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The Fugitive Slave Issue in South Central Pennsylvania

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The Fugitive Slave Issue in South Central Pennsylvania The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts ON THE EDGE OF FREEDOM: THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ISSUE IN SOUTH CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA, 1820-1870 A Thesis in History by David G. Smith © 2006 David G. Smith Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2006 The thesis of David G. Smith was reviewed and approved* by the following: William A. Blair Professor of American History Thesis Adviser Chair of Committee Anne C. Rose Professor of History, Religious Studies and Jewish Studies Lori D. Ginzberg Professor of History and Women’s Studies Stephen H. Browne Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences Richard J. Blackett Special Member Andrew Jackson Professor of History Vanderbilt University Sally A. McMurry Professor of American History Head, Department of History and Program of Religious Studies *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ABSTRACT The development of abolitionism in south central Pennsylvania, a border region of a border state, was different than in the upper North. Early attempts at antislavery activity met with fierce resistance, and so the area’s abolitionists adopted a less confrontational approach, to which the fugitive slave issue was well suited. South central Pennsylvania (Adams, Franklin, and Cumberland counties) had hundreds of fugitives traveling through during the antebellum decades, aided by an organized underground railroad. The issue appealed to humanitarianism, and the individual fugitive was less threatening than the potential results of mass emancipation. Area abolitionists helped lead an unusually effective petition campaign that changed state law, and they crafted a legal strategy prosecuting kidnappers who seized innocent African Americans as fugitives. Their success brought about a response from the south, and several prominent figures were tried for aiding fugitive slaves. Through Thaddeus Stevens, the border perspective on the issue even surfaced in Congress during the debates on the 1850 Compromise. In the border state of Pennsylvania, however, the fugitive slave issue alone could not drive a revolution in politics; the Christiana riot helped unseat an antislavery governor and by the end of the decade of the 1850s, it was the opponents of helping fugitives that were agitating this issue more than the proponents. The drawbacks to emphasizing this issue over militant, immediate abolitionism with an emphasis on equal rights became apparent during the Civil War and its aftermath. The fugitive slave issue was writ large during the war, as hundreds of “contrabands” from Maryland and Virginia swarmed into the area, and scores were recaptured by the Confederate army during its invasions. After the war, a variety of social and demographic changes worked against African Americans achieving lasting improvements in status or opportunities. Although many works of popular memory remembered this area as a vanguard of the Underground Railroad, by the 1920s, south central Pennsylvania had become in many ways as segregated as most parts of the Jim Crow South. Ironically, the fugitive slave issue, by reinforcing images of dependency, may have actually worked against achievement of lasting social change. iii Table of Contents List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………..vi List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………vii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….ix Introduction The Fugitive Slave Issue on “the Edge of Freedom”……………………….1 Chapter 1. South Central Pennsylvania, Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad.17 Chapter 2. Thaddeus Stevens’ Dilemma, Colonizationism, and the Turbulent Years of Early Antislavery in Adams County, 1835-1839………………………………..64 Chapter 3. Antislavery Petitioning In South Central Pennsylvania…………………….115 Chapter 4. The Fugitive Slave Issue on Trial: The 1840s in South-Central Pennsylvania……………………………………………………………………143 Chapter 5. Controversy and Christiana: The Fugitive Slave Issue in South Central Pennsylvania, 1850-1851……………………………………………………….193 Chapter 6. Kidnapping, Comity, Kansas, and the Rise of Race-Based Partisanship: The Fugitive Slave Issue in South Central Pennsylvania, 1852-1857………….242 Chapter 7. Revival of the Fugitive Slave Issue, 1858-1861……………………………267 Chapter 8. Contrabands, “White Victories,” and the Ultimate Slave Hunt: The Recasting of the Fugitive Slave Issue in Civil War South Central Pennsylvania……………………………………………………………………311 Chapter 9. After the Shooting: African Americans and South Central Pennsylvania after the Civil War……………………………………………………………...358 Appendix A: Selected Fugitive Slave Advertisements………………………………...382 Appendix B: 1828 South Central Pennsylvania Petition Opposing Slavery in D.C……389 Appendix C: 1847 Gettysburg African American Petition……………………………..391 Appendix D: 1846 Adams County Petition…………………………………………….393 Appendix E: 1861 Franklin County Pro-Colonization Petition…………………...……396 Appendix F: 1861 Adams County Pro-Colonization Petition…………………...……..398 Appendix G: [Second] 1861 Adams County Pro-Colonization Petition……………….401 iv Appendix H: 1861 Doylestown, Bucks County Pro-Colonization Petition……………402 Appendix I: 1861 Newtown, Bucks County Pro-Personal Liberty Law Petition……...406 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………409 v List of Tables Table 1.1 Free Black Population in South Central Pennsylvania in Proportion to Total Population of each County………………………………………………………26 Table 4.1 Slaveholding in South Central Pennsylvania as a Proportion of the total slave population of Pennsylvania………………………………………………….....150 Table 5.1 Newspapers in Adams County, Pennsylvania, 1850-1868………………….197 Table 6.1 Mentions Of Fugitive Slaves, Fugitive Slave Issue Or Kidnapping In Adams County Newspapers, 1849 – April 15, 1861……………………………………………245 vi List of Figures Figure 1.1 South Central Pennsylvania and Vicinity…………………………………… 18 Figure 1.2 Record of Warrant of Removal, Adams County Quarter Sessions…………..33 Figure 1.3 Significant Towns of South Central Pennsylvania Region………………….43 Figure 1.4 Alleged Fugitive Aid Involvement of Jack Hopkins and the “Black Ducks” (B.D.s)………………………………………………………………………………...…55 Figure 7.1 Mag Palm indicating how kidnappers attempted to bind her hands………..269 Figure 9.1 Levi Mumper’s Post-War Reconciliationist Photograph…………………...371 vii DEDICATION To my mother, Caroline C. Smith (1931-2000), for her love and perseverance. To Valerie, for all her love. And to Sherry B. Davis, for perhaps knowing first of all. viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project has been a lengthy one, and I have incurred numerous debts along the way, which I can only imperfectly acknowledge. Thanks in particular go to my adviser, William A. Blair. Despite his many commitments as Director of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at Penn State University, he gave generously to this project, deftly guiding it, suggesting sources, approaches and improvements, and most importantly, believing in it. It is immeasurably better for his contribution. Thanks also to the members of my dissertation committee, Anne Rose, Lori Ginzberg, and Stephen Browne, and to my outside special member, Richard Blackett. Thanks are also due to the larger community of scholars who have encouraged this work or commented on parts of it, including Vernon Burton, Peter Carmichael, Margaret Creighton, William “Jack” Davis, Robert Engs, Thavolia Glymph, Ervin Jordan, Angela Murphy, Mark Neely, William Pencak, Constance Schultz, Beverly Tomek, Peter Wallenstein, and Nan Woodruff. I owe thanks as well to my colleagues at the Civil War Era Center and in Penn State’s History department, including Susan DeWees, Barb Gannon, Robert Sandow, Andrew Slap, Mike Smith, Christian Keller, and Karen Younger. Several scholars created opportunities for me to present portions of this work, including Ted Alexander, William Blair, Vernon Burton, Carol Reardon, and James “Bud” Robertson. Any research historian owes a significant debt to library and archive staffs. I wish to thank the staffs of all the libraries and historical societies mentioned in my bibliography. I am particularly grateful to Timothy Smith (Adams County Historical Society), Christine Ameduri (Gettysburg College), Christa Barrett and Richard L. Tritt ix (Cumberland County Historical Society), Christopher Densmore (Friends Historical Library), Linda Shopes and Karen James (Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission), Jonathan Stayer and the staff of the Pennsylvania State Archives, and Stephen Miller and Max Grivno (Freedmen’s Bureau Papers). Several independent researchers gave generously of their time and input into this project. G. Craig Caba graciously allowed me to visit his house several times to use the substantial resources of the J. Howard Wert Gettysburg collection. Peter Vermilyea, a formidable scholar in his own right, has been a friend and encouragement. Earl “Cookie” Johnson and his brother, the late Reverend Philip Lowther, had a lengthy conversation with me about race relations in Franklin County in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Late in my project, I was privileged to meet Debra S. McCauslin, and shared with me her extensive knowledge of historic Adams County and its Quakers. I did my undergraduate and my master’s work in history at the University of Virginia. It’s been many years now, but I would be remiss if I did not thank my mentors there, H. C. E. Midelfort and especially the late Martin Havran. He is missed. I have been generously supported during this process by funding from the George and Ann Richards Civil
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