalgamate with the blacks, for in all their efforts to accomplish this diabolical design, we see no intention in them to marry their own daughters to the blacks, it is therefore intended to break down the distinctive barrier between the colors that the poor whites may gradually sink into the degraded condition of the Negroes — that, like them, they may be’ slaves and tools, and that the blacks are to witness their disgusting servility to their employers and their unbearable insolence to the working class. Feeling that this state of things must have a brief existence If we wish to preserve our liberties, therefore be it Resolved. That we will not purchase any article (that can be procured elsewhere) or give our vote for any office whatever, to any one who employs Negroes to do that species of labor white men have been accustomed to perform. Resolved, That we deeply deplore the late riots and will as peaceable men assist to protect the persons and property of the citizens in case of disturbance. Resolved, That the Colonization Society ought to be supported by all the citizens favorable to the removal of the blacks from the country. Resolved, That the preachers of immediate abolition and amalgamation ought to be considered as political incendiaries, and regarded with Indignation and abhorrence. Resolved, That the editor of the Spy be requested to publish the proceedings of this meeting. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
“Effusiva-Esplosiva — Lava a SE tra Boscoreale ed Ottaviano [until September 10th]. Distrutto il borgo di Caposecchi e di S. Giovanni (800 persone senzatetto).”
MOUNT VESUVIUS
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 23 of 8 M / Rode into Town this Morning & soon after I got there was informed by Arnold Congdon that our dear friend & faithful labourer in the Gospel Daniel Howland of East Greenwich - he died last night in a fit & is to be buried tomorrow - the particulars I have not learned, but conclude it must be very sudden, he was at Providence on the 8 & 9 of this Month & attended the School committee & Meeting for Sufferings - he then appeared to be as well as usual, tho’ I recollect of noticing a flush in his face, & heft of countenance, which I thought might be indicative of a repeated attack of a fit having had one some Months or a year ago. - He was indeed what may well be denomiated a lovely & very loving friend - but few of my acquaintance possessed more of the milk of human Kindness, or was more devoted in the cause of Truth & deeper in concern for the welfare of our poor society. Altho’ in point of matter there was not that variety of subject & expression in his Ministry yet I can truly testify that his Offerings never seemed to me as old Manna, but if his matter was similar to what we had often heard, it seemed to be renewedly sanctified & seldom failed to produce some HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER baptism in the auditory & were sometimes very reaching — his loss will be deeply felt among a numerous acquaintance by whom he was unusually beloved, & also in Society where his public labours & usefulness in our Meetings for discipline will be greatly missed - He had arrived at an age when according to the course of nature it could not be expected that he could continue much longer, having attained the [blank] Year of his Age, but it is hard to part with such dear friends & valued pillars in the Church. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 26, Tuesday evening: There was yet another meeting of the white citizens of the town of Columbia, Pennsylvania in its town hall, in pursuance of a printed call “to take into consideration the situation of the colored population, and to devise some means to prevent the further influx of colored persons to this place.” James Given, Esq. was named as Chairman and Thomas E. Cochran as Secretary. The following resolution offered by Chief Burgess Robert Spear was approved: Resolved, That a committee be appointed whose duty it shall be to ascertain the colored population of this borough, the occupation and employment of the adult males among them, and their visible means of subsistence. Resolved, That a committee be appointed whose duty it shall be to communicate with that portion of those colored persons who hold property in this borough and ascertain, if possible, if they would be willing to dispose of the same at a fair valuation; and it shall be the duty of the said committee to advise the colored persons in said borough to refuse receiving any colored persons from other places as residents among them; and the said committee shall report their proceedings to the chairman and secretary of this meeting, who are hereby empowered and requested to call another meeting at an early period and lay before said meeting the reports of said committees that such order may be taken thereon as may be most advisable. Resolved, That the citizens of this borough be requested, in case of the discovery of any fugitive slaves within our bounds, to cooperate and assist in returning them to their lawful owners.
(That final resolution in regard to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 had been proposed by Henry Brimmer.)
The following committees of white citizens were then appointed by the meeting: On the 1st resolution, Messrs. James Collins, Peter Haldeman, Jacob F. Markley, John McMullen, and William Atkins. On the 2d resolution, Robert Spear, Esq., and Messrs. Henry Brimmer and James H. Mifflin.
September 1, Monday: David Henry Thoreau went back to Harvard College for the 1st term of his Sophomore year, living in 32 Hollis Hall with James Richardson, Jr. Ellery Channing (William Ellery Channing II) was matriculating there, but he would soon depart because otherwise he would have been expelled due to a very low point accumulation. THOREAU RESIDENCES
At some point Henry and his room-mate needed to write to Oliver Sparhawk, the steward of the building: Mr Sparhawk Sir HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER The occupants of Hollis 32 would like to have that room painted and whitewashed, also if possible to have a new hearth put in yours respectfully Thoreau & Richardson
Until November 30th, David Henry would be studying the Italian language under instructor Pietro Bachi.
(Thoreau would be enrolled in the study of Italian for 4 terms, in the study of French for 4 terms, in the study of German for 4 terms, and in the study of Spanish for 2 terms under Francis Sales.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
Holden Chapel Hollis Hall Hollis
N Fellows Barn
Harvard Hall ’ StoughtonHall
Massachusetts Hall
That evening, at the adjourned meeting of the citizens convened at the town hall in Columbia, Pennsylvania, to receive the reports of the committees appointed to inquire into the state of the colored population and to negotiate with them on the subject of a sale of their property, the officers appointed at the previous meeting resumed their seats. The committees having made their reports, a motion was made and approved: Resolved, That these reports be remanded to the committees who offered them for the purpose of having resolutions attached to them, and that this meeting do adjourn until Wednesday evening next. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER September 2, Tuesday: Viceroy Lu K’un stopped all trade with foreigners in Canton.
That midnight in Columbia, Pennsylvania a mob descended upon the home in Front Street of a black citizen. As the occupants fled, its porch and a part of its frame were torn apart. The white men then proceeded to the coal and lumber office of Stephen Smith, on Front street below the present roundhouse, broke through its windows and doors, and rifled the desk, scattering papers about the pavement. After making an unsuccessful attempt to upset the structure, they marched off declaring “glory enough for one night.”
The following advertisement would be placed in the Columbia Spy: NOTICE. I offer my entire stock of lumber, either wholesale or retail, at a reduced price, as I am determined to close my business at Columbia. Any person desirous of entering into the lumber trade extensively can have the entire stock at a great bargain; or persons intending to open yards along the line of the railroad, or builders, will find it to their advantage to call on me or my agent at my yard, as I am desirous of disposing of the above as soon as possible. I will also dispose of my real property in the borough, consisting of a number of houses and lots, some of them desirable situations for business. All persons having claims against me are requested to present them for payment, and all indebted are desired to call and discharge the same at my office in Columbia, or in Lancaster, as I intend being there every Saturday for that purpose. Stephen Smith
September 3, Wednesday evening: The meeting of white citizens at the town hall in Columbia, Pennsylvania reconvened after its adjournment on the previous evening. The white citizens’ committee it had appointed to inquire into the condition of the local population of color offered its report, and a recommendation that the proper local authorities get busy, and actively deal with these named vagrants and nuisances of color: Number of black population found in Columbia, Pennsylvania on August 28, 1834; — 214 men, 171 women, 264 children — total 649. It is supposed that a good number have left the place within a few days, and that a number were scattered through the town that were not seen by the committee. Among the above men, the committee consider the following named persons as vagrants: William Rockaway, Henry Holland, Wash Butler, Charles Butler, Jacob Coursey, Joe Dellam, James Larret, Joseph Hughes, Abraham Waters, William Malston, Jr., and Lloyd Murray. A house occupied by John Scott and William Stockes, is considered by the committee as a house of ill fame; it is rented by Joshua P. B. Eddy to them. James Collins William Atkins John McMullen J.F. Markley Peter Haldeman.
The committee’s recommendation, that the proper local white authorities get busy, and actively deal with these named vagrants and nuisances of color, was approved.
The white citizens’ committee it had appointed to negotiate with the local population of color on the sale of their property reported as follows: HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER That they have endeavored to give that attention to the subject which its importance justly demands. They have, in the first place, ascertained as nearly as possible the names and number of colored freeholders in this borough, which according to the best information they could obtain they lay before you as follows, viz: Henry Barney, William Brown, Aaron Brown, James Burrell, Michael Dellam, Charles Dellam, Joshua Eddy, Walter Green, John Green, George Hayden, Widow Hayden, James Hollinsworth, ______Henderson, Glascow Mature, Edward Miller, William Pearl, Nicholas Pleasants, Philip Pleasants, Jacob Dickinson, John Johnson, Ephraim Malson, Sawney Alexander, Robert Patterson, Stephen Smith, Peter Swails, John Thomas, James Richards, Betsey Dean (formerly Roatch), George Taylor, George Young, Stephen Wilts, Eliza Park, Thomas Waters, Samuel Wilson, Patrick Vincent, John Vincent and Washington Vincent — making in all thirty-seven. They have called on most of them in person and think the disposition manifested by most of them decidedly favorable to the object of the committee. Some of them are anxious, many willing, to sell at once provided a reasonable price were offered — others would dispose of their property as soon as they could find any other eligible situation. All to whom your committee spoke on the subject of harboring strange persons among them, seemed disposed to give the proper attention to the subject. Your committee deem the result of their observation decidedly satisfactory. In presenting this report your committee would respectfully call your attention to the impropriety of further urging the colored freeholders to sell until some provisions are made to buy such as may be offered, lest they should be led to consider it all the work of a few excited individuals, and not the deliberate decision of peaceful citizens. They therefore recommend the subject to the attention of capitalists; having no doubt that, independent of every other consideration, the lots in question would be a very profitable investment of their funds, and that if a commencement were once made nearly all of the colored freeholders of the borough would sell as fast as funds could be raised to meet the purchasers. Your committee would further remark if everything was in readiness, considerable time would be required to effect the object; they would therefore recommend caution and deliberation in everything in relation to this important object.
In conclusion your committee offer the following resolution: Resolved, That an association be formed for the purpose of raising funds for the purchase of the property of the blacks in this borough. Robert Spear H. Brimmer Jas. H. Mifflin.
The report and resolution of this committee appointed to negotiate with the local population of color on the sale of their property, as above, were adopted, and a committee of 5 white men was appointed to form an association for the purpose of purchasing the property of the blacks in the borough: Joseph Cottrell, Dominick Eagle, John Cooper, Robert Spear, and Jacob P. Markley. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER October 2, Thursday: All clergymen appointed under the former King Miguel were removed from their posts.
While in Leipzig, Felix Mendelssohn visited Friedrich Wieck who presented his daughter Clara. She played some of her own music, some Chopin, and some music by a student of Wieck, Robert Schumann. Mendelssohn was favorably impressed by Clara.
There was a report that a black man and a white woman had married, so that night there was another race riot in Columbia, Pennsylvania. The Columbia Spy would report: Thursday night last was one of bustle and alarm to all classes of our citizens at one hour or another such as we have not lately experienced; the fury of disorderly men and the ravages of the destructive element of fire, conspired to make it a season of confusion and terror. About 12 o’clock a mob which had collected began their operations by stoning, forcing into, and destroying the interior and furniture of several houses inhabited by colored persons. Four dwellings were more or less broken and injured, and the goods were scattered about and destroyed; one of the inhabitants, a black man, was severely bruised, cut in the face and had one of his arms rendered powerless; and other violence was done to the persons and property of the class of people to whom he belonged. These riots continued about an hour, and amidst great noise and shouting, and the sound of missiles coming in contact with the buildings disturbed the rest of the citizens adjacent to the scene of action. The exciting cause of this exhibition of illegal tumult and devastation, was the reported recent marriage of a black man to a white woman, which re-kindled the smouldering ashes of former popular madness and afforded an opportunity to evil-disposed individuals to react past occurrences of disorder and destruction. They, however, did not stop when they had punished the object of their wrath, but spent the residue of it upon others who had committed no fresh acts which called for punishment. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
Aboard Richard Henry Dana, Jr.’s Pilgrim, the second mate, Mr. Foster, was caught asleep on watch by Captain F. Thompson and removed from his position.
AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT, A REPORT FROM OUR SAILOR: The second night after crossing the equator, we had the watch from eight till twelve, and it was “my helm” for the last two hours. There had been light squalls through the night, and the captain told Mr. F______, who commanded our watch, to keep a bright lookout. Soon after I came to the helm, I found that he was quite drowsy, and at last he stretched himself on the companion and went fast asleep. Soon afterwards, the captain came very quietly on deck, and stood by me for some time looking at the compass. The officer at length became aware of the captain’s presence, but pretending not to know it, began humming and whistling to himself, to show that he was not asleep, and went forward, without looking behind him, and ordered the main royal to be loosed. On turning round to come aft, he pretended surprise at seeing the master on deck. This would not do. The captain was too “wide awake” for him, and beginning upon him at once, gave him a grand blow-up, in true nautical style– “You’re a lazy, good-for-nothing rascal; you’re neither man, boy, soger, nor sailor! you’re no more than a thing aboard a vessel! you don’t earn your salt; you’re worse than a Mahon soger!” and other still more choice extracts from the sailor’s vocabulary. After the poor fellow had taken this harangue, he was sent into his stateroom, and the captain stood the rest of the watch himself. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1835
This was the year of the 6th National Negro Convention. Robert Purvis would persuade its attenders to “peaceably” resist the fugitive slave law.
This convention, taking note that sugar beets were being grown in France, urged that America’s free blacks should grow sugar beets and offer the sugar through the American Free Produce Association as an alternative to slavery- produced cane sugar. (This idea, of course, would be a nonstarter, as many of the white people who consumed sugar were being made uneasy in their souls not so much by the ingestion of a snow-white substance which had been SWEETS invisibly tainted by slavery but by the ingestion of a snow-white substance which had been invisibly tainted by being WITHOUT touched by black hands. Such whites were uneasy about purchasing cane sugar produced in the tropics by black slaves, SLAVERY but would of course be almost equivalently uneasy about purchasing beet sugar produced locally by free black farmers — and would therefore be unlikely to pay a premium price to consume local beet sugar rather than the imported cheaper cane sugar.)
William Whipper was one of those in attendance at this convention. In addition, during this year he was relocating to Columbia, Pennsylvania with fellow black entrepreneur Stephen Smith. William F. Worner’s account of the Columbia riots includes a record of a missive received in the course of this year: You must know that your presence is not agreeable, and the less you appear in the assembly of the whites the better it will be for your black hide, as there are great many in this place that would think your absence from it a benefit, as you are considered an injury to the real value of property in Columbia. You have [sic] better take the hint. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER One of Massachusetts’s senators, Peleg Sprague, was in this year arguing for slavery by invoking the authority of Jesus Christ. Jesus meek and mild, who “would not interfere with the administration of the laws, or abrogate their authority,” it seemed, could have been no abolitionist — or at least, not according to Senator Peleg Sprague!
The Columbia Spy reported that the business success of Stephen Smith and his partner William Whipper in Columbia, Pennsylvania had “excited the envy or hatred of those not so prosperous and of the ruling race” to the point that their business office had been vandalized and papers, records, and books destroyed. RACISM “It is simply crazy that there should ever have come into being a world with such a sin in it, in which a man is set apart because of his color — the superficial fact about a human being. Who could want such a world? For an American fighting for his love of country, that the last hope of earth should from its beginning have swallowed slavery, is an irony so withering, a justice so intimate in its rebuke of pride, as to measure only with God.” — Stanley Cavell, MUST WE MEAN WHAT WE SAY? 1976, page 141 HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER The Reverend William Henry Brisbane published the first Baptist periodical to be produced outside Philadelphia, The Southern Baptist and General Intelligencer printed by James S. Burges of Charleston, South Carolina, the stated mission of which was to support slavery as a biblically mandated social and economic institution. The periodical would attempt to refute the antislavery writings in THE ELEMENTS OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY of the Reverend Francis Wayland, President of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
The Baptist reverend was struggling against himself: “I am no abolitionist.” Oh, no, he was a regular guy, he could not be one of those detested, deluded people! (Three years later, however, this abolitionism would overcome him — and a local historian would eventually write of him, because he had manumitted his slaves, that “He became, to the white population, the most hated man in the Beaufort District.”)
February 27, Friday: After the mob violence of the previous year the town of Columbia, Pennsylvania seemed to have more or less fallen back into its usual drowsiness. However, Stephen Smith was still advertising in the Columbia Spy that he was disposed to sell his stock and real estate and leave town. We don’t know whether he had been unable to secure a purchaser or whether the move had come to be perceived as no longer so urgent. We know he continued to bid actively on available real estate properties. Then on this day he received the following notice through the post office: S. Smith: — You have again assembled yourself amongst the white people to bid up property, as you have been in the habit of doing: for a number of years back. You must know that your presence is not agreeable, and the less you appear in the assembly of the whites the better it will be for your black hide, as there are a great many in this place that would think your absence from it a benefit, as you are considered an injury to the real value of property in Columbia. You had better take the hint and save, February 27, 1835. MANY.
Smith showed this message to his white friends William Wright, John L. Wright, and James Wright and they were so furious that they had it published in the Columbia Spy, along with an offer of $100 reward for the apprehension of its authors. When their action raised in the public mind the question of why white men were supporting a lumber dealer of color, they supplied the following: Enquiry being made why we advocate the cause of S. Smith by offering a reward for the detection of the author of a letter received by him with the vengeance of “Many,” we state that it is not his cause but we consider ourselves injured by threats made to prevent persons from attending and bidding on property HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER advertised by the subscribers, at public auction, to take place on the day following the receipt of said letter. William Wright John L. Wright James Wright.
April 11, Saturday: Stephen Smith decided to remain in Columbia, Pennsylvania and continue his profitable lumber business. He made this clear to the public by inserting the following in the Columbia Spy: NOTICE. The subscriber, desirous to avoid being associated with those heartrending scenes and unrighteous persecutions, that was directed against the colored population of this borough in the month of August last, was induced on the 19th day of the following month, (September) to publish in the “Columbia Spy,” and “Lancaser Journal,” the following advertisement viz: “I offer my entire stock of lumber either wholesale or retail, at a reduced price, as I am determined to close my business in Columbia. Any person desirous of entering into the lumber trade extensively, can have the entire stock at a bargain; or persons intending to open yards along the line of railroad, or builders, will find it to their advantage, to call on me or my agent at my yard, as I am desirous of disposing of the above as soon as possible.” Now upwards of six months have elapsed, and I have not been favored with an opportunity of completing my original design. I do, therefore, under the guidance of a benign Providence, and with renewed confidence in the integrity and virtue of my fellow-citizens, make known to my patrons, and the public generally, not only in the county of Lancaster, but Philadelphia, Baltimore, and elsewhere, that I shall continue to prosecute my business with usual vigor, and will be ready on every occasion, to execute all orders in my line with promptness and dispatch. Stephen Smith.
P.S. — I do most cheerfully return my hearty thanks to my customers for the very liberal patronage I have always received, but more specially for their favors during that eventful period of excitement. For never before has there been a time when I could place such a just estimation on the value of friends. I, therefore, pledge myself in future to accommodate them on the most liberal terms. S.S. Columbia, April 11, 1835. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1837
The American Anti-Slavery Society put out the 4th issue of its abolitionist “omnibus” entitled The Anti- Slavery Examiner, containing an anonymous “The Bible Against Slavery. An Inquiry Into the Patriarchal and Mosaic Systems on the Subject of Human Rights.” (This was by Theodore Dwight Weld and would be TEXT followed by “The Bible ... Human Rights. Third Edition – Revised.” and by “The Bible ... Human Rights. INDEX Fourth Edition – Enlarged.”)
William Whipper got married with the sister of his business partner Stephen Smith, Harriet Smith (1818-1906) of Columbia, Pennsylvania. A daughter, Harriet, born in this year, would appear to have died before adulthood.
Stephen Smith attended the 1st meeting of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.
The Reverend Adin Ballou’s THE TOUCHSTONE. The Reverend came out publicly as, shudder, an abolitionist. Although this announcement produced turmoil at his Mendon church, the pastor’s supporters would there prevail. He would be less successful in introducing such a reform at this year’s meeting of the Massachusetts Association of Universal Restorationists, his proposal there only producing a rift in fellowship between a group of social reformers and the conservative divines (under the guidance of the Reverend Paul Dean).
Noah Webster, Jr. instructed a daughter who was being unduly influenced by the abolitionist cause that “slavery is a great sin and a general calamity – but it is not our sin, though it may prove to be a terrible calamity to us in the north. But we cannot legally interfere with the South on this subject. ... To come north to preach and thus disturb our peace, when we can legally do nothing to effect this object, is, in my view, highly criminal and the preachers of abolitionism deserve the penitentiary.” Wow, we ought to lock up the Frederick Douglass who followed the North Star to disturb Noah’s daughter’s peace? –With friends like this the American antislavery crusade certainly didn’t need any enemies!
September 9, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 9th of 9 M / This Afternoon Our much esteemed & very kind young friend Avis Harris came down from Providence in the Steam Boat to See us we were very glad to have an opportunity to repay some of her kind attention to us at the house of her late venerable grandfather Moses Brown where I in particularly as well as our son John have been kindly treated by her. - RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
At the age of 24, in 1828, William Whipper had lectured on moral reform. At this point he began to publish in the Reverend Samuel Eli Cornish’s New-York newspaper The Colored American his speech as “Address on Non-Resistance to Offensive Aggression.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER Mr. President: The above resolution presupposes that if there were no God to guide and govern the destinies of man on this planet, no Bible to light his path through the wilds of sin, darkness and error, and no religion to give him a glorious and lasting consolation while traversing the gloomy vale of despondency, and to light up his soul anew with fresh influence from the fountain of Divine grace — that mankind might enjoy an exalted state of civilization, peace and quietude in their social, civil and international relations, far beyond that which Christians now enjoy, guarded and protected by the great Author of all good and the doctrines of the Prince of Peace. “But, sir, while I am assuming the position that the cause of peace amongst mankind may be promoted without the scriptures, I would not, for a single moment, sanction the often made assertion that the doctrines of the holy scriptures justify war — for they are in my humble opinion its greatest enemy. And I further believe, that as soon as they become fully understood, and practically adopted, wars, and strife will cease. I believe that every argument urged in favor of what is termed a “just and necessary war,” or physical self-defense, is at enmity with the letter, and spirit of the scriptures, and when they emanate from its professed advocates should be repudiated, as inimical to the principles they profess, and a reproach to Christianity itself. I have said this much in favor of the influence of the scriptures, on the subject of peace. It is neither my intention, nor my province, under the present resolution, to give proofs for my belief by quotations from holy writ. That portion of the discussion, I shall leave to the minister to the altar, and the learned and biblical theologian. Though I may make a few incidental quotations hereafter, I shall now pass on for a few brief moments to the resolution under consideration, viz.: The resolution asserts that the practice of non-resistance to physical aggression is consistent with reason. A very distinguished man asserts, “that reason is that distinguishing characteristic that separates man from the brute creation,” and that this power was bestowed upon him by his Maker, that he might be capable of subduing all subordinate intelligences to his will.” It is this power when exerted in its full force, that enables him to conquer the animals of the forest, and which makes him lord of creation. There is a right, and a wrong method of reasoning. The latter is governed by our animal impulses, and wicked desires, without regard to the end to be attained. The former fixes its premises, in great fundamental, and unalterable truths—surveys the magnitude of the objects, and the difficulties to be surmounted, and calls to its aid the resources of enlightened wisdom, as a landmark by which to conduct its operations. It is self-evident, that when the greatest difficulties surround us, we should summon our noblest powers. “Man is a being formed for action as well as contemplation”; for this purpose there are interwoven in his constitution, powers, instincts, feelings and affections, which have a reference to his improvement in virtue, and which excite him to promote the happiness of others. When we behold them by their noble sentiments, exhibiting sublime virtues and performing illustrious actions, we ascribe the same to the goodness of their hearts, their great reasoning powers and intellectual abilities. For were it not for these high human endowments we should never behold men in seasons of calamity, HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER displaying tranquility and fortitude in the midst of difficulties and dangers, enduring poverty and distress with a noble heroism, suffering injuries and affronts with patience and serenity—stifling resentment when they have it in their power to inflict vengeance—displaying kindness and generosity towards enemies and slanderers—submitting to pain and disgrace in order to promote the prosperity of their friends and relatives, or the great interests of the human race. Such acts may be considered by persons of influence and rank as the offspring of pusillanimity, because they themselves are either incapable of conceiving the purity of the motives from which they emanate, or are too deeply engulfed in the ruder passions of our nature, to allow them to bestow a just tribute to the efforts of enlightened reason. It is happy for us to contemplate, that every age, both of the pagan and the Christian world, has been blessed, that they always have fastened their attention on the noblest gifts of our nature, and that they now still shine as ornaments to the human race, connecting the interests of one generation with that of another. Rollin, in speaking of Aristides and Just, says “that an extraordinary greatness of souls made him superior to every passion. Interest, pleasure, ambition, resentment and judgment, were extinguished in him by the love of virtue and his country,” and just in proportion as we cultivate our intellectual faculties, we shall strengthen our reasoning powers, and be prepared to become his imitators. Our country and the world have become the munificent patron of many powerful, existing evils, that have spread their devastating influence over the best interests of the human race. One of which is the adopting of the savage custom of wars, and fighting as a redress of grievances, instead of some means more consistent with reason and civilization. The great law of love forbids our doing aught against the interests of our fellow men. It is altogether inconsistent with reason and common sense, for persons when they deem themselves insulted, by the vulgar aspersions of others, to maltreat their bodies for the acts of their minds. Yet how frequently do we observe those that are blest by nature and education, (and if they would but aspire to acts that bear a parallel to their dignified minds, they would shine as illustrious stars, in the created throngs,) that degrade themselves by practicing this barbarous custom, suited only to tyrants—because in this they may be justly ranked with the untutored savages of the animals of the forest, that are impelled only by instinct. Another fatal error arises from the belief that the only method of maintaining peace, is always to be ready for war. The spirit of war can never be destroyed by all the butcheries and persecutions the human mind can invent. The history of all the “bloody tragedies,” by which the earth has been drenched by human blood, cannot be justified in the conclusion, for it is the spirit of conquest that feeds it—Thomas Dick, after collecting the general statistics of those that have perished by the all desolating pestilence of war, says “it will not be overrating the destruction of human life, if we affirm, that one tenth of the human race has been destroyed by the ravages of war,”—and if this estimate be admitted, it will follow that more than fourteen thousand millions of beings have been slaughtered in war since the beginning of the world, which is about eighteen HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER times the number of its present inhabitants. This calculation proceeds from a geographical estimate, “that since the Mosaic creation one hundred and forty-five thousand millions of being have existed.” But, sir, it is not my intention to give a dissertation, on the subject of national wars, although it appropriately belongs to my subject. I decline it only for the simple reason, that it would be inapplicable to us as a people, while we may be more profitably employed in inveighing against the same evil as practiced by ourselves, although it exists under another form, but equally obnoxious to the principles of reason and Christianity. My reason for referring to national wars was to exhibit by plain demonstration that the war principle, which is the production of human passions, has never been, nor can ever be, conquered by its own elements. Hence, if we ever expect the word of prophecy to be fulfilled— “when the swords shall be turned into plough-shares, and the spears into pruning-hooks, and that the nations of the earth shall learn war no more,” we must seek the destruction of the principle that animates, quickens, and feeds it, by the elevation of another more powerful, and omnipotent, and preservative; or mankind will continue, age after age, to march on in their made career, until the mighty current of time will doubtless sweep thousands of millions more into endless perdition, beyond the reach of mercy, and the hope of future bliss. Thus the very bones, sinews, muscles, and immortal mind, that God, in his infinite mercy has bestowed on man, that he might work out his own glory, and extend the principles of “Righteousness, justice, peace on earth, and good-will to their fellow men,” are constantly employed in protracting the period when the glorious millennium shall illumine our world, “and righteousness cover the earth as the water of the great deep.” Now let us solemnly ask ourselves is it reasonable, that for the real or supposed injuries that have been inflicted on mankind from the beginning to the present day, that the attempted redress of the same should have cost so much misery, pain, sweat, blood, and tears, and treasure? Most certainly not; since the very means used has measurably entailed the evil a thousand fold, on coming generations. If man’s superiority over the brute creation consists only in his reasoning powers and rationality of mind; his various methods of practicing violence towards his fellow creatures, has in many cases placed him on a level with, and sometimes below many species of the quadruped race. We search in vain amongst the animal race to find a parallel, for their cruelties to each other on their own species, that is faithfully recorded in history of wars and bloodshed, that have devoured empires, desolated kingdoms, overthrown government, and well nigh aimed at the total annihilation of the human race. There are many species of animals that are so amiable in their disposition to each other, that they might well be considered an eminent pattern for mankind in their present rude condition. The sheep, the ox, the horse, and many other animals exist in a state of comparative quietude, both among themselves, and the other races of animals when compared with man. And if it were possible for them to know the will of their Author, and enjoy that communion all with the Creator of all worlds, all men and all animals, they might justly be entitled to a distinction above all other species of creation, that had made greater departures from the will of the HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER divine government. It is evidently necessary that man should at all times bear in mind his origin and his end. That it is not because he was born a ruler, and superior to all other orders of creation, that he continually reigns above them—it is because he has made a right use of the powers that God has given him or rising in the scale of existence. The rich bequest of Heaven to man, was a natural body, a reasonable soul, and an immortal mind. With these he is rendered capable through wisdom of Providence, or ascending to the throne of angels, or descending to the abyss of devils. Hence there seems to be a relation between man and the animal creation, that subsists, neither in their origin nor their end, but satisfactorily exhibits that man may exist in a state of purity, as far superior to their, as future happiness is to this world, and as far inferior, as we are distant from future misery. There is scarcely a single fact more worthy of indelible record, that the utter inefficiency of human punishments, to cure human evils. The history of wars, exhibits a hopeless, as well as a fatal lesson, to all such enterprises. All the associated powers of human governments have been placed in requisition to quell and subdue the spirit of passion; without improving the condition of the human family. Human bodies have been lacerated with whips and scourges—prisons and penitentiaries have been erected for the immolation of human victims—the gibbet and halter have performed their office - while the increase of crime has kept pace with the genius of punishment, and the whole march of mind seems to have been employed in evading penal enactments, and inventing new methods of destroying the blessings of the social state, not recognized by human codes. If mankind ever expects to enjoy a state of peace and quietude, they must at all times be ready to sacrifice on the altar of principle, the rude passions that animate them. This they can only perform by exerting their reasoning powers. If there be those that desire to overlook the offences of others, and rise above those inflictions that are the offspring of passion, they must seek for protection in something higher than human power. They must place their faith in Him who is able to protect them from danger, or they will soon fall prey to the wicked artifices of their wicked enemies. Human passion is the hallucination of a distempered mind. It renders the subject of it like a ship upon the ocean, without ballast, or cargo, always in danger of being wrecked by every breeze. Phrenologically speaking, a mind that is subject to he fluctuating whims of passion, is without the organ of order, “which is nature’s first law.” Our reasoning powers ought to be the helm that should guide us through the shoals and quicksands of life. I am aware that there are those who consider the non-resistance wholly impracticable. But I trust that but few such can be found, that have adopted the injunction of the Messiah for their guide and future hope, for he commands us to “love our enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you.” These words were peculiarly applicable at the period they were uttered, and had a direct reference to the wars and strifes that then convulsed the world, and they are equally applicable at this moment. If the Christian church had at her beginning made herself the enemy of war, the evil would doubtless have been abolished throughout Christendom. The HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER Christians of the present day do not seem to regard the principles of peace as binding, or they are unwilling to become subject to the Divine government. Human governments then, as well as now, were too feeble to stay the ravages of passion and crime, and hence there was an evident necessity for the imperious command, “Whomsoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn unto him the other also.” And now, Mr. President, I rest my argument on the ground, that whatever is Scriptural is right, and that whatever is right, is reasonable, and from this invulnerable position I mean not to stray, for the sake of any expediency whatever. The doctrine evidently taught by the scriptural quotation, evidently instructs us that resistance to physical aggression is wholly unnecessary as well as unrighteous, and subjects the transgressor to the penalty due from a willful departure from the moral and Divine law. Therefore every act of disobedience to the commands of Christian duty, in relation to our fellow men, may fairly be deemed unreasonable, as it is at enmity with our true interests and the welfare of human society. We are further instructed to turn away from the evil one, rather than waste our strength, influence and passions, in a conflict that must in the end prove very injurious to both. But some one perhaps is ready to raise an objection against this method of brooking the insults of others; and believes it right to refer to the maxim “that self- defense is the first law of nature.” I will readily agree that it is the unbounded duty of every individual to defend himself against both the vulgar and false aspersions of a wicked world. But then I contend that his weapons should be his reasoning powers. That since a kind Providence has bestowed on him the power of speech, and the ability to reason, he degrades his Creator by engulfing himself in the turmoils of passion, and physical conflict. A mode of warfare practiced by barbarous tribes in their native forests, and suited only to those animals that are alone endowed with the powers of instinct. Nor is it possible to suppose that men can pursue such a course, without first parting with their reason. We often see men, while under the reigning influence of passion, as fit subjects for the lunatic asylum, as any that are confined in the lunatic asylum on account of insanity. In every possible and impartial view we take of the subject, we find that physical conflict militates against the interest of the parties in collision. If I, in conflict with mine enemy, overcome him by my superior physical powers, or my skill in battle, I neither wholly subdue him, nor convince him or the justice of my cause. His spirit becomes still more enraged, and he will seek retaliation and conquest on some future occasion, that may seem to him more propitious. If I intimidate him I have made him a slave, while I reign a despot; and our relation will continue unnatural, as well as dangerous to each other, until our friendship has become fully restored. And what has been gained by this barbarous method of warfare, when both parties become losers thereby? Yet this single case illustrates the value of all personal conflicts. But let us pursue this subject in a more dignified view, I mean as it respects the moral and Divine government. Is it possible that any Christian man or woman, that will flog and maltreat their fellow beings, can be in earnest, when they with apparent devotion; ask their heavenly Father to “forgive their trespass HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER as they forgive others?” Surely they must be asking God to punish them—or when they say “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” do they mean that they should run headlong into both, with all their infuriated madness? Certainly not. Who would not be more willing to apply to them insincerity of motive, and that they knew not what they were doing, rather than suppose that intelligent minds would be capable of such gross inconsistency. Would it not prove infinitely better in times of trials and difficulties, to leave the temper, and temptation behind, and pursue our course onward? But says the objector, there will be no safety nor security in this method from the insults of the vulgar and the brutal attacks of the assassin. I am inclined to believe to the contrary, and will be borne out in that belief by the evidence, of those that have pursued this Christian course of conduct. A writer under the signature of Philopacificus, while “taking a solemn view of the custom of war,” says, “There are two sets of professed Christians in this country, which, as sects, are peculiar in their opinions respecting the lawfulness of war, and the right of repelling injury by violence.” These are the Quakers and Shakers. They are remarkably pacific. Now we ask, does it appear from experience, that their forbearing spirit brings on them a greater portion of injury and insults, than what is experienced by people of other sects? Is not the reverse of this true in fact? There may indeed be some such instances of gross depravity as a person taking advantage of their pacific character, to do them an injury with the hope of impunity. But in general it is believed their pacific principles and spirit command the esteem, even of the vicious, and operate as a shield from insult and abuse. The question may be brought home to every society. How seldom do children of a mild and forbearing temper experience insults or injury, compared with the waspish, who will sting if they are touched? The same inquiry may be made in respect to persons of these opposite descriptions of every age, and in every situation of life, and the result will prove favorable to the point in question. When William Penn took the government of Pennsylvania, he distinctly avowed to the Indians, his forbearing and pacific principles, and his benevolent wishes for uninterrupted peace with them. On these principles the government was administered while it remained in the hands of the Quakers. This was an illustrious example of government on religious principles, worthy of imitation by all the nations of the earth. I am happy to state, that there are various incidents related by travelers, both among the native Africans and Indians, where lives have been saved by the presentation of a pacific attitude, when they would have otherwise fallen prey to savage barbarity. It has been my purpose to exhibit reason as a great safeguard, at all times capable of dethroning passion and alleviating our condition in periods of the greatest trouble and difficulty, and of being a powerful handmaid in achieving a triumph of the principles of universal peace. I have also thus far treated the subject as a grand fundamental principle, universal in its nature, and binding alike on every member of the human family. But if there be a single class of people in these United States, on which these duties are more imperative and binding, than another, that class is the colored population of this country, HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER both free and enslaved. Situated as we are, among a people that recognize the lawfulness of slavery, and more of whom sympathize with the oppressor than the oppressed, it requires us to pursue our course calmly onward, with much self-denial, patience and perseverance. We must be prepared at all times, to meet the scoffs and scorns of the vulgar and indecent—the contemptible frowns of haughty tyrants, and the blighting mildew of a popular and sinful prejudice. If amidst these difficulties we can but possess our souls in patience, we shall finally triumph over our enemies. But among the various duties that devolve on us, not the least is that which relates to ourselves. We must learn on all occasions to rebuke the spirit of violence, both in sentiment and practice. God has said, “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay it.” The laws of the land guarantee the protection of our persons from personal violence, and whoever for any cause, inflicts a single blow on a fellow being, violates the laws of God and of his country, and has no just claim to being regarded as a Christian or a good citizen. As a people we have suffered much from the pestilential influence of mob violence that has spread its devastating influence over our country. And it is to me no matter of astonishment that they continue to exist. They do but put in practice a common every day theory that pervades every neighborhood, and almost every family, viz.: That it is right, under certain circumstances, to violate all law, both civil and national, and abuse, kick and cuff your fellow man, when they deem that he has offended or insulted the community in which he resides. Whenever the passions of individuals rise above all laws, human and divine, then they are in the first stages of anarchy, and then every act prosecuted under the influence of this spirit, necessarily extends itself beyond the boundary of our laws. The act of the multitude is carried out on the principle of combination, which is the grand lever by which machinery as well as man is impelled in this fruitful age. There is no difference in principle between the acts of a few individuals, and those of a thousand, while actuated by the spirit of passion, dethroning reason, the laws of our country and the liberty of man. Hence every individual that either aids or abets an act of personal violence towards the humblest individual is guilty of sustaining the detestable practice of mobocratic violence. Yet such is the general spirit that pervades our common country, and receives its sanction from places of high honor and trust, that it is patriotism to disregard the laws. It is but reasonable to suppose the individuals, guided by like views and motives, will on some occasions concentrate their power, and carry on their operations on a large scale. Unless the hearts and reasoning powers of man become improved, it is impossible for the most sagacious mind to augur the consequences. The spirit of passion has become so implanted in human bosoms, that the laws of our country give countenance to the same, by exhibiting lenity for those who are under its influence. This is doubtless a great error in legislation, because it not only pre-supposes the irrationality of man, but gives him a plea of innocence, in behalf of his idiotism. The only sure method of conquering these evils is to commend a reform in ourselves, and then the spirit of passion will soon be destroyed in HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER individuals, and communities, and governments, and then the ground-work will be fully laid for a speedy triumph of the principles of universal peace. The love of power is one of the greatest human infirmities, and with it comes the usurping influence of despotism, the mother of slavery. Show me any country or people where despotism reigns triumphant, and I will exhibit to your view the spirit of slavery, whether the same be incorporated in the government or not. It is this demon-like spirit of passion that sends forth its poignant influence over professedly civilized nations, as well as the more barbarous tribes. Its effects on the human interest is the same, whether it emanates from the subjugator of Poland—the throne of Britain—the torrid zone of the South, or the genial clime of Pennsylvania; from the white, the red, or the black man - whether he be of European or African descent - or the native Indian that resides in the wilds of the forest, their combined action is at war with the principles of peace, and the liberty of the world. How different is the exercise of this love of power, when exercised by man, or enforced by human governments, to the exercise of Him who holds all “power over the heavens, earth, and seas, and all that in them is.” With God, all is in order— with man, all confusion. The planets perform their annual revolutions —the tides ebb and flow—the seas obey. His command - the whole government of universal worlds are sustained by His wisdom and power - each invariably performing the course marked out by their great Author, because they are impelled by His love. But with man, governments are impelled by the law of force; hence despotism becomes an ingredient in all human governments. The power of reason is the noblest gift of Heaven to man, because it assimilates man to his Maker. And were he to improve his mind by cultivating his reasoning powers, his acts of life would bear the impress of Deity, indelibly stamped upon them. If human governments bore any direct resemblance to the government of God, they would be mild in their operation, and the principles of universal peace would become implanted in every mind. Wars, fighting, and strifes would cease —there would be a signal triumph of truth over error—the principles of peace, justice, righteousness, and universal love would guide and direct mankind onward in that sublime path marked out by the great Prince of Peace. And now my friends, let us cease to be guided by the influence of a wild and beguiling passion—the wicked and foolish fantasies of pride, folly and lustful ambition—the alluring the detestable examples of despotism and governments—the sickly sensibility of those who from false notions of honor, attempt to promote the ends of justice, by placing “righteousness under their feet,” and are at all times ready to imbue their hands in a fellow creature’s blood, for the purpose of satisfying their voracious appetites for crime, murder and revenge. I say from them let us turn away, for a terrible retaliation must shortly await them, even in this life. The moral powers of this nation and the world is fast wakening from the sleep of ages, and wielding a swift besom, that will sweep from the fact of the earth error and iniquity with the power of a whirlwind. But a few years ago and dueling was considered necessary to personal honor, and the professional Christian, or the most upright citizen might barter away the lives and happiness of a nation with his guilty traffic HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER in ardent spirits, with impunity. But now a regenerated public sentiment not only repudiates their conduct, but consigns them with “body and soul murderers.” Though the right to be free has been deemed inalienable by this nation, from a period antecedent to the declaration of American Independence, yet a mental fog hovered over this nation on the subject of slavery that had well nigh sealed her doom, were it not that in the Providence of God a few noble spirits arose in the might of moral power to her rescue. They girded on the power of truth, for their shield, and the principles of peace for their buckler and thus boldly pierced through the incrustrations of a false and fatal philosophy, and from the incision, sprang forth the light of glorious liberty, disseminating its delectable rays over the dark chasms of slavery, and lighting up the vision of the vision of a ruined world. And the effect has been to awaken the nation to her duty with regard to the rights of man—to render slaveholders despicable and guilty of robbery and murder—and in many places, those that profess Christianity have been unchurched, denied the privilege of Christian fellowship. And the same moral power is now awakening in the cause of peace, and will bring disgrace and dishonor on all who engage in wars and fighting. The period is fast approaching when the church, as at present constituted, must undergo one of the severest contests she has met with since her foundation, because in so many cases she has refused to sustain her own principles. The moral warfare that is now commenced will not cease if the issue should be a dissolution of both church and state. The time has already come when those believe that intemperance, slavery, war and fighting is sinful, and it will soon arrive when those who practice either their rights to enjoy Christian fellowship will be questioned. And now, Mr. President, I shall give a few practical illustrations, and then I shall have done. It appears by history that there have been many faithful advocates of peace since the apostolic age, but none have ever given a more powerful impetus to the cause of peace, than the modern abolitionists. They have been beater and stoned, mobbed and persecuted from city to city, and never returned evil for evil, but submissively, as a sheep brought before the shearer have they endured scoffings and scourges for the cause’s sake, while they prayed for their prosecutors. And how miraculously they have been preserved in the midst of a thousand dangers from without and within. Up to the present moment not the life of a single individual has been sacrificed on the altar of popular fury. Had they have set out in this glorious undertaking of freeing 2,500,000 human beings, with the war-cry of “liberty or death,” they would have been long since demolished, or a civil war would have ensued; thus would have dyed the national soil with human blood. And now let me ask you, was not their method of attacking the system of human slavery the most reasonable? And would not their policy have been correct, even if we were to lay aside their Christian motives? Their weapons were reason and moral truth, and on them they desired to stand or fall—and so it will be in all causes that are sustained form just and Christian principles, they will ultimately triumph. Now let us suppose for a single moment what would have been our case, if they had started on the principle, that “resistance to tyrants is obedience to God”? — what would have been our condition, together with that of the slave HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER population? Why, we should have doubtless perished by the sword, or been praying for the destruction of our enemies, and probably engaged in the same bloody warfare. And now we are indebted to the modern abolitionists more than to any other class of men for the instructions we have received from the dissemination of their principles, or we would not at this moment be associated here to advocate the cause of moral reform - of temperance, education, peace and universal liberty. Therefore let us, like them, obliterate from our minds the idea of revenge, and from our hearts all wicked intentions towards each other and the world, and we shall b able through the blessing of Almighty God, to so much to establish the principles of universal peace. Let us not think the world has no regard for our efforts — they are looking forward to them with intense interest and anxiety. The enemies of the abolitionists are exhibiting a regard for the power of their principles that they are unwilling to acknowledge, although it is every where known over the country, that abolitionists “will not fight,” yet they distrust their own strength so much, that they frequently muster a whole neighborhood of from 50 to 300 men, with sticks, stones, rotten eggs and bowie knives, to mob and beat a single individual probably in his “teens,” whose heart’s law is non-resistance. There is another way in which they do us honor — they admit the right of all people to fight for their liberty, but colored people and abolitionists—plainly inferring that they are too good for the performance of such unchristian acts—and lastly, while we endeavor to control our own passions and keep them in subjection, let us be mindful of the weakness of others; and for acts of wickedness of others; and for acts of wickedness committed against us, let us reciprocate in the spirit of kindness. If they continue their injustice towards us, let us always decide that their reasoning powers are defective, and that it is with men as the laws of mechanics — large bodies move slowly, while smaller ones are easily propelled with swift velocity. In every case of passion that presents itself, the subject is one of pity rather than derision, and in his cooler moments let us earnestly advise him to improve his understanding, by cultivating his intellectual powers, and thus exhibit his close alliance with God, who is the author of all wisdom, peace, justice, righteousness and truth. And in conclusion, felt it always be our aim to live in a spirit of unity with each other, supporting one common cause, by spreading our influence for the good of mankind, with the hope that the period will ultimately arrive when the principles of universal peace will triumph throughout the world. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1839
February: William Whipper commented that “The national prejudice [antimelanism] has so complexionally separated the interests of the people of this nation that when those of opposite complexions meet each other, it is for the most part under a mask, like courtiers, so that it is next to impossible, generally speaking, to divine their real meaning and intent.” Whipper, himself half black and an abolitionist, was speaking here not of the generality of this nation’s citizenry but of his fellow black and white abolitionists.
A negrero flying the Portuguese flag, the Isabel, master unknown, out of Angola with a cargo of 779 enslaved Africans on its one and only known Middle Passage, arrived at the port of Paranagua, Brazil. A slaver flying the Portuguese flag, the Lavandeira, master unknown, out of an unknown area of Africa with a cargo of 229 enslaved Africans on its second of two known Middle Passages, arrived at a port of Cuba. A slaver flying the Portuguese flag, the Ligera, master Souza, out of Onim with a cargo of an unknown number enslaved Africans on one of its eight known Middle Passage voyages, arrived at a port of Cuba. A slaver flying the Portuguese flag, the Felicidade, master unknown, out of an unknown area of Africa with a cargo of 447 enslaved Africans on one of its nine known Middle Passage voyages, arrived at a port of Cuba. A slaver flying the Portuguese flag, the Duque de Victoria, master unknown, out of Angola with a cargo of 427 enslaved Africans on its first of two known Middle Passages, arrived at the port of Ilha Grande, Brazil. A slaver flying the Portuguese flag, the Eliza, master unknown, out of an unknown area of Africa with a cargo of 116 enslaved Africans on one of its seven known Middle Passage voyages, arrived at a port of Cuba. A slaver flying the Portuguese flag, the Maria Carolta, master unknown, out of Angola with a cargo of 612 enslaved Africans on its second of two known Middle Passages, arrived at the port of Ilha Grande, Brazil. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER A slaver flying the Portuguese flag, the Esperanca, master unknown, out of Mocambique with a cargo of 730 enslaved Africans on one of its ten-count-’em-ten known such voyages, arrived at Ilha Grande, Brazil. A slaver flying the Portuguese flag, the Aventureiro, master unknown, out of Mocambique with a cargo of 683 enslaved Africans on one of its three known Middle Passage voyages, arrived at the port of Macae, Brazil. A slaver flying the Portuguese flag, the Dom Manoel de Portugal, master unknown, out of Quelimane with a cargo of 714 enslaved Africans on its second of two known Middle Passages, arrived at Campos, Brazil. A slaver flying the Portuguese flag, the Maria Rita, master J.P. Silva, out of Ambriz with a cargo of an unknown number enslaved Africans on its first of two known such Passages, arrived at Pernambuco, Brazil. A slaver flying the Portuguese flag, the Mercantile, master unknown, out of an unknown area of Africa with a cargo of 296 enslaved Africans on its second of two known Middle Passages, arrived at a port of Cuba. THE MIDDLE PASSAGE HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1842
During two nights of anti-black rioting in Philadelphia, the worst in that city’s history, angry mobs surrounded Robert Purvis’s home at 9th and Lombard Streets for 40 hours while he sat inside with a rifle. Although not one member of this racist assembly could summon the courage to invade the house, afterward the wealthy Purvis would relocate his family to a large farm he owned in Byberry, across the road from the Byberry Friends Meetinghouse.
The Reverend Stephen Smith, prosperous in Columbia, Pennsylvania by means of his business acumen but sick and tired of being persecuted there on account of his race, prudently relocated at this point from Columbia, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. He would enter largely into real estate and stock speculations and continue to prosper. Although he would lose heavily in the collapse of the United States Bank, he would overcome this and recover from the losses. He retained his lumber business in Columbia, with William Whipper as his active partner. They were purchasing many rafts of logs at a time, and much coal.
William Whipper would be an active agent of the Underground Railroad, and assist hundreds of escaping slaves on their way north to safety. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1849
Fanny Kemble Butler gave Shakespeare readings to support herself during and after her divorce from her slaveowning and indolent American husband, in Boston, New-York, Chicago, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia,
slaveholding and indolent American husband and used her savings after this divorce to purchase a cottage she named “Perch,” in Lenox, Massachusetts near the Hawthorne and Melville families. She would grow increasingly eccentric and would, for instance, be seen fishing locally while attired in a man’s shirt and hat.
(Presumably it would have been during this period that she, Gerrit Smith of the Secret “Six”, and Frederick Douglass would attend a dinner party at the home of Friends James and Lucretia Mott in Philadelphia.)
By this point the business of the firm of Smith and Whipper in Columbia, Pennsylvania was being attended to by William Whipper, while the Reverend Stephen Smith’s principal business activity in Philadelphia had become real estate speculation, and the purchase of good negotiable business notes. Notes issued by the firm of Smith and Whipper were accepted at face value wherever they were circulating. The firm had in Columbia, Pennsylvania a stockpile of several thousand bushels of coal, and 2,250,000 board feet of lumber, and owned HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER 22 of the finest merchantmen cars on the rails from Columbia to Philadelphia and Baltimore. It owned $9,000 worth of stock in the Columbia Bridge company and $18,000 of the stock of the Columbia bank. Smith was reputed to personally own 52 good brick houses of various dimensions in Philadelphia, and a large number of houses and lots in Columbia and a few in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. An ordained preacher (not a pastor) of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Smith was donating generously to charities such as the Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (oldest of that denomination in Philadelphia). He created “Smith’s Beneficial Hall” as a venue for meetings of black citizens (this hall would be torched during the race riots of August 1842, along with a number of African American homes).
Richard Henry Dana, Sr. gave a highly successful lecture series in Philadelphia. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1850
873 of the 3,614 blacks in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, or 24%, were resident in the town of Columbia.
September 18, Wednesday: When the federal Congress had entered into the famous Compromise of 1850, as part of this agreement (an agreement eventually determined to be unconstitutional) it outlawed trade in slaves within the district boundaries of Washington DC while retaining the institution of human enslavement itself. Another part of this agreement had mandated that the Fugitive Slave Act be strengthened and amplified. Any slaves who escaped to a state where slavery was outlawed must be returned to their owner. As of this date “all good citizens” were required to obey this mandate on pain of heavy penalty,4 while jury trial and the right to testify would in the future be prohibited to any such fugitives:
4. Was there no outcry that this was specifically in violation of DEUTERONOMY 23: 15, 16? What could be more straightforward? “Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant who is escaped from his master unto thee: He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place where he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
An Act to amend, and supplementary to, the Act entitled “An Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping from the Service of their Masters,” approved February twelfth, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three. Sections 1, 2, and 3 were concerned with the formal provisions for appointing commissioners, who were “hereby authorized and required to exercise and discharge all the powers and duties conferred by this act.” Section 4 invested the appointed commissioners with “authority to take and remove such fugitives from service or labor ... to the State or Territory from which such persons may have escaped or fled.” Section 5 specified the penalties for failure to comply with warrants issued under the provisions of the act: Should any marshal or deputy marshal refuse to serve such warrant, or other process, when tendered, or to use all proper means diligently to execute the same, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of one thousand dollars. Furthermore, should an arrested fugitive manage to escape from custody, the marshal or deputy would be liable to prosecution, and could be sued for “the full value of the service or labor of said fugitive in the State, Territory or District whence he escaped.” Commissioners were also empowered “to summon and call to their aid the bystanders,” and any failure to co-operate with such a summons would be a violation of the law: All good citizens are hereby commanded to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient execution of this law, whenever their services may be required. Section 6: And be it further enacted, That when a person held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the United States, has heretofore or shall hereafter escape into another State or Territory of the United States, the person or persons to whom such labor or service may be due ... may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person, either by procuring a warrant from some one of the courts, judges or commissioners aforesaid, ... or by seizing and arresting such fugitive, where the same can be done without process, and by taking, or causing such person to be taken, forthwith before such court, judge, or commissioner...; and upon satisfactory proof being made, ... to use such reasonable force and restraint as may be necessary, under the circumstances of the case, to take and remove such fugitive person back to the State or Territory whence he or she may have escaped as aforesaid. In no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence.... HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
Section 7: And be it further enacted, That any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant ... from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor, either with or without process as aforesaid, or shall rescue, or attempt to rescue, such fugitive from service or labor, from the custody of such claimant ...; or shall aid, abet, or assist such person ... to escape from such claimant ...; or shall harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, after notice or knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive from service or labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of said offences, be subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months ...; and shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages to the party injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost as aforesaid, to be recovered by action of debt.... Section 8 dealt with the payments to be made to various officials for their part in the arrest, custody and delivery of a fugitive to his or her claimant. In effect, the financial incentives authorized under this clause turned the pursuit of escaped slaves into a species of bounty-hunting: The marshals, their deputies, and the clerks of the said District and Territorial courts, shall be paid for their services ...; and in all cases where the proceedings are before a commissioner, he shall be entitled to a fee of ten dollars.... The person or persons authorized to execute the process ... shall also be entitled to a fee of five dollars each for each person he or they may arrest and take before any such commissioner. Section 9 stipulated that if the claimant suspected an attempt will be made to rescue the fugitive by force, then the arresting officer would be required “to retain such fugitive in his custody, and to remove him to the State whence he fled, and there to deliver him to said claimant.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER As this new federal Fugitive Slave Law went into effect, hundreds of families across the United States, one or more of whose family members had previously escaped from enslavement, or one or more of whose family members had papers that might not be in the best of order, were forced to abandon their homes and their employments, and seek a safer haven in Canada.
The hounds are baying on my track O Christians will you send me back?
Fugitive Slave Law passed in United States results in flood of slaves and free Blacks to the safety of Canada (in Canada, they would find, the streets were not paved with gold; for instance the Common School Act required blacks to attend separate schools wherever these existed).
The 1st person sent south under the new 1850 fugitive slave law would be James Hamlet in New-York, who was taken back to “his owner” in Maryland. The next 10 black Americans would be seized in Harrisburg and in Bedford, Pennsylvania. By the end of the year the toll would be 19 seized, 17 delivered.
Northern nullifications of the fugitive slave laws would be cited in 1860 by South Carolina as a cause of secession. Congress would repeal both laws during the Civil War, in 1864.
Henry Thoreau would mention Daniel Webster’s bill at the very end of his “Battle of the Ants” materials:
WALDEN: Kirby and Spence tell us that the battles of ants have PEOPLE OF long been celebrated and the date of them recorded, though they WALDEN say that Huber is the only modern author who appears to have witnessed them. “Æneas Sylvius,” say they, “after giving a very circumstantial account of one contested with great obstinacy by a great and small species on the trunk of a pear tree,” adds that “‘This action was fought in the pontificate of Eugenius the Fourth, in the presence of Nicholas Pistoriensis, an eminent lawyer, who related the whole history of the battle with the greatest fidelity.’ A similar engagement between great and small ants is recorded by Olaus Magnus, in which the small ones, being victorious, are said to have buried the bodies of their own soldiers, but left those of their giant enemies a prey to the birds. This event happened previous to the expulsion of the tyrant Christiern the Second from Sweden.” The battle which I witnessed took place in the Presidency of Polk, five years before the POLK passage of Webster’s Fugitive-Slave Bill. WEBSTER
KIRBY AND SPENCE
WILLIAM KIRBY WILLIAM SPENCE On the very day that the Congress was enacting this new and improved Fugitive Slave Law, Waldo Emerson was finally sitting at his desk and replying to a letter that he had received, requesting that he sponsor a woman’s rights convention. The man who has been called “Mr. America” wrote:
I should not wish women to wish political functions.
Emerson responded, to his female petitioner, that he predicted that such a convention would produce mere “heartless noise,” which they might well be ashamed of once it was over. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER September 18: The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was voted into effect by the 1st Session of the 31st US Congress: READ THE FULL TEXT
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT OF 1850 THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS. Sess. I. Ch. 60. 1850 Chap. LX.--An Act to amend, and supplementary to the Act entitled “An Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping from the Service of their Masters,” approved February twelfth, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the persons who have been, or may hereafter be, appointed commissioners, in virtue of any act of Congress, by the Circuit Courts of the United States, and Who, in consequence of such appointment, are authorized to exercise the powers that any justice of the peace, or other magistrate of any of the United States, may exercise in respect to offenders for any crime or offense against the United States, by arresting, imprisoning, or bailing the same under and by the virtue of the thirty-third section of the act of the twenty-fourth of September seventeen hundred and eighty-nine, entitled “An Act to establish the judicial courts of the United States” shall be, and are hereby, authorized and required to exercise and discharge all the powers and duties conferred by this act. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the Superior Court of each organized Territory of the United States shall have the same power to appoint commissioners to take acknowledgments of bail and affidavits, and to take depositions of witnesses in civil causes, which is now possessed by the Circuit Court of the United States; and all commissioners who shall hereafter be appointed for such purposes by the Superior Court of any organized Territory of the United States, shall possess all the powers, and exercise all the duties, conferred by law upon the commissioners appointed by the Circuit Courts of the United States for similar purposes, and shall moreover exercise and discharge all the powers and duties conferred by this act. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Circuit Courts of the United States shall from time to time enlarge the number of the commissioners, with a view to afford reasonable facilities to reclaim fugitives from labor, and to the prompt discharge of the duties imposed by this act. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the commissioners above named shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the judges of the Circuit and District Courts of the United States, in their respective circuits and districts within the several States, and the judges of the Superior Courts of the Territories, severally and collectively, in term-time and vacation; shall grant certificates to such claimants, upon satisfactory proof being made, with authority to take and remove such fugitives from service or labor, under the restrictions herein contained, to the State or Territory from which such persons may have escaped or fled. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of all marshals and deputy marshals to obey and execute all warrants and precepts issued under the provisions of this act, when to them directed; and should any marshal or deputy marshal refuse to receive HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER such warrant, or other process, when tendered, or to use all proper means diligently to execute the same, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of one thousand dollars, to the use of such claimant, on the motion of such claimant, by the Circuit or District Court for the district of such marshal; and after arrest of such fugitive, by such marshal or his deputy, or whilst at any time in his custody under the provisions of this act, should such fugitive escape, whether with or without the assent of such marshal or his deputy, such marshal shall be liable, on his official bond, to be prosecuted for the benefit of such claimant, for the full value of the service or labor of said fugitive in the State, Territory, or District whence he escaped: and the better to enable the said commissioners, when thus appointed, to execute their duties faithfully and efficiently, in conformity with the requirements of the Constitution of the United States and of this act, they are hereby authorized and empowered, within their counties respectively, to appoint, in writing under their hands, any one or more suitable persons, from time to time, to execute all such warrants and other process as may be issued by them in the lawful performance of their respective duties; with authority to such commissioners, or the persons to be appointed by them, to execute process as aforesaid, to summon and call to their aid the bystanders, or posse comitatus of the proper county, when necessary to ensure a faithful observance of the clause of the Constitution referred to, in conformity with the provisions of this act; and all good citizens are hereby commanded to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient execution of this law, whenever their services may be required, as aforesaid, for that purpose; and said warrants shall run, and be executed by said officers, any where in the State within which they are issued. SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That when a person held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the United States, has heretofore or shall hereafter escape into another State or Territory of the United States, the person or persons to whom such service or labor may be due, or his, her, or their agent or attorney, duly authorized, by power of attorney, in writing, acknowledged and certified under the seal of some legal officer or court of the State or Territory in which the same may be executed, may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person, either by procuring a warrant from some one of the courts, judges, or commissioners aforesaid, of the proper circuit, district, or county, for the apprehension of such fugitive from service or labor, or by seizing and arresting such fugitive, where the same can be done without process, and by taking, or causing such person to be taken, forthwith before such court, judge, or commissioner, whose duty it shall be to hear and determine the case of such claimant in a summary manner; and upon satisfactory proof being made, by deposition or affidavit, in writing, to be taken and certified by such court, judge, or commissioner, or by other satisfactory testimony, duly taken and certified by some court, magistrate, justice of the peace, or other legal officer authorized to administer an oath and take depositions under the laws of the State or Territory from which such person owing service or labor may have escaped, with a certificate of such magistracy or other authority, as aforesaid, with the seal of the proper court or officer thereto attached, which seal shall be sufficient to establish the competency of the proof, and with proof, also by affidavit, of the identity of the person whose service or labor is claimed to be due as aforesaid, that the person so arrested does in HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER fact owe service or labor to the person or persons claiming him or her, in the State or Territory from which such fugitive may have escaped as aforesaid, and that said person escaped, to make out and deliver to such claimant, his or her agent or attorney, a certificate setting forth the substantial facts as to the service or labor due from such fugitive to the claimant, and of his or her escape from the State or Territory in which he or she was arrested, with authority to such claimant, or his or her agent or attorney, to use such reasonable force and restraint as may be necessary, under the circumstances of the case, to take and remove such fugitive person back to the State or Territory whence he or she may have escaped as aforesaid. In no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence; and the certificates in this and the first [fourth] section mentioned, shall be conclusive of the right of the person or persons in whose favor granted, to remove such fugitive to the State or Territory from which he escaped, and shall prevent all molestation of such person or persons by any process issued by any court, judge, magistrate, or other person whomsoever. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant, his agent or attorney, or any person or persons lawfully assisting him, her, or them, from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor, either with or without process as aforesaid, or shall rescue, or attempt to rescue, such fugitive from service or labor, from the custody of such claimant, his or her agent or attorney, or other person or persons lawfully assisting as aforesaid, when so arrested, pursuant to the authority herein given and declared; or shall aid, abet, or assist such person so owing service or labor as aforesaid, directly or indirectly, to escape from such claimant, his agent or attorney, or other person or persons legally authorized as aforesaid; or shall harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, after notice or knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive from service or labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of said offences, be subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months, by indictment and conviction before the District Court of the United States for the district in which such offence may have been committed, or before the proper court of criminal jurisdiction, if committed within any one of the organized Territories of the United States; and shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages to the party injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost as aforesaid, to be recovered by action of debt, in any of the District or Territorial Courts aforesaid, within whose jurisdiction the said offence may have been committed. Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That the marshals, their deputies, and the clerks of the said District and Territorial Courts, shall be paid, for their services, the like fees as may be allowed for similar services in other cases; and where such services are rendered exclusively in the arrest, custody, and delivery of the fugitive to the claimant, his or her agent or attorney, or where such supposed fugitive may be discharged out of custody for the want of sufficient proof as aforesaid, then such fees are to be paid in whole by such claimant, his or her agent or attorney; and in all cases where the proceedings are before a commissioner, he shall be entitled to a fee of ten dollars in full for his services in each HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER case, upon the delivery of the said certificate to the claimant, his agent or attorney; or a fee of five dollars in cases where the proof shall not, in the opinion of such commissioner, warrant such certificate and delivery, inclusive of all services incident to such arrest and examination, to be paid, in either case, by the claimant, his or her agent or attorney. The person or persons authorized to execute the process to be issued by such commissioner for the arrest and detention of fugitives from service or labor as aforesaid, shall also be entitled to a fee of five dollars each for each person he or they may arrest, and take before any commissioner as aforesaid, at the instance and request of such claimant, with such other fees as may be deemed reasonable by such commissioner for such other additional services as may be necessarily performed by him or them; such as attending at the examination, keeping the fugitive in custody, and providing him with food and lodging during his detention, and until the final determination of such commissioners; and, in general, for performing such other duties as may be required by such claimant, his or her attorney or agent, or commissioner in the premises, such fees to be made up in conformity with the fees usually charged by the officers of the courts of justice within the proper district or county, as near as may be practicable, and paid by such claimants, their agents or attorneys, whether such supposed fugitives from service or labor be ordered to be delivered to such claimant by the final determination of such commissioner or not. SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That, upon affidavit made by the claimant of such fugitive, his agent or attorney, after such certificate has been issued, that he has reason to apprehend that such fugitive will he rescued by force from his or their possession before he can be taken beyond the limits of the State in which the arrest is made, it shall be the duty of the officer making the arrest to retain such fugitive in his custody, and to remove him to the State whence he fled, and there to deliver him to said claimant, his agent, or attorney. And to this end, the officer aforesaid is hereby authorized and required to employ so many persons as he may deem necessary to overcome such force, and to retain them in his service so long as circumstances may require. The said officer and his assistants, while so employed, to receive the same compensation, and to be allowed the same expenses, as are now allowed by law for transportation of criminals, to be certified by the judge of the district within which the arrest is made, and paid out of the treasury of the United States. SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That when any person held to service or labor in any State or Territory, or in the District of Columbia, shall escape therefrom, the party to whom such service or labor shall be due, his, her, or their agent or attorney, may apply to any court of record therein, or judge thereof in vacation, and make satisfactory proof to such court, or judge in vacation, of the escape aforesaid, and that the person escaping owed service or labor to such party. Whereupon the court shall cause a record to be made of the matters so proved, and also a general description of the person so escaping, with such convenient certainty as may be; and a transcript of such record, authenticated by the attestation of the clerk and of the seal of the said court, being produced in any other State, Territory, or district in which the person so escaping may be found, and being exhibited to any judge, commissioner, or other office, authorized by the law of the United States to cause persons escaping from service or labor to be delivered up, shall be held and HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER taken to be full and conclusive evidence of the fact of escape, and that the service or labor of the person escaping is due to the party in such record mentioned. And upon the production by the said party of other and further evidence if necessary, either oral or by affidavit, in addition to what is contained in the said record of the identity of the person escaping, he or she shall be delivered up to the claimant, And the said court, commissioner, judge, or other person authorized by this act to grant certificates to claimants or fugitives, shall, upon the production of the record and other evidences aforesaid, grant to such claimant a certificate of his right to take any such person identified and proved to be owing service or labor as aforesaid, which certificate shall authorize such claimant to seize or arrest and transport such person to the State or Territory from which he escaped: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed as requiring the production of a transcript of such record as evidence as aforesaid. But in its absence the claim shall be heard and determined upon other satisfactory proofs, competent in law. Approved, September 18, 1850. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1853
William Whipper helped organize the American Moral Reform Society.
To assist in moral reform, unofficially, in this year some Boston policemen were beginning to carry pistols.
Stephen Smith attended the national meeting of the Pennsylvania Convention of Colored Citizens.
Although the tombstone in the Olive Cemetery adjoining the Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Persons in West Philadelphia has so eroded over the years that it cannot now be read, so far as we can determine the name of Stephen Smith’s mother was Nancy Smith and she died in this year at the age of 94.
The Fugitive Slave Act caused Stephen Smith and William Whipper (along with about 15,000 other black Americans), to consider fleeing to Canada. They purchased property in the black community of Dawn near Dresden, Ontario.
The challenge to those Unitarian ministers who supported the Fugitive Slave Law because they supported obedience to law and/or supported the Federal Union, that they were the same as “traffickers IN HUMAN HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER FLESH,” a challenge which had been initiated during Spring 1851 by the Reverend Samuel Joseph May, came to a conclusion of sorts, with instructions going out to ministers that the debate over slavery was driving away potential converts to Unitarianism, and that therefore they should avoid discussion of the peculiar institution of slavery, avoid discussion of Daniel Webster, and avoid discussion of the merits of the Fugitive Slave Law — and that those Unitarian ministers who found themselves unable to avoid such discussion would be finding themselves fresh out of a job.
In sum: at this juncture in the South one might lose one’s life, for opposing the Fugitive Slave Law, or in the North one might lose one’s livelihood, for opposing the Fugitive Slave Law. What would be the solution? The New-York Herald Tribune declared in favor of the deportation of American blacks to Africa on grounds of inherent racial inferiority. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1857
Elizabeth A. Parkhill Gloucester and the Reverend James Newton Gloucester opened a furniture store at 881 W. Broadway in New-York. Alfred P. Gloucester was born (this toddler would die during 1859).
The Reverend Stephen Smith built the Zion Mission Church at 7th and Lombard Streets in Philadelphia, and because his family was spending its summers in Cape May, New Jersey, it was largely through his efforts that a black church was created there as well. When Olive Cemetery in Philadelphia was repossessed and put up for bids in a sheriff’s auction, it was he who preserved it as a place of burial for blacks. He helped to create a Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Persons (which would eventually be located at 44th Street and Girard avenue, Philadelphia.
Dun and Company, a firm that evaluated local businesses, estimated Stephen Smith and William Whipper’s annual sales at $100,000, characterizing Smith as “King of the Darkies.” He was on his way to becoming one of the wealthiest black Americans in 19th-Century Pennsylvania.
The mulatto Lewis Sheridan Leary went to Oberlin, Ohio to live.
(He would marry there and make the acquaintance of John Brown in Cleveland. To go to Harpers Ferry, he would leave behind his wife with a 6-month-old child at Oberlin, she being in ignorance of the purpose of his trip. He was given funds to go from Oberlin to Chambersburg in the company of his nephew John Anderson Copeland, Jr., a student at Oberlin College. He would get isolated along with his nephew and John Henry Kagi
in the armory called Hall’s Rifle Works. When the three men would make a run for it, heading down to the Shenandoah River, they would get themselves caught in a crossfire, and after Kagi had been killed and Leary shot several times, he would be taken, his wounds so severe that he would die the following morning. He would be able to dictate messages to his family and is reported as saying “I am ready to die.” The Leary child would subsequently be educated by James Redpath and Wendell Phillips.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER Charles Plummer Tidd joined John Brown’s party at Tabor, Kansas. THE 2D GREAT AMERICAN DISUNION
(He would become one of the followers of “Shubel Morgan” who would return to Kansas in 1858 to raid into Missouri. During the Winter 1857-1858 encampment of the Brown forces in the Iowa Territory, he would “ruin” a Quaker girl and the other members of the team would need to sneak him away from Springdale, Iowa during the night. Nevertheless, the group would obtain some recruits not overly impressed with the Peace Testimony of George Fox from among the residents of this town, such as the brothers Barclay Coppoc and Edwin Coppoc. THE QUAKER PEACE TESTIMONY
Tidd and John E. Cook would be particularly warm friends. He opposed the attack on Harpers Ferry but nevertheless took part both in the raid on the planter Washington’s home and on the federal arsenal itself, escaped, and made his way on foot toward the northwestern part of Pennsylvania. He and John Brown’s son Owen Brown would find work and safety, under assumed names, on an oil well in the vicinity of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. He would visit Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Canada and take part in the planning for the rescue of Aaron D. Stevens and Albert Hazlett while the Mason Commission of the Congress was presuming that he had been killed in the fighting at Harpers Ferry. On July 19, 1861 he would be able to enlist under the name “Charles Plummer” and would become a 1st Sergeant of the 21st Massachusetts Volunteers. On February 8, 1862 he would die of fever aboard the transport Northerner during the battle of Roanoke Island, a battle he had particularly wished to take part in because ex-Governor Henry A. Wise of Virginia, the nemesis of the Harpers Ferry raiders, was in command of the Confederates. Charles Plummer Tidd’s grave is #40 in the National Cemetery in New Berne, North Carolina.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1861
William Whipper was preparing to relocate from Columbia, Pennsylvania to the black community of Dawn near Dresden, Ontario when civil war broke out.
Willard Woolson, a carpenter in Watertown, New York, and his son Albert Woolson, an apprentice carpenter, were serving also as musicians in the band of a traveling circus. When President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers these musicians enlisted as a body, leaving behind 14-year-old Albert –who would later become a drummer boy and even later than that become the last surviving pensioned member of the army of the Union– as simply too young. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1867
The Antipeonage Act of 1867 (14 Statutes at Large 546) made “holding of any person to service or labor under the system known as peonage” unlawful. It nullified all state or territorial laws which attempt “to establish, maintain, or enforce, directly or indirectly, the voluntary or involuntary service or labor of any persons as peons, in liquidation of any debt or obligation, or otherwise.” This peonage law would of course be unenforced as Southern whites took control again of the South, but in 1921 federal authorities concerned over Southern practices would notice this Reconstruction-Era enactment still in existence on the books and begin to attempt to employ it to harass Southern plantation managers — who had of course fallen into the habit of holding Southern black laborers to involuntary servitude because of “debt.”
In the post-Civil War era the headquarters of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company was relocated from New-York to Washington DC. Cashiers were to be present whenever soldiers were being paid, and were to work closely with the distribution officers of The Freedmen’s Bureau –who by act of Congress of March 1867 had sole responsibility for distributing the back pay and bounties of black soldiers– to secure whatever portion they could of a soldier’s cash. In a number of bank branches –Vicksburg, Mobile, Charleston, Jacksonville, Norfolk, and Louisville– Freedman’s cashiers doubled as Freedmen’s distributing officers. Cashiers were not the only bank officials who held dual positions at both Freedman’s Bank and The Freedmen’s Bureau. The Reverend John W. Alvord served as the company’s president while being also the general superintendent of education of The Freedmen’s Bureau. This close relationship with The Freedmen’s Bureau added to the depositors’ belief that Freedman’s was a federal rather than a private bank. After the dissolution of the partnership of Stephen Smith and William Whipper, lumber merchants of Columbia, Whipper moved to Philadelphia and became head cashier of the Philadelphia branch of Freedman’s Savings and Trust. Branches not only solicited the deposits of black adult civilians and soldiers, but encouraged schoolchildren to make deposits of 5 to 25 cents and routinely “preached” to them about the importance of work and saving. Black churches, private businesses, and beneficial societies also maintained accounts. These institutions often were the driving force behind getting many new individual depositors. In less than a decade, an estimated 70,000 depositors had had accounts, and bank deposits would come to total more the $57,000,000.00. When Freedman’s would collapse in 1874, many of these institutions, particularly the churches and beneficial societies, would be obliged to suspend or curtail services. Whipper himself would lose most of his life’s savings.5 The Spanish government in Madrid dismissed the “Junta de Información,” a 22-member Cuban delegation asking for reforms, and imposed a new tax on the island of Cuba ranging from 6% to 12% on real estate, incomes, and all types of business. (This was on top of the enormous customs duties about which islanders had continuously been complaining.)
5. Flemming, Walter L. THE FREEDMAN’S SAVINGS BANK: A CHAPTER IN THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE (1927), pages 33-34. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1868
William Whipper sold his house in Columbia, Pennsylvania and purchased a home in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Friend Ann Preston was allowed to begin to send her students of Female (later Woman’s) Medical College of Pennsylvania, despite the fact that they were females, to teaching clinics at “Old Blockley,” the Philadelphia General Hospital. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER Despite the fact that she was obviously not a white woman, the Board of Education of Detroit issued a teacher’s certificate to Mary Ann Shadd Cary. She purchased a house in Detroit. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1874
June 20, Saturday: The federal Congress authorized the trustees of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, with approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, to appoint a 3-person board to take charge of the company’s remaining assets such as they were and report on its financial condition to the Secretary.
In this collapse, William Whipper lost much of his personal savings. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
1876
March 9, Thursday: William Whipper died at the age of 72. The remains would be deposited in Olive cemetery in West Philadelphia. William Whipper b. Feb. 22, 1804. d. March 9, 1876.
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Prepared: November 19, 2016 HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM WHIPPER WILLIAM WHIPPER
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with