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Wilkes-Barre's Fugitive Slave Case of 1853

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“In Immortal Splendor” WILKES-BARRE’S FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE OF 1853 William C. Kashatus n Saturday morning, September 3, 1853, U.S. Federal Marshal George Wynkoop of Philadelphia and two deputies, John Jen- O kins and James Crossen, sat down to breakfast in the dining room of the Phoenix Hotel on River Street in the Luzerne County seat of Wilkes-Barre. At the far end of the room was a handsome, powerfully built mulatto named Bill (or, according to various newspaper accounts, known as Britt or Bitt), who was busily clearing dishes from a table. Sud- denly, the three federal agents sprang from their chairs and rushed to- ward him. One of the officers seized Bill by the waist and threw him to the floor, certain that he was none other than the fugitive William Thomas, a runaway slave. When he scrambled to his feet, Thomas was brandishing a fork in one hand and a carving knife in the other in a frantic attempt to defend himself. LUZERNE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 24 PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE Spring 2008 www.paheritage.org WILKES-BARRE’S FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE OF 1853 CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM “Why don’t you shoot him?” News of the standoff spread rapidly someone cried out. and a large crowd of spectators gath- Wilkes-Barre’s Phoenix Hotel in 1895 (facing page), where the fugitive slave case began a “We don’t want a dead Negro,” ered along the Susquehanna. Many of little more than forty years earlier. Charles T. shouted another. the community’s black residents came Webber dramatically captured the struggle of Jenkins managed to wrest the knife to see if they could assist the fugitive. freedom in his 1893 painting, The Underground from the panic-stricken fugitive as the “Drown yourself, Bill, drown Railroad (above). Although Webber portrayed others delivered blow after blow to his yourself,” shouted Rex, a black barber. runaway slaves in Indiana, similar scenes body. In an attempt to handcuff the “Don’t let them take you!” occurred in Pennsylvania. fugitive, Wynkoop was able to only The agents began shooting their shackle his prey’s right wrist. Desperate revolvers into the air to intimidate to escape, Thomas swung the unfas- Thomas, but some of the white own escape down River Street. The New tened shackle wildly through the air residents who had gathered pleaded, York Tribune reported that Thomas like a pin-wheel. He struck Crossen on “Don’t hurt him!” With his head waded some distance upriver and was the head, inflicting a deep gash on the covered in blood from a wound from found face down in a cornfield by deputy’s temple, stun- an apparent bullet graze several women who carried him to ning him momentarily. and water up to his neck, safety and tended to his wounds. Wynkoop and Jenkins “You can others reportedly scolded Thomas vowed afterwards that he would flung themselves at the officers. “Shame!” have died contented and taken two or Thomas in a futile shoot me, they shouted. three pursuers with him rather than attempt to restrain The sympa- submit to slavery again. him, but he was too but you can’t thies of the William Thomas eventually found strong. He pried growing crowd, refuge in Canada. The federal officers himself loose and made a both white and were arrested for “inciting a riot,” but wild run for the nearby take me!” black, were with their prosecution was overturned by a Susquehanna River. Thomas. As he began to make his way federal circuit court that rejected the Bloodstained, his clothing in around a bridge abutment and along prosecution’s claim of state sovereignty. tatters, and with the officers doggedly the shoreline above Union Street, the Known as the Wilkes-Barre Fugitive chasing him, Thomas ran into the crowd hampered the efforts of the Slave Case, or Maxwell v. Righter et al., river. Standing on the river bank, the federal officers to pursue him any U.S. Supreme Court (1853), the incident federal officers brandished their farther. Even Wilkes-Barre’s sheriff reflected the growing ambivalence of revolvers and ordered Thomas to come refused to give them any assistance. A northeastern Pennsylvania’s Wyoming out of the water, or they would shoot. group of black men seeking vengeance Valley towards slavery and created a “You can shoot me,” Thomas yelled, set upon the agents, who scurried to national controversy in the enforcement “but you can’t take me!” their carriage and barely made their of the federal fugitive slave law. www.phmc.state.pa.us PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE Spring 2008 25 by a U. S. federal marshal, magistrates were compelled to return the slave to bondage. The Thomas case was not the first Even though undam- challenge to the fugitive slave law. On aged during the September 11, 1851, at Christiana, in 1851 Christiana Lancaster County, a bloody gun battle Riots, during the fol- erupted between a band of free blacks, lowing half century, who were harboring three fugitives, the abandoned Wil- and Edward Gorsuch, a Baltimore liam Parker farm- slaveholder, and his posse. Gorsuch was house collapsed into rubble. The bitter- killed and the fugitives fled to Canada, ness lasted longer. along with William Parker, a free black who was protecting them. The incident MOORES MEMORIAL LIBRARY/CHRISTIANA RESISTANCE COLLECTION heightened the resolve of antislavery Regional agreements among free abolition law. However, there was one groups to fight the law and emboldened colonies requiring the return of fugitive victory for abolitionists. The court ruled Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), the slaves date to as early as 1643. Article 4, that state magistrates could participate famous African American newspaper Section 2, of the U. S. Constitution of in the return of slaves, “unless prohib- editor and abolitionist. A former 1787 provides, “No person held to ited by state legislation.” The phrase fugitive, Douglass had been committed Service or Labour in one State . “unless prohibited” meant that, despite to a peaceful resolution of the slavery escaping into another, shall . be Southern objections, Pennsylvania’s law issue, but he argued the “rightfulness of discharged from such Service or Labour, prohibiting state and local officials from forcible resistance.” Urging free blacks But shall be delivered upon Claim of assisting in the recovery of slaves was to arm themselves, Douglass insisted the Party to whom such Service or left standing. that the “only way to make the Fugitive Labour may be due.” While Article 4 Thomas had escaped from slavery in Slave Law a dead letter is to make a half does not mention the word slave, the late 1840s, setting his sights on dozen or more dead kidnappers.” Southern slave states assumed it was Pennsylvania. The exact date or the Antebellum Wilkes-Barre was implied. The first federal legislation means by which he escaped remains divided over the issue of slavery. Of the specifically addressing fugitive slaves unknown. Since 1780, when the state community’s 2,723 residents, only 121 was enacted in 1793, prompted by legislature passed the Pennsylvania Act were blacks. Many were lured by the Pennsylvania’s attempt to extradite for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, opportunity for employment in the three men from Virginia who kid- the Keystone state’s southern border— anthracite mining industry or on napped a runaway slave in Pennsylva- the Mason-Dixon Line—was the nearby farms. In 1848, free blacks nia named John Davis and returned boundary between the free states of the established the Bethel African Method- him to Virginia. Pennsylvania, like North and the slave states of the South. ist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in other free states, strongly opposed Word quickly spread that Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre. Like other A.M.E. federal legislation that voided personal offered sanctuary for fugitive slaves. churches throughout the North, the liberty laws. Thomas’s owner, Isham Keith of church formed a close-knit network Another key decision by the U. S. Fauquier County, Virginia, would not Supreme Court, Prigg v. Pennsylvania be denied his property. Assuming that (1841), amounted to a setback for the Thomas had fled to Pennsylvania, antislavery movement. In 1832, Marga- Keith hired an agent to find Thomas ret Morgan escaped from John Ashmore, and took out a warrant for his arrest. a Maryland slaveholder, and was living After Congress passed the Fugitive in York County. In 1837, Edward Prigg, Slave Act in 1850 as a compromise with a slave catcher hired by Ashmore’s heirs, the South, all citizens, both in the kidnapped Morgan and her children, North and the South, were required to including one born in Pennsylvania. assist in the enforcement of the act, or The heirs intended to sell them at be “subject to a fine not exceeding one- auction. Pennsylvania authorities thousand dollars, and imprisonment arrested Prigg and three accomplices. In not exceeding six months.” In addition, 1839, Prigg was convicted by the Court the act did not require a jury trial, of Quarter Sessions of York County eliminating the possibility of sympa- under Pennsylvania’s 1826 law prohibit- thetic treatment for the alleged fugitive. ing the abduction and transport of slaves Instead, cases were heard by local found in the Commonwealth. The U. S. magistrates, who were obliged by federal Supreme Court overturned the convic- law to review the warrant of arrest and tion, negating the 1826 law, and de- papers detailing proof of ownership. If LIBRARY OF CONGRESS clared unconstitutional a 1788 amend- those papers were in order and the slave Abolitionist Frederick Douglass. ment to Pennsylvania’s 1780 gradual owner, or his agent, was accompanied 26 PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE Spring 2008 www.paheritage.org WWW.SONSOFTHESOUTH.NET/COURTESY PAUL MCWHORTER with fugitive slaves and became the In 1821, the family moved to Wilkes- Some slavery proponents claimed plantation center of Underground Railroad Barre where the elder Gildersleeve slaves lived contented lives, but the truth activity in the Wyoming Valley.
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