NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Racial Radicals: Antislavery Activism in the Old Northwest, 1830-1861 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Field of History By Dana Elizabeth Weiner EVANSTON, ILLINOIS December 2007 2 © Copyright by Dana Elizabeth Weiner 2007 All Rights Reserved 3 ABSTRACT Racial Radicals: Antislavery Activism in the Old Northwest, 1830-1861 Dana Elizabeth Weiner In the Old Northwest, networks of activists across dispersed communities took controversial direct action against prejudice and slavery. By largely eschewing the growing cities that disproved the Old Northwest rule, this is a study of reform as it would have impacted most people, at the local level in the smaller communities of the territory that would define the future of the young nation. For these reasons, the oft-neglected states of the Old Northwest are essential to understanding the history of racial politics in antebellum America. The extraordinary activists of the region were determined to face down slavery in its hostile borderlands. The battles over slavery and the “Black Laws” in the Old Northwest were not merely of local concern, for the region was the central battleground in the extended antislavery campaign. Old Northwestern reformers defended their values in the face of constant attacks—both ideological and physical—from the supporters of the slave system. The “peculiar institution” obeyed no state boundaries, and these racial radicals formed a distinctive movement in response to the singular challenge of living as literal and cultural neighbors to slavery. There, often- isolated individuals found both enthusiastic support and enraged mobbing. Few people maintained neutrality, and their ideological differences often emerged in legal and physical battles. Discussion of race and slavery ignited this region in a particularly explosive fashion, impacted organizations, gender roles and expectations, and generated new ideas about rights, especially freedom of speech. As stalwart reformers struggled against the northward-reaching tentacles of slavery, the social and political culture of the Old Northwest assumed national importance. The region became a stronghold of political anti-slavery by the 1850s, and increased in prominence as the nation approached the final battle over slavery in the political—and ultimately the martial—realms. What Old Northwest activists had been experiencing for decades—intense and inescapable clashes over slavery—became the national experience. Inspired by a human rights vision that mandated direct action for racial justice, they advocated the free produce movement and fought the “Black Laws.” As sectionalism increased, the Republican Party rose to prominence, and the Civil War began. 4 Acknowledgements Throughout my years as a graduate student, I have benefited from the support of an inspiring cohort of faculty. My advisor, Stephanie McCurry, has brought her ferocious intellect and excellent career advice to our interactions since we first met when I was an undergraduate at U. C. San Diego. Susan Pearson has been instrumental to the development of this dissertation over the past two years. Her insights into the project’s significance and argumentation have been invaluable. Through our many years of working together, they, together with my other committee members, Josef Barton, Amy Dru Stanley, and Steven Hahn, have brought to this project and my intellectual development a keen sense of the importance of reading widely and carefully, and set a lofty standard of analysis. The Northwestern History department has modeled exemplary scholarship and teaching. Kate Masur and Michael Sherry have read chapters closely and offered writing support. Insights I gained from Henry Binford’s mentorship in teaching will stay with me throughout my career. The diligent current and former staff of the history department, Krzys Kozubski, Paula Blaskovits, Susan Hall, and Laura O’Mara James, have oiled the bureaucratic machine and been a delight to know. For the past three years I have had the pleasure of working in Northwestern’s Department of African American Studies. The faculty and staff have provided me with a second intellectual home. Working with the faculty, Suzette Denose and Marsha Figaro has been fantastic. Dwight A. McBride has been an inspiration and a mentor to my professional development. In the process of researching this dissertation, I have accrued many intellectual debts. The staff at the Northwestern University Library and especially the interlibrary loan department have fulfilled my most outlandish requests with essential promptness. Chieko Maene introduced me to the wonders of mapping software. The history department awarded me two department travel grants, and a Northwestern University Graduate Research Grant contributed to my many research trips. With their assistance, this dissertation drew upon the following repositories: the Chicago History Museum; Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College; Friends Manuscript Collection, Earlham College; Haverford college; the Indiana Historical Society; the Indiana State Archives; the Indiana State Library; the Ohio Historical Society; the Peoria Public Library; and the Western Reserve Historical Society. 5 Away from Northwestern, the following research grants were invaluable, as was the assistance of a dozen able archivists: the Bentley Historical Library Research Fellowship, Michigan Historical Collections; Price Visiting Research Fellowship, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan; the Frederick Binkerd Artz Summer Research Grant, Oberlin College Library; and the King V. Hostick Award, Illinois Historical Preservation Agency and State Historical Society. It is nearly impossible to determine the merits and shortcomings of scholarly work without peer opinions, and I have been fortunate to have friends and colleagues willing to exchange work with me. My peers in the United States Dissertators’ Group in the Department of History and that of the Center for African American History, especially Tobin Miller Shearer, Mshaï Mwangola, and Katherine Burns-Howard, have been an enormous help. For the past year, Jana Measells and Peter Jaros have joined me in a transnational and transdisciplinary writing group, and their open-mindedness and able suggestions have brought the dissertation much further along its trajectory toward completion. Frank Gaugler and Jenn Q. Goddu have given generously of their time for close readings of chapters, and added both historical and grammatical assistance. All of the mistakes that remain are my own. The support and camaraderie of my friends near and far can never be overestimated. My fellow travelers Vandna Sinha, Chantal Sudbrack, Sarah Dugan, Anne Dabrowski, Francois Barthelat, Nancy Deutsch, Karen O’Brien, Cari Ishida, and Debs Cane have shared the joys and trials of their own lives and doctoral processes with me. I will never forget the years we had together in Evanston and Chicago. Sarah and Dave Cohen provided this itinerant researcher with respite during two long research trips to Ann Arbor, as did Jack Haynie, Jackie Kessler Silacci and Kim Brown in their homes across the country. I am lucky to have a massive extended family, including the Mathesons, the Weiners, the Goulds, and the Litins. They have been ever-supportive. My parents, Bob and Elaine Weiner, have always encouraged me in my scholastic endeavors, and their assistance to me is immeasurable. I treasure their love and their faith in me. My brother, Eric Weiner, has been my friend and ally from our days of digging mud holes in the backyard to the present. Thanks to him, Michelle Hemmings and my niece Kyra Weiner are happy new additions to the family. Most of all, Tim Laurence has brought so much joy to my life with his optimism, new perspectives, and unflagging love. 6 Contents Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 7 Part I: Place Chapter 1: Warm Hearts and Cold Mobbing Hands: The “One 35 Hundred Conventions” Tour of 1843 Chapter 2: “Stand firm on the platform of truth”: Local Antislavery Organizations 85 in the Old Northwest Part II: Space Chapter 3: “An almost irresistible power”: Female Abolitionists 134 in the Old Northwest Chapter 4: “An odd place for navigation”: Itinerant Lecturers 188 Part III: Ideas Chapter 5: “The palladium of our liberties:” Freedom of the Press 245 in the Old Northwest Chapter 6: Homegrown Firebrands: Disavowing Slavery and 300 Racism through Direct Action Epilogue 368 References 380 Appendices Appendix A: Old Northwest Population Statistics, 1800-1870 401 Appendix B: Map of the Old Northwest 402 7 Introduction “When I drew up the Ordinance, I had no idea the states would agree to the article prohibiting slavery.” Nathan Dane, July 1787.1 From the date of the creation of the Northwest Territory in 1787, the region became a battleground for ideas about the future of race and rights in the new nation. After over a year of squabbling between northern and southern delegates in the Continental Congress, Nathan Dane of Massachusetts took over as leader of the committee on the western territory and pushed through the Northwest Ordinance. A compromise measure, Article VI of the Ordinance stated, “there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory.” As an inducement to the southern delegates, it only applied to the lands east of the Mississippi River, south of the Great Lakes, and west of the Ohio River, and contained a fugitive slave clause