The Jerry McHenry Rescue and the Growth of Northern Antislavery Sentiment during the 1850s Author(s): Jayme A. Sokolow Source: Journal of American Studies, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Dec., 1982), pp. 427-445 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the British Association for American Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27554201 Accessed: 20/02/2010 20:05

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http://www.jstor.org The Jerry McHenry Rescue and the Growth of Northern Antislavery Sentiment during the 1850s JAYME A. SOKOLOW

on 2 In his second annual message to the Congress December 1851, President Millard Fillmore defended his administration's enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. Although "lawless and violent mobs"1 had resisted to federal officers trying enforce the statute, he happily noted that resistance was : sporadic and ineffectual

I and the the in these congratulate you country upon general acquiescence ... measures of peace which has been exhibited in all parts of the Republic [T] he to spirit of reconciliation which has been manifested in regard them [the 1850 in all of the has removed doubts and un compromise measures] parts country the of men our certainties in minds of thousands good concerning the duration of institutions and renewed assurance that our and our Union popular given liberty subsist for the benefit of this and may together succeeding generations.2

Fillmore also received support from both the Democrats and Whigs; at their national conventions in 1852 they pledged to honor the Compromise of 1850 and earnestly hoped that sectional differences would wane.3 as While abolitionists such Theodore Parker denounced the Fugitive Slave

Tech Jayme A. Sokolow teaches in the Department of History, Texas University, Box 4529, Lubbock, Texas 79409.

1 James D. Richardson, Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 10 Government 1789-189J, vols. (Washington: Printing Office, 1907), 5, 137. 2 Ibid., 5, 138-39. 3 Kirk H. Porter and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds., National Party Platforms, 1840 111.: of Illinois 21. 1860 (Urbana, Univ. Press, 1961), pp. 17,

Amer. Stud. 16, 3, 427-45 Printed in Great Britain Press 0021-8758/82/BAAS-3005 $01.50 ? 1982 Cambridge University me 428 Jay A. So\olow "to rescue of Law and promised any fugitive slave from the hands any to to even officer who attempts return him bondage,"4 antislavery advocates admitted that between the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska to to Act of 1854 most northerners were willing obey the law in order this mollify the South and prevent the disruption of the Union. During four was the year period the Fugitive Slave Law effectively enforced throughout were northern and border states; only nine accused fugitives rescued from as one were federal custody compared with hundred and sixty slaves who or remanded by federal tribunals returned without due process.5 As Horace most Greeley wrote about the early 1850s, Americans desired "peace and were prosperity, and nowise inclined to cut each other's throats and burn a each other's houses in general quarrel concerning (as they regarded it) only the status of negroes."6 Only after the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the more Missouri Compromise did northern public opinion become hostile toward the Fugitive Slave Law. But the federal government continued to successfully enforce the statute; throughout the decade 82.3 percent of all were to accused runaways remanded their owners.7 a The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law culminated decade of frustration movement for the antislavery crusade. Although the abolitionist gained adherents during the 1840s, moral suasion, political agitation, and legal as action failed to contain or diminish slavery the Mexican War and the Compromise of 1850 signalled the apparent growth of the peculiar institu was tion. The Constitution also slipping away from the abolitionists. Federal state court were to and decisions decidedly adverse the novel arguments of antislavery lawyers and the judicial system actively promoted the rendition of fugitive slaves.8 Abolitionists might complain that by "a dash of the Commissioner's an accused was transformed "a human pen" runaway from

4 John Weiss, Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parser, Minister of the Twenty 2 Eighth Congregational Society, Boston, vols. (New York: D. Appleton, 1864), I, 102. 5 Stanley W. Campbell, The Slave Catchers: Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, W. W. 1850-1860 (New York: Norton, 1972), pp. 199-202, 207. 6 Horace 2 : Greeley, The American Conflict: A History, vols. (Washington D.C. 210-11. National Tribune, 1902), 1, 7 Campbell, pp. 49-95, 207. 8 Robert M. Cover, Justice Accused: Antislavery and the Judicial Process (New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Press, 1975), pp. 159-91; William M. Wiecek, The Sources of Antislavery Constitutionalism in America, 1760?1848 (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1977), pp. 249-90; Thomas D. Morris, Free Men All: The Personal Liberty Laws the The of North, iy8o?i86i (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1974), pp. 130-218; Norman L. Rosenberg, "Personal Liberty Laws and the Sectional Crisis: 1850?1861," Civil War History, 17 (1971), 25?45. Growth of Northern Antislavery Sentiment during the 1850s 429 most being into property,"9 but Americans in the early 1850s concurred with measure. the The public's seeming acquiescence and the federal govern to return ment's unsparing efforts fugitives goaded even many pacifist abolitionists into unprecedented acts of civil disobedience and violence. They more became militant and openly defended disunion, d?fiance of the slave new power conspiracy, and violence against the hated Fugitive Slave Law.10 most was Perhaps the dramatic and influential early instance of resistance rescue on the of the runaway slave Jerry McHenry in Syracuse, New York, 1 was a October 1851. This pro-abolitionist riot harbinger of growing northern opposition to the strident demands of the South and its northern an allies and also illustration of the concomitant development of antislavery sentiment in the north during the decade before the Civil War.11

II

was to Because Syracuse militantly opposed slavery and the Fugitive Slave a con Law, the city had already become focus of national attention in the troversy surrounding the recent statute. Located in western New York, this was a city of 21,901 whites and 370 blacks in 1850 originally settled by stream of migrants from New England who brought with them their state churches, schools, and piety. "Almost every free has its New England within its borders,"12 Vermont Senator Justin Morrill aptly observed. were Throughout the north and midwest these little New Englands centers of literacy, religion, reform and antislavery agitation. The larger cities, with to their commercial ties the South and their growing immigrant populations, 9 Remarks of James W. Stone in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, April 13, 1855 (Boston: n.p., 1855). 10 Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease, "Confrontation and Abolition in the 1850s," Journal of American History, 58 (1972), 923-37; They Who Would Be Free: Blac\sy Search for Freedom, 1830-1861 (New York: Atheneum, 1974), pp. 233-50; a Merton C. Dillon, The Abolitionists: The Growth of Dissenting Minority (Dekalb, 111.: Northern Illinois Univ. Press, 1974), pp. 219-46; Carleton Mabee, Blac\ Free dom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists From 1830 Through the Civil War (New York: Macmillan, 1970), pp. 185-332; Lewis Perry, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1973)5 pp. 231-94. 11 a see For pioneering narrative account of the Jerry rescue, W. Freeman Galpin, "The Jerry Rescue," New Yor\ History, 26 (1945), 19-34. Three brief, modern rescue accounts of the Jerry differ widely in their narratives and analyses. See Dillon, pp. 186-87; Benjamin Quarles, Blac\ Abolitionists (New York: Oxford Brewer The Univ. Press, 1969), pp. 209-11; James Stewart, Holy Warriors: Abolitionists and American Slavery (New York: Hill and Wang, 1976), pp. 124, 154-55 12 2 Congressional Globe, 36 Congress, Session, 663. me 430 Jay A. So\olow

tended to be more conservative, but in western New York's burned-over district New Englanders settled in large numbers and supported the abolition ist crusade.

While the Senate was debating the Fugitive Slave Law, Samuel Joseph a most May, transplanted New Englander and Syracuse's famous pacifist a and abolitionist, attended Fugitive Slave Convention in the nearby Finger to Lakes village of Cazenovia where abolitionists pledged aid runaway slaves in preserving their precarious freedom.13 Only eight days after Fillmore had a a to signed the Law, local Syracuse newspaper called for public meeting disscuss the new enactment.14 On 4 October Samuel R. Ward, a distin an guished black orator, denounced the statute before estimated five hundred people who met in the Syracuse city hall.15 He was followed by the Reverend a at Jermain W. Loguen, fugitive slave who had studied the Oneida Institute a and had become respected Syracuse teacher and minister. In his lecture, Loguen dramatically portrayed the consequences of the law for both blacks and whites :

I can And do you think that be taken away from you and my wife and children, and be a slave in Tennessee? ... This hellish enactment has the precipitated conclusion that white men must live in dishonorable submission, and colored men be or must their as well as intellectual to the slaves, they give physical powers ? ? defense of human ... I don't this I don't fear it I won't rights. respect law it.16 obey was By the conclusion of the speech everyone standing and screaming "the was chair! the chair!" Alfred H. Hovey, the Democratic mayor who presid over a ing the meeting, immediately made brief but persuasive speech linking the defense of human liberty with civil disobedience. He vowed that - the "colored man must be he must be secure us. . . We. protected among are - a right this is righteous and holy cause."17 The Business Committee supported these speeches by reporting thirteen resolutions denouncing the Fugitive Slave Law, President Fillmore, and Daniel Webster. A biracial was to no Vigilance Committee created insure that Syracuse fugitive slaves were a was deprived of their liberty. Any member who believed runaway 13 National Anti-Slavery Standard, 26 Aug. 1850. 14 Syracuse Star, 14 Oct. 1850; Samuel Joseph May, Jr, B. Emerson, and Thomas J. Mumford, eds., Memoir of Samuel Joseph May (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1873), p. 218; Jermain W. Loguen, The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman G. & (Syracuse: J. K. Truair Co., 1859), pp. 368-69; Earl E. Sperry, The Jerry Rescue (Syracuse: Onondaga Historical Association, 1924), pp. 18-19. This narrative accounts events rescue. study contains many eyewitness of the surrounding the 15 12 New Yor\ Tribune, Oct. 1850. 16 Loguen, pp. 391?92. 17 Ibid., p. 395. Growth of Northern Antislavery Sentiment during the 1850s 431 a on endangered should toll special signal the bell of the local Presbyterian church to alert the Committee, which presumably would meet quickly and devise a rescue For as for the enact plan.18 May, many Syracuse citizens, ment of the Fugitive Slave Law marked a shift from moral suasion and to political action explicit defiance and violent disobedience. next a center During the year Syracuse remained national for opposition to a the Fugitive Slave Law. In January 1851 George Thompson, prominent an British abolitionist, was the featured speaker at anti-Fugitive Slave Law demonstration. Two months later at a local conven May appeared antislavery to tion with five fugitive slaves who had been brought his Church of the a on Messiah, Unitarian depot the underground railroad. "Shall these fugitives be taken from Syracuse?" He asked rhetorically. "No" responded the audience. "Will you defend with your lives?" "Yes," answered his fellow abolitionists.19 And in the late spring William Lloyd Garrison led the to meet American Anti-slavery Society Syracuse for three days of spirited western were ings.20 May and other New York abolitionists confident that Syracuse would defy the Fugitive Slave Law. "We must trample this infamous law under asserted. "It will the as it foot," May agitate country, never we has been agitated before, and if do right, it will hasten rather than retard the of the reform."21 W. H. consummation, antislavery Burleigh, a to another Syracuse abolitionist, agreed with May. In letter Gerrit Smith to he proudly noted his city's resistance the law and accurately predicted to to how Syracuse would react the Fillmore administration's determination on enforce the statute. "The meetings held in this city that subject have been indeed and ... It would be almost certain death to a slave-catcher great good. on our streets. can to appear, his infernal mission in No fugitive be taken from our midst."22 Like other members of the Fillmore administration, Daniel Webster an test believed that Syracuse provided important for the Fugitive Slave Law. After the Compromise of 1850, he traveled throughout New England and 18 Ibid., pp. 396-98; May, Emerson, and Mumford, p. 218; Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 3 vols. (Boston: Houghton, Miiflin and Co., 1872), 2, 306. 19 21 The Liberator, March 1851. 20 Samuel Joseph May, Some Recollections of Our Anti-Slavery Conflict (Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co., 1869), pp. 361-62; Anti-Slavery Bugle, 5 April 1851. 21 The Liberator, 25 Oct. 1850. 22 to in W. H. Burleigh Gerrit Smith, 17 Oct. 1850, Ralph Volney Harlow, Gerrit Smith, Philanthropist and Reformer (New York: H. Holt, 1939), pp. 289?90. was a true Burleigh staunch defender of higher law doctrines, believing that "every to lover of humanity is bound refuse it [the Fugitive Slave Law] obedience, and is to on to bound go persevering in obedience the higher law." See Anti-Slavery Bugle, 12 July 1851. me 432 Jay A. So\olow " one is New York arguing that there is but all-absorbing question and that the preservation of the Union."23 Being convinced that the issue of slavery was could not be settled until slaveholders were confident their property out at the protected, he lashed the ''fanatical and factious abolitionists of north,"24 whose illegal actions threatened to destroy the harmony between on 22 he the sections. In Syracuse, where he spoke and 26 May 1851,25 stern : denounced the abolitionists and issued a challenge

I am a and I value as a more than and lawyer my reputation lawyer anything else, I tell you, if men get together and declare a law of Congress shall not be executed in in to execution of such a any case, and assemble numbers prevent the law, they are and are of and themselves the of traitors, guilty treason, bring upon penalties the law. . . . the law will be executed in its and to its letter. It will Depend upon it, spirit, be executed in all the here in in the midst of the next great cities; Syracuse; if the occasion shall then we shall see what Anti-slavery Convention, arise; becomes of their lives and their sacred honor.26

Webster's pious references to the Constitution were cheered but his remarks murmurs about the Fugitive Slave Law aroused ominous of disapproval.27

Ill

was The Fillmore administration's ability to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law events 1 a tested by the of October 1851. Around noon, Jerry McHenry, a was mulatto working in Syracuse cabinet shop, seized and handcuffed by a a three deputy marshalls and policeman who told him warrant had been arrest on issued for his suspicion of theft. When Jerry arrived at the United States was Commissioner's office, however, he informed that charges had an been filed against him, under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law, as Missouri slave.28 escaped a McHenry had in fact been born of slave mother in Buncombe County,

23 Daniel The Webster, Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster, 18 vols. (Boston: Brown & Little, Company, 1903), 4, 231. 2* Ibid., 13, 435. 25 Syracuse Star, 24, 27 May 1851; May, pp. 373-74. For the full text of Webster's see Syracuse addresses, Webster, 13, 408?28. 26 Ibid., 13, 419-20. 27 Syracuse Star, 28 May 1851. 28 Anne Kathleen A Old Baker, History of Syracuse, 1654-1899 (Fayetteville, N.Y.: Manlius 1 Publishing Company, 1941), p. 109; Syracuse Herald, Sept. 1899; May, Rev. 10 p. 374; Loguen, J. W. Loguen, p. 400; The Liberator, Oct. 1851; National Intelligencer, 7 Oct. 1851. Growth of Northern Antislavery Sentiment during the 1850s 433 North Carolina, around 1815. His family traveled throughout the South and to finally settled in Marion County, Missouri. There he learned read and a owner con became skilled carpenter, farmer, and mechanic; his second a sidered him shrewd businessman. He probably left Missouri in 1843, his owner's son-in-law who searched for evading capture by unsuccessfully was on him in Chicago and Milwaukee. After his escape, he sold 8 July to man was now 1851 John McReynolds, the who initiating proceedings for his return. Jerry's destination had been Canada, but Syracuse's economic so opportunities and racial toleration had impressed him that he had remained a there and labored successively in cooperage and cabinet shop. Bright and he was known in the as a worker.29 likeable, community responsible was an to a The first of October inopportune day reclaim fugitive slave in was Syracuse. The city full of visitors; the Onondaga County Agricultural was a Society holding fair and the local Liberty Party convention, filled with a was small but fiesty group of abolitionists, in session at the Congregational Church. As the carriages containing Jerry and the officers approached the news a courthouse, the spread that the first arrest of runaway slave had just occurred in Syracuse. When Charles A. Wheaton interrupted the Liberty announce Party convention to Jerry's arrest, the abolitionists hurriedly to adjourned, rang the bell of the Presbyterian Church, and ran the Com was missioner's office. May finishing lunch when he heard the signal; at scene was to a arriving the of Jerry's arraignment, he surprised find crowd two of about thousand people outside angrily demanding the prisoner's release.

Inside, May discovered that the hearing had already begun. In the court room were a to James Lear, resident of Marion County, who had agreed obtain the arrest of McReynold's fugitive slave, the sheriff of Marion County, Samuel Smith, who had the deed of Jerry's sale, the Federal marshalls, some one interested spectators, and Commissioner Joseph F. Sabine. By o'clock, government counsels Joseph Loomis and James R. Lawrance, Jr had begun their arguments. Leonard Gibbs and Gerrit Smith acted as defense counsels. a Lear, neighbor of McReynold's, testified that he knew the alleged fugitive to as from 1820 1840. Jerry's attorney Gibbs could only delay and obstruct Commissioner Sabine waived all objections aside. The defense lawyer wanted an adjournment to better prepare his case; the Commissioner also rejected an this argument but stopped the proceedings for half hour while the court a room. looked for larger Without this delay, Jerry probably would have 29 I^aw Its Samuel Joseph May, The Fugitive Slave and Victims (New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1861), p. 20; May, Emerson, and Mumford, Memoir of May, 1 p. 219; Syracuse Herald, Sept. 1899; Syracuse Star, 4 Oct. 1851; Syracuse Daily Journal, 16 Oct. 1851. me 434 Jay A. So\olow

been convicted and sent back to Missouri. He realized that the judicial to a thus in proceedings inevitably would lead verdict of guilty and despera a tion he made a sudden dash for freedom. With the help of sympathetic spectator, Charles Merrick, he was shoved out the door and hurled down the street. stairway, and then, still in his handcuffs, he staggered down the a to was Although black man, Prince Jackson, tried obstruct the police, he a to a A recaptured in few minutes and taken back the office in dray. large crowd followed the but made no to rescue him as the arrest carriage attempt on to ing officers shackled his legs and sat him prevent another escape.30 a As result of these events the crowd became enraged and probably would not mob's have stormed the jail if May had restrained them by advising the a rescue occur. leaders to wait after dark when attempt surely would The met was a sheriff May, told him that Jerry in "perfect rage," and suggested was that the Unitarian minister try to calm him. When May alone with to Jerry, he comforted him and tried give him hope. "Would you be calm on with these irons you?" Jerry shouted back. "Take off these handcuffs, not . . . and then if I do fight my way through these fellows then you may me a make slave." As Jerry continued to rant hysterically, May whispered, we are to rescue do be more "How do I know "Jerry going you; quiet." can or rescue you will me?" Jerry cried. May assured him that he would be more to freed that night; Jerry then became calm and lay down rest.31 accusers and were courses of Meanwhile, Jerry's supporters planning resume action. Commissioner Sabine and his associates decided to the hearing a to at five-thirty. While large and noisy crowd continued gather in the met square, the Vigilance Committee at Dr. Hiram Hoyt's residence. a There twenty-seven men, including May, Ward, and Loguen, devised to rescue plan Jerry and hide him within the Syracuse city limits until things quietened down. The Committee decided, in the words of Gerrit Smith, that while Jerry might be freed," the moral effect of such an acquitted will be to a nothing, bold and forceable rescue. A forceable rescue will demonstrate the of strength public opinion against the possible legality of slavery and this a fugitive law in particular. It will honor Syracuse, and be powerful example everywhere."32 May agreed with this, giving strict orders that the police were not to not be injured. Perhaps because he feared violence, May did participate in the actual rescue.33 directly 30 Loguen, pp. 398-408; May, Emerson, and Mumford, pp. 219-20; May, pp. 374-75; 1 Syracuse Herald, Sept. 1899; Syracuse Star, 3 Oct. 1851. 31 May, Emerson and Mumford, p. 220; May, p. 376. 32 Loguen, p. 409. 33 and May, Emerson, Mumford, p. 220; May, pp. 377-78; The Liberator, 10 Oct. 1851. Growth Northern of Antislavery Sentiment during the 1850s 435 A second examination at before Commissioner Sabine began promptly D. D. five-thirty. Hillis, Leroy Morgan, and Henry Sheldon replaced Gibbs as and Smith counsels for Jerry. Lear, who had been sent from Missouri to reclaim was Jerry, began testifying again but constantly interrupted by questions from Hillis. The crowd outside the building also made the proceed uncomfortable out ings by drowning the testimony and by throwing rocks through the windows. Although chief deputy marshall Henry Allen wanted to continue the court the hearing, Commissioner prudently adjourned the until eight o'clock the next morning. Following this adjournment, Sabine returned home while several of Jerry's defenders tried to calm the crowd. Hillis and Ward told them that Jerry undoubtedly would be freed through the legal process; Mayor Horace to Wheaton and the police justice also attempted disperse the gathering. While the crowd cheered the speeches, they remained outside the fugitive's room guarded in the rear of the Commissioner's office. By eight o'clock the angry mob had grown to about two thousand who continued to shout and throw stones. When the members of the Vigilance Committee arrived, the rescue as began in earnest the crowd assaulted the building with clubs, axes, and iron rods which had conveniently had been left in front of Charles Wheaton's hardware store.34 never Fortunately for the abolitionists the militia appeared. Although not chief deputy marshall Allen did know about the Vigilance Committee's a con secret meetings, the presence of large crowd outside the police office more vinced him that he needed manpower. Allen persuaded William C. Gardiner, the county sheriff, to assemble the National Guards, the Syracuse Citizens Corps, and theWashington Artillery. When Charles Wheaton and Colonel Origen Vanderburgh of the 51st Regiment heard about Gardner's went to orders, they the National Guard armory and convinced the lieutenant to move sent a in command not his troops. Later Vanderburgh written order to his the lieutenant, allegedly with the approval of the sheriff, discharging an company. The lieutenant of the Syracuse Citizens Corps also received two rescue order to disband and complied about hours before the began. to crowd The Washington Artillery marched City Hall Park when the ten one attacked the Commissioner's office. They fired blank shots with their rescuers to cannon; ironically, this show of force aided the by adding the confusion. Thus about five marshalls faced an armed, determined party of over two thousand rioters.35 34 Times Gurney S. Strong, Early Landmarks of Syracuse (Syracuse: Publishing Co., and 1894), pp. 280-85; Baker, p. in; May, Emerson, Mumford, p. 221; Loguen, p. 411; Syracuse Star, 15 Oct. 1851; Syracuse Standard, 15 Oct. 1851. 35 to was Syracuse Star, 3, 4, 5, 8 Oct. 1851. The sheriff, according Jermain Loguen, me 436 Jay A. So\olow

The enraged mob smashed the remaining windows of the Commissioner's a ram. office and destroyed the outside door with ten foot wooden battering As was one the building beseiged, of the marshalls opened the inner door and one man. room was fired twice, injuring When the door to Jerry's loosened, were so was the gas jets turned off that the building shrouded in darkness. In terror, Jerry's guards covered themselves with boxes or hid in the closet, the on leaving frightened fugitive shackled and lying the floor. One guard ordered to out - can Jerry "Go why the devil don't you go?" "How I go," so as Jerry replied, "Are you cowardly crazy not to know you have chained me so I can't The go." hapless marshall quickly opened the door, pushed and Jerry out, crawled back into the closet. The fugtive, who could not walk because he had was out to been injured that afternoon, hoisted of the jail the accompaniment of cheers.36 Instead rescuers of taking Jerry outside the city, his drove him around had his irons removed at a at town, blacksmith's shop, and then hid him Caleb Davis's house. This sixty-year-old butcher was a staunch Democrat who had always opposed May. Despite his reputation, Davis deeply resented the intrusion of the slavery controversy into the community and thus gladly to For agreed keep Jerry. four days the authorities searched Syracuse for the but never a runaway considered examining the house of loyal Democrat. On Davis took Sunday, his weekly drive into the countryside to collect beef with in the bottom of the Jerry cart, armed and covered with sacking. A team of fleet horses had been furnished by Jason Woodruff, the former Democratic of When the a mayor Syracuse. police discovered that Jerry had escaped, few in tried to Davis. was people wagons capture Their attempt foiled by the on the Cicero who tollkeeper plank road, delayed pursuit by feigning sleep. Davis prudently had driven over the route two hours earlier and bribed all to the tollkeepers ensure his safe passage. The next at a morning Jerry arrived the farm of wealthy Democratic farmer who hid and fed him. From there was to he taken Oswego, put aboard a British to schooner, and escaped Kingston, Ontario, where he lived in freedom as a From a cooper. Canada he penned grateful letter of thanks to Syracuse's abolitionists. The Vigilance Committee sent President Fillmore a box shackles as a momento containing Jerry's of the rescue; they did not

to the rescue. the afternoon of i quite sympathetic During October he confidently told one of "I am a officer and must - Jerry's supporters, public keep the peace but betwixt and me no you there is difficulty y See p. 410. 36 Loguen, Baker, pp. 111-12; Strong, pp. 281-86; May, Emerson, and Mumford, pp. 220-21; Samuel a Loguen, pp. 417-18; Ringgold Ward, Autobiography of Fugitive Negro: His labours in the United Anti-Slavery States, Canada, & England (London: J. Snow, 1855), pp. 117-28. Growth of Northern Antislavery Sentiment during the 1850s 437 want to not the Whig administration forget that Webster's promises had been kept. In Ontario Jerry died of tuberculosis on 8 October 1853.a7 Although Syracuse mourned the fugitive's untimely death, its citizens joy went on rescue fully commemorating the Jerry until the Civil War. "No can was Robbery of Man's Inalienable Rights be law" the slogan of the first meeting, which attracted 2,500 people including Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, and many of Jerry's indicted rescuers.38 it The city's belief in the inviolability of human freedom had led to a violent but successful confrontation with the federal government.

IV

as Throughout antebellum America, collective violence such the Jerry rescue was to used accomplish political goals and express community values. In were Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, for example, there thirty-five major riots between 1830 and i860; northern abolitionists re was a ported 209 violent disorders in the 1830s and 1840s. Rioting frequent means to and effective by which groups attempted control competition themselves or to to their or among respond challenges status, power, wealth, to political influence. From anti-immigrant riots election-day brawls, group violence was a pervasive part of American life in the decades before the of Civil War.39 No wonder Abraham Lincoln complained that "Accounts

37 Oct. May, Recollections, pp. 378-79; Loguen, pp. 422-24; The Liberator, 24 1851; Frederic^ Douglass' Paper, 8 April 1852, 4 Feb., 4 March 1853. 38 Anti-Slavery Bugle, 25 Sept. 1852; Frederic^ Douglass' Paper, 29 Oct. 1852. By a 19 November 1851 federal grand jury in Buffalo had indicted twenty-six people was for participating in the Jerry Rescue. In January of 1853 Enoch Reed found an was was guilty but died while appeal being heard. W. S. Salmon tried and a was on two The cases acquitted and jury divided other defendants. remaining were to a postponed and later dropped because it proved impossible empanel jury no rescuers had which had decided opinions about the Fugitive Slave Law. The on a Henry Allen, the United States marshall who arrested Jerry, indicted charge of was was kidnapping; he quickly acquitted because the jury agreed Allen legally a accounts see the executing Federal law. For of the indictments and the trials, 21 to National Intelligencer, Nov. 1851; Samuel Joseph May William Lloyd Garrison: Garrison, 15 Oct. 1851, in Wendell Phillips Garrison, William Lloyd The Story of His Life Told by his Children, 4 vols. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1894), 3, 335; Loguen, pp. 426-42; Trial of Henry W. Allen, U.S. Deputy Marshall, for Kidnapping, with Arguments of on Counsel & Charge of Justice Marvin, the Constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law, in the Supreme Court of New Yor\ (Syracuse: Daily Journal Office, 1852). 39 Richard Maxwell Brown, Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1975), pp. 91-143; me 43 8 Jay A. So\olow news of the times. outrages committed by mobs form the every-day They to Louisiana. .. . have pervaded the country, from New England Whatever, cause it is common to the whole then, their may be, country."40 rescuers the com The pro-abolitionist violence of the Jerry differed from mon most types of antebellum group violence in two respects. First, rioting this era was either or during expressive preservationist. Expressive rioting, which included gang fights, firemen's brawls, election riots, and labor own it violence, reinforced the rioters' sense of solidarity and communicated to to the outside world. Preservationist groups used collective violence impose over - or their dominance alleged outsiders Catholics, Mormons, blacks, The abolitionists.41 The Jerry rescue, by contrast, combined both forms. were to cement Vigilance Committee and its supporters trying community sense a solidarity, express their of justice, and apply moral values against was as or In group which perceived consisting of either aliens intruders. were Syracuse, they Commissioner Sabine and the deputy marshalls, who were local residents, and the two men from Missouri, James Lear and Marion rescue not an County sheriff Samuel Smith. The Jerry did represent internal over conflict in which abolitionists triumphed Syracuse pro-slavery advocates was a a but instead community demonstration against distant enemy and its local law enforcers. rescue Second, the collective violence of the Jerry marked the development a of novel type of strife in pre-Civil War America: pro-abolitionist rioting. to As Leonard L. Richards has cogently argued with regard the 1830s, were abolitionists often the victims of "gentlemen of property and standing" who saw as themselves guardians of civic order, public morality, and the law. to Antislavery crusaders, they feared, defied the right of local residents own develop their patterns of behavior. The abolitionists' evangelical fervor

Michael Feldberg, The Philadelphia Riots of 1844: A Study of Ethnic Conflict (Westport Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1975); Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, : Carthage Conspiracy The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith (Urbana, 111.: Univ. of Illinois Sam Bass Phila Press, 1975); Warner Jr, The Private City: in Three delphia Periods of Its Growth (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania New Press, 1968), pp. 125-57; Paul O. Weinbaum, Mobs and Demogogues: The to : Yor\ Response Collective Violence in the Early 19th Century (Ann Arbor, Mich. UMI Press, 1978); Ray A. Billington, The Protestant Crusade, 1800-1860: A Study the of Origins of American Natavism (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938); David in Grimsted, "Rioting Its Jacksonian Setting," American Historical Review, 77 (1972), 361-97; Clement Eaton, "Mob Violence in the Old South," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 29 (1942), 351-70. 40 P. The Roy Basler, ed., Collected Worlds of Abraham Lincoln, 9 vols. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1953-55), I, 109. 41 Michael The Feldberg, Turbulent Era: Riot and Disorder in Jacksonian America (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1980). Growth of Northern Antislavery Sentiment during the 1850s 439 to and appeals individual conscience threatened traditional forms of parental, religious, and community authority. Richards discovered that in cities such as Utica and and Cincinnati, lawyers, bankers, financiers, merchants, sturdy on artisans rioted to expel abolitionists who tried to impose alien standards the was to local citizenry. In New York state, which second only Ohio in anti-abolitionist activity, violence peaked in the mid-i830s. Even in the burned-over rioters attacked advocates in district, antislavery Genessee, Oswego, Ostego, Oneida, Allegany, Chautauqua, Erie, Niagara, and areas Madison counties.42 Yet by the 1850s these had become abolitionist which was strongholds openly rejected the Fugitive Slave Law. Why Syracuse, like many northern communities, so hostile toward the rendition of the we can understand better the runaways? By examining Jerry rescuers, reasons why the city declared its communal solidarity by violently resisting the federal government. To compare the Jerry rescuers with the anti-abolitionist mobs in Utica (1835) and Cincinnati (1836), I have assembled data on the Syracuse rioters from court and contemporary newspapers, proceedings, eyewitness accounts, memoirs (see Appendix I). Police records could not be used because all the to police material prior 1870 has been lost. Unfortunately, this has meant that almost all of the fifty-two male participants who could be positively were was to identified active and prominent local abolitionists. Richards able more compile much representative lists because in Utica the abolitionists and names their opponents published the of nearly all the rioters and in Cincinnati arrests were more the records of and reports of judicial proceedings complete than in Syracuse.43 Nevertheless, by using the occupational classifications of Sidnev Aronson,44 we can compare the three different mobs and so uncover significant differences and similarities in occupation and motivation.

42 " Leonard L. Richards, Gentlemen of Property and Standing": Anti-Abolition Mobs a in Jacksonian America (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1970). For similar argu ment see Lorman A. Ratner, "Northern Concern for Social Order as Cause of Rejecting Anti-Slavery, 1831-1840," The Historian, 28 (1965), 1-18; Powder Keg: to Basic Northern Opposition the Anti-Slavery Movement, 1831?1840 (New York: Books, 1968). 43 Richards, pp. 134-50. I have excluded considering the New York City riot of 1836 because, as Richards admits, it was atvpical of antebellum anti-abolitionist violence. 44 Sidney Aronson, Status and Kinship in the Higher Civil Service: Standards of Selection in the Administrations of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Aronson a Jackson (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1964). constructed two-tiered classification of high- and middle-ranking occupations. The highest as category includes occupations such merchant, banker, bank cashier, landed The middle gentry, college president, lawyer, professor, minister, and doctor. as and category involves occupations such clerk, shopkeeper, editor, tavernkeeper, teacher. Richards also uses the Aronson classification system. 44? Jayme A. So\olow most Perhaps the striking difference between the anti-abolitionist and the abolitionist riots was the active participation of blacks in fugitive slave rescues. Of the fifty-two Syracuse abolitionists involved in the Jerry rescue, seven were blacks: Prince Jackson, Samuel R. Ward, Jermain W. Loguen, Peter Hallenbeck, William Gray, James Baker, and Enoch Reed. Sometimes on led by white abolitionists, but also acting their own initiative, blacks in a northern communities demonstrated willingness to prevent the rendition of fellow blacks. of were a Some these protesters themselves in precarious too were position because they fugitive slaves. After the indictment of the two Jerry rescuers, black members of the Vigilance Committee, Ward and avoided to Loguen, prosecution by fleeing Canada. Throughout the decade, both free and runaway blacks played a prominent role in almost all the slave rescues.45 attempted fugitive Interestingly, the whites involved in the Jerry rescue came from occupa tions which had also been well represented among the earlier anti-abolitionist rioters in Cincinnati and Utica. In two a num those cities, disproportionate ber of men commercial and professional had rioted against the abolitionists. Richards calculated that of were about three-fourths those involved profes or were sionals, merchants, bank keepers, shopkeepers, clerks. Many descended from old and distinguished families closely identified with the mercantile economy of Jeffersonian and early Jacksonian America. The abolitionists in those a cities, by way of contrast, had lower proportion of commercial and and were manufacturers or professional supporters many artisans, foreigners, and members of evangelical churches. The differing social composition of the two to men groups, according Richards, indicated that rioted against the abolitionists because the anti-slavery crusade challenged local patterns of authority and influence.46 In a Syracuse similarly, disproportionate number of commercial and in rescue. professional people participated the Jerry S. H. Potter, for example, was a member of the Board of Trustees and the faculty of the Syracuse a Medical College. John Wilkinson, lawyer, served on the Board of Directors of the Syracuse City Waterworks, the New York, Albany and Buffalo the Rochester and was Telegraph Company, Syracuse Railroad, and president of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad. E. W. Leavenworth also was a director of the same And Vivus W. corporation. Smith edited the Syracuse Daily 45 Ward, pp. 429-34; Loguen, pp. 133-226. 46 in Richards, pp. 134-50. Gerald Sorin, his study of antebellum New York abolition discovered ists, also that they included many farmers, manufacturers, and artisans who careers skills not pursued requiring broadly applicable dependent upon determined status. See traditionally Sorin, The New Yor\ Abolitionists: A Case Political Radicalism Story of (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1971). Growth of Northern Antislavery Sentiment during the 1850s 441

as an index those rescuers whose are Journal. Using Jerry occupations known, a it would appear that they represented the financial and professional elite of prosperous commercial center, twenty-eight of them (68 percent) being ? - and commercial viz: ministers professional men, lawyers 4, 6, merchants ? ? ? ? ? teacher clerks editors 6, physicians 4, 1, journalists 2, 2, newspaper ? Of the thirteen one was a seven 3. remaining (32 percent), manufacturer, were were or skilled laborers and tradesmen, and only five unskilled semi skilled. rescuers This occupational breakdown of the known Jerry is remarkably like the abolitionists' analysis of their adversaries. Throughout the antebellum were era, they believed that their opponents commercial and professional men who incited mechanics and the lower orders into rioting.47 "Purse to proud aristocrats" provoked "penniless profligates,'' according abolition as ists such William Goodell and Lydia Maria Child, because northern elites were to tied southern economic and political institutions and thus regarded the as a threat to their status.48 The how emancipation struggle Jerry rescue, ever, does not fit in with this popular abolitionist belief because the mob so to contained many people traditionally hostile the antislavery crusade. so Why, then, did many representatives of the major professional occupations a in Syracuse participate in pro-abolitionist riot ? on we Based Richards' analysis of anti-abolitionist mobs, might conclude rescue that the Jerry received widespread support because Syracuse's citizens same as regarded the Fugitive Slave Law and its supporters in much the way - as the anti-abolitionist mobs had previously perceived their opponents to dangerous intruders who threatened weaken cherished values and destroy a the power of local elites. Syracuse was community that took pride in its race amicable relations and republican institutions. Until the passage of the nor Fugitive Slave Law, neither the local the federal government seriously But threatened community autonomy. after 1850, Syracuse thwarted any as attempt to reclaim fugitive slaves because local citizens such Sabine, Allen, two were seen to his assistants, and the Missouri residents be disrupting the consensus and standards on local citizens. community imposing unacceptable rescuers The Jerry pictured themselves defending the established order against the encroachments of both resident law enforcement officers and as meddlesome outsiders. And, inmany of the pro-abolitionist riots, Syracuse's rescuers leaders assured the Jerry that they had done their duty by upholding a met the sanctity of public opinion. On 14 October convention in Syracuse

47 The Anti-Slavery Record, 2 (July 1836), 73-82. 48 American Anti-Slavery Society, Fourth Annual Report (New York: American Anti Slavery Society, 1837), pp. 57-60. me 44 2 Jay A. So\olow to extent to "consider the principles of the American government, and the are which they trampled under foot by the fugitive slave law."49 There May to and other local notables reiterated their opposition slavery and declared on i set an that Syracuse had not violated the law October. They had aside "unnatural, cruel edict; they trampled upon tyranny."50 The city had vindi man. cated the natural rights of to were as This hostile reaction people who perceived intruders helps even as explain why diehard Democrats such Caleb Davis and Jason Wood rescue. ruff participated in the Such conversions occurred throughout the in country. John Parker Hale vehemently opposed local abolitionist lecturers 1835, but in 1847 he became the Liberty Party's Presidential candidate and in 1852 he headed the Free Soil ticket.51 Orsamus B. Matteson, who was a a involved in the 1835 Utica riot, became Radical Republican and close associate of Hale and Thaddeus Stevens.52 Apparently the antislavery crusade was successful in northerners that the slave was a convincing many power greater threat to their status and authority than organized abolitionism.53 The rejection of agitators who threatened local elites and community or autonomy, however, could in turn be used to attack abolitionists deny was a menace to blacks equal rights. When abolitionists argued that slavery a the Union and great evil, Syracuse citizens showed hostility toward the a South and slavery but nevertheless retained belief in black inferiority. And abolitionists could still be the objects of mob violence if local communities were was again persuaded that the antislavery crusade threatening and dis were ruptive. During the secession crisis abolitionists attacked and silenced throughout upstate New York. In Buffalo, former Governor Horatio a an reso Seymour led mob that routed antislavery gathering and passed were lutions supporting the Crittenden Compromise. Abolitionist speakers shouted down in Utica, Rochester, Rome, and Auburn. And in Syracuse, a which had been haven for runaway slaves and opponents of the Fugitive

49 to Samuel Joseph May, Speech of the Rev. Samuel J. May, the Convention of Citizens & 2. of Onondaga County (Syracuse: Agan Summers, Printers, 1851), p. 5? Ibid., p. 18. 51 Richard H. Sewell, John P. Hale and the Politics of Abolition (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1965). 52 Henry J. Cookingham, History of Oneida County, New Yor\, from iyoo to the Present 2 Time, vols. (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1912), 1, 252?54. 53 see For excellent analyses of the slave power conspiracy concept, R?ssel B. Nye, Fettered Freedom (Urbana, 111.: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1972), pp. 282-315; David : Brion Davis, The Slave Power Conspiracy and the Paranoid Style (Baton Rouge, La. : Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1969); The Fear of Conspiracy Images of Un-American Subversion the to from Revolution the Present (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1971), pp. 102-48. Growth of Northern Antislavery Sentiment during the 1850s 443 were Slave Law, abolitionists attacked by mobs wielding pistols and knives rotten and throwing eggs. Effigies of Susan B. Anthony and Samuel Joseph were streets May dragged through the and burned in the city square.54 When to abolitionists seemed promote disunion by their militant ideology and opposition to compromise, "gentlemen of property and standing" turned even in a against them again. Thus, Syracuse, abolitionists occupied pre carious position. Their rallies and presence during the secession winter a season inaugurated of mob violence unparalleled since the early years of the movement. antislavery more We need studies of pro-abolitionist mobs in northern cities in order better to understand the growth of antislavery sentiment in the decade is was an before the Civil War. It possible that Syracuse untypical northern community because of its relatively homogeneous population and receptivity to reform causes. the and Nevertheless, rhetoric, behavior, occupational rescuers backgrounds of the Jerry and their supporters demonstrates that the same citizens of Syracuse supported the antislavery crusade for many of the reasons that mobs attacked abolitionists. to the slave Opposition power pro moted community solidarity and reinforced widely accepted beliefs in oppo to to - sition those who seemed threaten local elites and traditional authority the South and its northern allies.

54 Feb. Anti National Anti-Slavery Standard, 19, 26 Jan., 2, 9, 16 1861; American Slavery Society, Twenty-Eighth Annual Report (New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1861), pp. 182-88; May, Recollections, pp. 389-95. 444 Jayme A. So\olow

: Rescue* Appendix I Known Participants in the Jerry McHenry

Place of Person Race Residence Occupation

Samuel J. May white Syracuse Unitarian minister Sereno F. King white Syracuse teamster Prince Jackson black Syracuse barber and dyer Charles Merrick white Syracuse brick layer Jason S. Hoyt white Syracuse carriage manufacturer Gerrit Smith white Petersboro landowner, businessman James Fuller white Syracuse druggist, physician R. William Pease white Syracuse physician Charles Wheaton white Syracuse hardware store owner Samuel R. Ward black Syracuse Congregational minister Vivus W. Smith white Syracuse newspaper editor Charles B. Sedgwick white Syracuse lawyer Hiram Putnam white Syracuse clerk E. W. Leavenworth white Syracuse lawyer George Barnes white Syracuse bookkeeper Patrick H. Agan white Syracuse newspaper editor John Wilkinson white Syracuse lawyer John Thomas white Syracuse newspaper editor William C. Crandell white Syracuse journalist Thomas G. White white unknown unknown George Carter white unknown unknown L. D. Mansfield white unknown minister (denomination unknown) Joseph R. Johnson white Syracuse minister (denomination unknown) S. H. Potter white Syracuse physician William L. Salmon white Granby unknown Jermain W. Loguen black Syracuse A. M. E. minister R. R. Raymond white Syracuse minister (denomination unknown) Montgomery Merrick white Syracuse mason Abner Bates white Syracuse tanner James Bates white Syracuse food vendor J. W. Clapp white Syracuse furnaceman James Baker black Syracuse whitewasher Edward Hunt white Syracuse mason George Carter white Syracuse unknown Caleb Davis white Syracuse butcher Peter Hallenbeck black Syracuse unknown James Parsons white Syracuse blacksmith Lemuel Field white Syracuse unknown William Gray black Syracuse laborer Samuel Thomas white Cazenovia unknown C. P. Noble white Fayetteville unknown Ira H. Cobb white Syracuse hardware and mason Washington Stikney white Canastota unknown Origen Vandeburgh white Syracuse lawyer Moses Sumner white Syracuse journalist Growth of Northern Antislavery Sentiment during the 1850s 445

Place of Person Race Residence Occupation

Enoch Reed black Syracuse unknown John Hornbeck white Syracuse unknown J. B. Brigham white Syracuse schoolteacher Lyman Clary white Syracuse physician Charles F. Williston white Syracuse cabinet shopowner Jason Woodruff white Syracuse livery D. O. Salmon white Syracuse tobacconist * All occupations derived from the Daily Journal City Register and Directory, i8ji i8j2 (Syracuse: Daily Journal Office, 1852).