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
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The Jerry McHenry
Rescue
and
the Growth
of Northern
Sentiment
during
Antislavery
the 1850s
JAYME A. SOKOLOW
In his
second
President Millard
on
to the Congress
annual message
Fillmore defended his administration's
Slave Law. Although
Fugitive
federal officers trying to enforce
:
was
sporadic and ineffectual
I
and
you
congratulate
the
the statute, he happily
the
upon
general
1851,
of the
enforcement
and violent mobs"1
"lawless
country
2 December
had
resisted
that resistance
noted
in
acquiescence
these
measures of peace which has been exhibited in all parts of the Republic ... [T] he
in regard to them [the 1850
spirit of reconciliation which has been manifested
compromise
certainties
in
subsist
may
for
together
parts
thousands
of
and
institutions
popular
in all
measures]
the minds
Fillmore
also received
national
conventions
of
of
renewed
given
of
the benefit
the
country
men
good
assurance
this
and
has
removed
concerning
that our
succeeding
1
James
Sokolow
Lubbock,
D.
teaches
Texas
Richardson,
10 vols.
1789-189J,
Ibid., 5, 138-39.
3 Kirk H. Porter
2
1860
Amer.
(Urbana,
Stud.
0021-8758/82/BAAS-3005
our Union
generations.2
at their
Tech
and Papers
of the Messages
Government
Office,
Printing
1907),
of History,
of 1850
the Fugitive
Texas
the Department
in
of our
Slave
University,
79409.
Compilation
(Washington:
and Donald
111.:Univ.
16, 3, 427-45
and
and Whigs;
support from both the Democrats
in 1852 they pledged to honor the Compromise
and earnestly hoped that sectional differences would wane.3
While
abolitionists such as Theodore Parker denounced
Jayme A.
Box 4529,
duration
liberty
un
and
doubts
the
Bruce
of Illinois
in Great
Printed
$01.50
Johnson,
Press,
?
1961),
eds., National
pp. 17, 21.
Party
Britain
1982 Cambridge
University
Press
of
the Presidents,
5,
Platforms,
137.
1840
me A. So\olow
Jay
428
"to rescue any
of any
and promised
fugitive slave from the hands
officer who attempts to return him to bondage,"4 even antislavery advocates
Law
of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska
the Compromise
to
to
were
most
northerners
1854
willing
obey the law in order
this
four
of
the
Union.
the
the
South
and
prevent
During
mollify
disruption
year period the Fugitive Slave Law was effectively enforced throughout the
northern and border states; only nine accused fugitives were rescued from
federal custody as compared with one hundred and sixty slaves who were
remanded by federal tribunals or returned without due process.5 As Horace
that between
admitted
of
Act
desired "peace and
the early 1850s, most Americans
to
cut
other's
throats and burn
nowise
inclined
each
prosperity,
a
each other's houses in general quarrel concerning (as they regarded it) only
Act repealed the
the status of negroes."6 Only after the Kansas-Nebraska
more hostile
Missouri
become
did
northern
Compromise
public opinion
continued
toward the Fugitive
Slave Law. But the federal government
Greeley
wrote
about
and were
successfully
accused
to enforce
the statute;
were
runaways
remanded
the decade
throughout
to their
82.3 percent of all
owners.7
of the Fugitive Slave Law culminated a decade of frustration
for the antislavery
the abolitionist movement
crusade. Although
gained
adherents during
and legal
the 1840s, moral
suasion, political agitation,
as the Mexican War
action failed to contain or diminish
and the
slavery
of
1850 signalled the apparent growth of the peculiar institu
Compromise
The
passage
tion. The Constitution
also was slipping away from the abolitionists. Federal
and state court decisions were decidedly adverse to the novel arguments of
the rendition
lawyers and the judicial system actively promoted
antislavery
of fugitive
"a
slaves.8 Abolitionists
that
dash of the
complain
might
by
Commissioner's
4
John Weiss,
Eighth
102.
5
an
pen"
Life
and
Congregational
accused
runaway
Correspondence
Boston,
Society,
was
transformed
from
"a
human
Parser, Minister
of Theodore
of the Twenty
2 vols.
D. Appleton,
(New York:
1864),
I,
The Slave Catchers:
Slave Law,
Enforcement
of the Fugitive
Campbell,
W.
W.
York:
Norton,
207.
1850-1860
1972), pp. 199-202,
(New
6 Horace
2 vols.
A History,
D.C.
The
American
Conflict:
Greeley,
(Washington
210-11.
National
1,
Tribune,
1902),
7
pp. 49-95,
207.
Campbell,
8 Robert M.
and the Judicial Process
Cover,
Justice Accused:
Antislavery
(New Haven
Stanley
W.
Yale Univ.
and London:
M. Wiecek,
The Sources
Press,
1975), pp. 159-91; William
Constitutionalism
in America,
Cornell
Univ.
of Antislavery
(Ithaca:
1760?1848
D. Morris,
Free Men
Thomas
All: The Personal
Press,
1977), pp. 249-90;
Liberty
Laws
The
Univ.
Johns Hopkins
of the North,
Press,
(Baltimore:
iy8o?i86i
1974),
Norman
L. Rosenberg,
"Personal
Laws
and
the Sectional
pp.
130-218;
Liberty
Crisis:
1850?1861,"
Civil
War History,
17 (1971),
25?45.
:
Growth
of Northern
Sentiment
Antislavery
the 1850s
during
429
in the early 1850s concurred with
being into property,"9 but most Americans
measure.
the
The public's
and the federal govern
seeming acquiescence
to
return
even many
ment's
efforts
unsparing
fugitives goaded
pacifist
acts of civil disobedience
into unprecedented
abolitionists
and violence. They
became more militant
and openly defended disunion, d?fiance of the slave
and
violence
power conspiracy,
against the hated new Fugitive Slave Law.10
most
dramatic and influential early instance of resistance was
Perhaps the
in Syracuse, New York, on
the rescue of the runaway slave Jerry McHenry
1 October
a
was
This
riot
of growing
1851.
pro-abolitionist
harbinger
to the strident demands of the South and its northern
northern opposition
allies and also an illustration
of the concomitant
in the north during
sentiment
the decade before
of antislavery
development
the Civil War.11
II
Because
Law,
to slavery and the Fugitive
Slave
Syracuse was militantly
opposed
a
the city had already become
focus of national attention in the con
in western New York, this
the recent statute. Located
troversy surrounding
was
blacks
in
of
and
whites
settled by a
21,901
370
1850
city
originally
stream of migrants
from New
who
with
them their
England
brought
state
and
"Almost
free
its
New
has
churches, schools,
every
piety.
England
Senator
its borders,"12 Vermont
within
Justin Morrill
aptly observed.
these little New Englands were centers
the north and midwest
Throughout
of literacy, religion, reform and antislavery agitation. The larger cities, with
ties to the South and their growing
their commercial
9
of James
Remarks
W.
Stone
in the Massachusetts
n.p.,
1855).
1855 (Boston:
10
and William
H.
Jane H. Pease
Journal
of American
History,
Search
dom:
The
Nonviolent
Abolitionists
Macmillan,
pp.
1970),
the Government
of God
of Representatives,
populations,
April
13,
and Abolition
in the 1850s,"
Be Free:
Who
Would
They
Atheneum,
1974), pp. 233-50;
Growth
of a Dissenting
Minority
(Dekalb,
Free
Carleton
Mabee,
pp. 219-46;
Blac\
the Civil War
1830 Through
(New York:
923-37;
(New York:
(1972),
for Freedom,
1830-1861
C. Dillon,
The Abolitionists:
The
Illinois Univ.
111.: Northern
Press,
1974),
Blac\sy
Merton
immigrant
"Confrontation
Pease,
58
House
From
Lewis
185-332;
in Antislavery
Perry,
Radical
Thought
(Ithaca:
Abolitionism:
Cornell
Univ.
Anarchy
Press,
and
1973)5
pp. 231-94.
11 For
see W.
a
account
Freeman
of the Jerry rescue,
narrative
Galpin,
pioneering
New
Three
"The
26 (1945),
brief, modern
19-34.
History,
Jerry Rescue,"
Yor\
accounts
in their narratives
and
See
differ widely
of
the Jerry rescue
analyses.
Oxford
Abolitionists
York:
Quarles,
Dillon,
pp.
186-87;
Blac\
(New
Benjamin
Brewer
The
Warriors:
Univ.
Stewart,
Press,
James
pp.
209-11;
Holy
1969),
and Wang,
Hill
and American
Abolitionists
124,
pp.
Slavery
(New York:
1976),
12
154-55
Congressional
Globe,
36 Congress,
2 Session,
663.
me A. So\olow
Jay
430
to be more
tended
but in western New York's burned-over
conservative,
settled in large numbers and supported the abolition
Englanders
district New
ist
crusade.
the Senate was
While
a
Slave Law,
the Fugitive
and
Syracuse's most
Englander
Samuel
Joseph
famous
pacifist
debating
New
May,
transplanted
and abolitionist,
attended a Fugitive Slave Convention
Lakes village of Cazenovia where abolitionists pledged
in the nearby Finger
to aid runaway slaves
in preserving
their precarious freedom.13 Only eight days after Fillmore had
a local
to
the
called for a public meeting
Law,
Syracuse newspaper
signed
a distin
Samuel R. Ward,
disscuss
the new enactment.14 On 4 October
the statute before an estimated five hundred
black orator, denounced
met
in
who
the
Syracuse city hall.15 He was followed by the Reverend
people
a
at the Oneida Institute
W.
Jermain
Loguen,
fugitive slave who had studied
In his lecture,
and had become a respected Syracuse teacher and minister.
law
both blacks
of
the
for
the
consequences
Loguen dramatically portrayed
guished
:
and whites
And
do
and
be
think
that I can
you
a slave
in Tennessee?
conclusion
be
slaves,
defense
obey
that white
or
they
of human
men
must
rights.
be
must
give
...
taken
... This
live
their
I don't
from you and my wife
away
enactment
has
hellish
in dishonorable
and
submission,
as intellectual
powers
?
?
fear it
I don't
law
as well
physical
respect
this
children,
precipitated
and colored
the
men
to
the
I won't
it.16
was
By the conclusion of the speech everyone
standing and screaming "the
chair! the chair!" Alfred H. Hovey,
the Democratic mayor who was presid
over the
a brief but
ing
meeting,
persuasive
immediately made
speech
the
of
defense
human
with
civil
disobedience. He vowed that
linking
liberty
the
man
"colored
are
-
must
be
-
protected
he must
be
secure
among
us.
. . We
.
this is a righteous and holy cause."17 The Business Committee
right
the
supported these speeches by reporting thirteen resolutions denouncing
Slave
Daniel
A
President
and
Webster.
biracial
Law,
Fillmore,
Fugitive
Committee was created to insure that no Syracuse fugitive slaves
Vigilance
were
deprived of their liberty. Any member who believed a runaway was
13 National
26 Aug.
Standard,
Anti-Slavery
1850.
Samuel
and Thomas
Star,
14 Oct.
Jr, B. Emerson,
J.
Joseph May,
1850;
Roberts
eds., Memoir
Brothers,
of Samuel
Joseph May
1873),
(Boston:
as a Slave and as a Freeman
The Rev.
Jermain W.
p. 218;
J. W. Loguen,
Loguen,
& Co.,
Earl E. Sperry,
The
J. G. K. Truair
pp. 368-69;
(Syracuse:
Jerry
1859),
Rescue
Historical
narrative
Association,
(Syracuse:
Onondaga
1924), pp. 18-19. This
accounts
of the events
the rescue.
many
study contains
eyewitness
surrounding
15 New
12 Oct.
Tribune,
Yor\
1850.
16
pp. 391?92.
Loguen,
17
Ibid., p. 395.
14
Syracuse
Mumford,
Growth
of Northern
Antislavery
Sentiment
the 1850s
during
431
should toll a special signal on the bell of the local Presbyterian
endangered
which presumably would meet quickly and
church to alert the Committee,
rescue
a
devise
For
plan.18
as
May,
for many
enact
the
citizens,
Syracuse
a shift from moral
suasion and
the Fugitive
Slave Law marked
to
and
violent
action
defiance
disobedience.
political
explicit
the next year Syracuse remained a national center for opposition
During
a
to the
Fugitive Slave Law. In January 1851 George Thompson,
prominent
British abolitionist, was the featured speaker at an anti-Fugitive
Slave Law
ment
of
demonstration.
Two
months
later
May
at a local
appeared
conven
antislavery
to his Church of the
fugitive slaves who had been brought
on the
a Unitarian
railroad.
"Shall
these
depot
underground
be taken from Syracuse?" He asked rhetorically. "No" responded
tion with
five
Messiah,
fugitives
the audience.
you defend with your lives?" "Yes," answered his
fellow abolitionists.19 And in the late spring William
Lloyd Garrison led the
to
for
three
American
days of spirited meet
Anti-slavery
Syracuse
Society
"Will
ings.20 May and other western New
Syracuse would
defy the Fugitive
infamous
under
law
foot,"
the
retard
of
consummation,
abolitionists
Slave
Law.
"It
asserted.
May
never has been
agitated before,
York
will
antislavery
the
it will
W.
this
trample
as
country,
hasten
reform."21
that
confident
must
agitate
and if we do right,
the
were
"We
it
rather than
H.
Burleigh,
In a letter to Gerrit Smith
Syracuse abolitionist,
agreed with May.
he proudly noted his city's resistance to the law and accurately predicted
to
administration's
how Syracuse would react to the Fillmore
determination
on
statute.
in
been
"The meetings
held
this city
that subject have
enforce the
another
indeed
great
to appear,
from
good.
on his
...
It would
infernal mission
be
almost
certain
death
in our streets. No
to a slave-catcher
fugitive
can be taken
our midst."22
Like
believed
After
18
and
other members
of
the Fillmore
that Syracuse provided an important
of 1850, he traveled
the Compromise
Ibid., pp. 396-98;
the Rise and Fall
and Mumford,
Emerson,
May,
in America,
of the Slave Power
Daniel Webster
administration,
test for the Fugitive Slave Law.
throughout
New
p. 218; Henry
3 vols. (Boston:
England
Wilson,
Houghton,
and
of
History
Miiflin
and Co.,
1872), 2, 306.
19 The
21 March
Liberator,
1851.
20 Samuel
Some Recollections
Fields,
Conflict
of Our Anti-Slavery
Joseph May,
(Boston:
&
Co.,
5 April
pp.
Anti-Slavery
1869),
Bugle,
1851.
Osgood
361-62;
21 The
Liberator,
25 Oct.
1850.
22 W.
to Gerrit
in
Gerrit
H.
Harlow,
Smith,
17 Oct.
1850,
Volney
Burleigh
Ralph
H.
York:
and Reformer
Holt,
Smith,
pp.
(New
1939),
Philanthropist
289?90.
was
a staunch
true
defender
of higher
law doctrines,
that "every
believing
Burleigh
lover
bound
12
of humanity
to go on
July
1851.
is bound
persevering
to refuse
in obedience
it
[the Fugitive
to the
higher
Slave
law."
obedience,
Law]
See Anti-Slavery
and
Bugle,
is
me A. So\olow
Jay
432
"
there is but one all-absorbing question and that is
arguing that
the preservation
of the Union."23 Being convinced that the issue of slavery
could not be settled until slaveholders were confident their property was
York
New
out at the ''fanatical and factious abolitionists of the
protected, he lashed
north,"24 whose
illegal actions threatened to destroy the harmony between
the sections. In Syracuse, where he spoke on 22 and 26 May
1851,25 he
the abolitionists and issued a stern challenge :
denounced
I am
a
I value
and
lawyer
my
as a
reputation
lawyer
more
than
I tell you, if men get together and declare a law of Congress
in
any
case,
are
traitors,
the
law.
. . .
Depend
executed
be
Anti-slavery
becomes
of
and
assemble
and
are
in
guilty
it, the
upon
all
the
Convention,
their
lives
to
in numbers
of
law will
great
if
and
their
prevent
and
bring
treason,
be
executed
here
cities;
the occasion
sacred
in
the
of
execution
in its
spirit,
in
Syracuse;
shall
arise;
a law,
such
the
themselves
upon
else,
anything
and
shall not be executed
penalties
to its letter.
and
of
the midst
then
we
It will
the
see
shall
they
of
next
what
honor.26
pious references to the Constitution were cheered but his remarks
about the Fugitive Slave Law aroused ominous murmurs of disapproval.27
Webster's
Ill
was
Fillmore
administration's
ability to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law
a
tested by the events of 1 October
Around
noon, Jerry McHenry,
1851.
in a Syracuse cabinet shop, was seized and handcuffed by
mulatto working
three deputy marshalls
and a policeman who told him a warrant had been
issued for his arrest on suspicion of theft. When
Jerry arrived at the United
The
States Commissioner's
office, however, he was informed
been filed against him, under the provisions of the Fugitive
escaped
Missouri
McHenry
slave.28
had
in fact been born of a slave mother
23 Daniel
2*
25
26
27
that charges had
Slave Law, as an
The Writings
and Speeches
Webster,
& Company,
Brown
1903), 4, 231.
Ibid., 13, 435.
Star,
24, 27 May
Syracuse
pp.
1851; May,
see Webster,
addresses,
13, 408?28.
Syracuse
Ibid., 13, 419-20.
Star, 28 May
Syracuse
1851.
of Daniel
in Buncombe
Webster,
18 vols.
County,
(Boston:
Little,
28 Anne
For
the
full
text
of Webster's
A History
N.Y.:
of Old Syracuse,
(Fayetteville,
1654-1899
1
Company,
1941), p. 109; Syracuse Herald,
Sept.
1899; May,
10 Oct.
Rev.
p. 374; Loguen,
J. W. Loguen,
p. 400; The Liberator,
1851; National
7 Oct.
Intelligencer,
1851.
Manlius
Kathleen
373-74.
Publishing
Baker,
Growth
of Northern
North
Carolina, around
finally settled in Marion
became
a
sidered
him
evading
skilled
by
his
County,
farmer,
businessman.
owner's
Sentiment
during
the 1850s
433
family traveled throughout the South and
Missouri.
There he learned to read and
1815. His
carpenter,
a shrewd
capture
Antislavery
and
He
son-in-law
his
mechanic;
probably
who
owner
second
in
left Missouri
unsuccessfully
searched
con
1843,
for
in Chicago
After his escape, he was sold on 8 July
and Milwaukee.
to
man
for
the
who was now initiating proceedings
John McReynolds,
1851
his return. Jerry's destination
economic
had been Canada,
but Syracuse's
so
racial
toleration
him
and
had
that he had remained
opportunities
impressed
in a cooperage and cabinet shop. Bright and
there and labored successively
him
likeable,
he was
known
in
the
as
community
a
responsible
worker.29
first of October was an inopportune day to reclaim a fugitive slave in
Syracuse. The city was full of visitors; the Onondaga
County Agricultural
a fair and the local
was
filled with
convention,
Society
holding
Liberty Party
a small but
was
at
in
session
the
of
abolitionists,
Congregational
fiesty group
the
Church. As the carriages containing
Jerry and the officers approached
news
a
arrest
the
the
first
had
of
slave
that
courthouse,
runaway
spread
just
occurred in Syracuse. When
the Liberty
Charles A. Wheaton
interrupted
to announce
Jerry's arrest, the abolitionists
hurriedly
Party convention
to
ran
the
the
of
the Com
bell
and
Church,
rang
Presbyterian
adjourned,
The
he heard the signal;
office. May was finishing
lunch when
scene of Jerry's arraignment, he was
to find a crowd
at
the
arriving
surprised
of about two thousand people outside angrily demanding
the prisoner's
missioner's
release.
that the hearing had already begun. In the court
Inside, May discovered
room were James Lear, a resident of Marion County, who had
to
agreed
of
Marion
sheriff
obtain the arrest of McReynold's
the
slave,
fugitive
County,
some
Samuel Smith, who had the deed of Jerry's sale, the Federal marshalls,
one o'clock,
F.
interested spectators, and Commissioner
Sabine.
Joseph
By
counsels Joseph Loomis and James R. Lawrance,
Jr had begun
government
as
their arguments. Leonard Gibbs and Gerrit Smith acted
defense counsels.
testified that he knew the alleged fugitive
Lear, a neighbor of McReynold's,
from 1820 to 1840. Jerry's attorney Gibbs could only delay and obstruct as
Commissioner
Sabine waived all objections aside. The defense lawyer wanted
an
to better prepare his case; the Commissioner
also rejected
adjournment
this argument
looked for a
29 Samuel
for half an hour while
the court
but stopped the proceedings
room. Without
this
would
have
delay, Jerry probably
larger
The Fugitive
Slave
Joseph May,
p. 20; May,
Society,
Anti-Slavery
1861),
1
p. 219;
Syracuse Herald,
Sept.
1899;
16 Oct.
Journal,
1851.
I^aw
and
Emerson,
Syracuse
Its Victims
American
(New York:
and Mumford,
Memoir
of May,
Star, 4 Oct.
1851; Syracuse
Daily
me A. So\olow
Jay
434
to Missouri.
He
realized that the judicial
to a verdict of
lead
would
inevitably
guilty and thus in despera
proceedings
the help of a sympathetic
tion he made a sudden dash for freedom. With
was
out
door
and hurled down the
shoved
the
spectator, Charles Merrick, he
been
convicted
and
sent back
and then, still in his handcuffs,
he staggered down the street.
was
a black man, Prince Jackson, tried to obstruct the
police, he
Although
a few minutes
to the office in a dray. A large
in
and
taken
back
recaptured
stairway,
crowd
followed
the
but made
carriage
no
attempt
to rescue
him
as
the
arrest
on him to prevent another escape.30
ing officers shackled his legs and sat
a
events
As
the crowd became enraged and probably would
result of these
have stormed the jail ifMay had not restrained them by advising the mob's
leaders to wait after dark when a rescue attempt surely would occur. The
sheriff met May, told him that Jerry was in a "perfect rage," and suggested
that the Unitarian
minister
try to calm him. When May was alone with
to
you be calm
Jerry, he comforted him and tried
give him hope. "Would
these irons on you?" Jerry shouted back. "Take off these handcuffs,
and then if I do not fight my way through these fellows . . . then you may
make me a slave." As Jerry continued to rant hysterically, May whispered,
with
"Jerry
we
are
going
rescue
to
you;
do
be more
"How
quiet."
do
I know
you can or will rescue me?"
Jerry cried. May assured him that he would
freed that night; Jerry then became more calm and lay down to rest.31
Meanwhile,
Jerry's
accusers
and
supporters
were
courses
planning
be
of
Sabine and his associates decided to resume the hearing
a
to
at five-thirty. While
large and noisy crowd continued
gather in the
met
the
at
Committee
Hiram
residence.
Dr.
square,
Hoyt's
Vigilance
There
and Loguen,
devised a
twenty-seven men,
including May, Ward,
to rescue
the Syracuse city limits until things
plan
Jerry and hide him within
down.
The
Committee
decided, in the words of Gerrit Smith, that
quietened
while
be
the
moral effect of such an acquitted will be
freed,"
Jerry might
to a bold and forceable rescue. A forceable rescue will demonstrate
nothing,
the strength of public opinion against the possible legality of
slavery and this
fugitive law in particular. It will honor Syracuse, and be a powerful example
everywhere."32 May agreed with this, giving strict orders that the police were
action. Commissioner
not to be
injured. Perhaps
directly
30
in the
actual
because he feared violence, May
and Mumford,
Emerson,
pp. 398-408;
May,
1
Star, 3 Oct.
Syracuse Herald,
Sept. 1899; Syracuse
31
and Mumford,
May, Emerson
p. 376.
p. 220; May,
32
p. 409.
Loguen,
33
and Mumford,
Emerson,
May,
p. 220; May,
pp.
Loguen,
1851.
did not participate
rescue.33
pp.
219-20;
May,
pp.
374-75;
1851.
377-78;
The
Liberator,
10 Oct.
Growth
A
second
of Northern
examination
Antislavery
Sentiment
before Commissioner
during
the 1850s
435
at
began promptly
Sheldon replaced Gibbs
Sabine
and Henry
five-thirty. D. D. Hillis, Leroy Morgan,
to
and Smith as counsels for Jerry. Lear, who had been sent from Missouri
was
reclaim Jerry, began testifying
but
again
interrupted by
constantly
questions from Hillis. The crowd outside the building also made the proceed
out the testimony and
ings uncomfortable
by drowning
by throwing rocks
chief deputy marshall Henry Allen wanted
through the windows. Although
to continue the
the
Commissioner
the court
hearing,
prudently
adjourned
until eight o'clock the next morning.
this adjournment, Sabine returned home while several of Jerry's
Following
defenders
tried to calm the crowd. Hillis
and Ward
told them that Jerry
be
the
would
freed
undoubtedly
legal process; Mayor Horace
through
to
and the police justice also attempted
disperse the gathering.
the crowd cheered the speeches, they remained outside the fugitive's
room in the rear of the Commissioner's
office. By eight o'clock the
guarded
to
to shout and
two
mob
who
continued
had
thousand
about
grown
angry
Wheaton
While
Committee
of the Vigilance
throw stones. When
the members
arrived, the
rescue
as
earnest
the crowd assaulted the building with clubs, axes,
began in
had conveniently
had been left in front of Charles
and iron rods which
Wheaton's
hardware
store.34
never
the militia
appeared. Although
Fortunately
chief deputy marshall Allen did not know about the Vigilance Committee's
secret meetings,
the presence of a large crowd outside the police office con
C.
Allen persuaded William
vinced him that he needed more manpower.
the Syracuse
the county sheriff, to assemble the National
Guards,
Gardiner,
Citizens Corps, and theWashington
and
Artillery. When Charles Wheaton
for
the abolitionists
of the 51st Regiment
heard about Gardner's
Origen Vanderburgh
to
went
convinced
the lieutenant
National
Guard
and
the
orders, they
armory
sent a written order
in command not to move his troops. Later Vanderburgh
to the lieutenant,
his
allegedly with the approval of the sheriff, discharging
an
Citizens
also
the
The
lieutenant
received
of
company.
Syracuse
Corps
order to disband and complied about two hours before the rescue began.
to City Hall
the crowd
Park when
The Washington
Artillery marched
office. They fired ten blank shots with their one
attacked the Commissioner's
cannon; ironically, this show of force aided the rescuers by adding to the
faced an armed, determined
confusion. Thus about five marshalls
party of
Colonel
over
34
two
thousand
rioters.35
Times
Co.,
of Syracuse
Publishing
Early
Landmarks
(Syracuse:
and Mumford,
Emerson,
Baker,
p. 221; Loguen,
p. in; May,
Star,
Standard,
15 Oct.
15 Oct.
1851.
1851; Syracuse
Syracuse
35
was
to Jermain
sheriff,
Star, 3, 4, 5, 8 Oct.
Loguen,
according
Syracuse
1851. The
Gurney
1894),
p. 411;
S.
Strong,
pp.
280-85;
436
me A. So\olow
Jay
The
enraged mob
office and destroyed
of the Commissioner's
the remaining windows
the outside door with a ten foot wooden battering ram.
smashed
the building was beseiged, one of the marshalls opened the inner door and
the door to Jerry's room was loosened,
twice, injuring one man. When
the gas jets were turned off so that the building was shrouded in darkness.
In terror, Jerry's guards covered themselves with boxes or hid in the closet,
leaving the frightened fugitive shackled and lying on the floor. One guard
ordered Jerry to "Go out - why the devil don't you
can I go,"
go?" "How
so
as
to
not
"Are
know
have
chained
you
Jerry replied,
you
cowardly crazy
me so I can't
The
the
marshall
door, pushed
go."
hapless
quickly opened
Jerry out, and crawled back into the closet. The fugtive, who could not walk
because he had been injured that afternoon, was hoisted out of the
to the
jail
As
fired
of
accompaniment
Instead
cheers.36
taking Jerry outside the city, his rescuers drove him around
at
town, had his irons removed at a 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
and thus gladly
slavery controversy into the community
to
For
four
the
authorities
searched
agreed
keep Jerry.
days
Syracuse for the
never
but
a
considered
the
house
of
runaway
examining
loyal Democrat. On
Davis
took
his
drive
into
the
Sunday,
weekly
countryside to collect beef with
in
the
of
bottom
the
covered
with sacking. A team of
cart, armed and
Jerry
fleet horses had been furnished
the former Democratic
by Jason Woodruff,
the police discovered
that Jerry had escaped, a
mayor of Syracuse. When
few people in wagons
tried to capture Davis. Their attempt was 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
the tollkeepers to ensure his safe passage.
The next morning
Jerry arrived at the farm of a wealthy Democratic
farmer who hid and fed him. From there he was taken to
put
Oswego,
aboard a British schooner, and
to
escaped
Kingston, Ontario, where he lived
in freedom as a cooper. From Canada he
penned a grateful letter of thanks
to
abolitionists.
The Vigilance Committee
sent President Fillmore
Syracuse's
a box
of the rescue; they did not
containing
Jerry's shackles as a momento
of
to the rescue.
the afternoon
of i October
he confidently
quite
sympathetic
During
told one of
"I am a public
and must
officer
the peace - but
Jerry's supporters,
keep
betwixt
you and me there is no difficulty y See Loguen,
p. 410.
36
and Mumford,
Baker,
111-12;
pp.
pp. 281-86;
Strong,
May,
Emerson,
pp. 220-21;
Samuel
pp. 417-18;
Loguen,
Ward,
Ringgold
of a Fugitive
Autobiography
Negro:
His
labours
in the United
& England
States,
Anti-Slavery
Canada,
(London:
J. Snow,
1855), pp. 117-28.
Growth
want
of Northern
Antislavery
Sentiment
the 1850s
during
437
not
to
administration
promises had
forget that Webster's
on
In
Ontario
died
8
of
tuberculosis
October
1853.a7
kept.
Jerry
the fugitive's untimely death, its citizens joy
Syracuse mourned
Although
went on
"No
the Jerry rescue until the Civil War.
fully
commemorating
can
was
Man's
of
Inalienable
the
of
law"
the
first
be
Robbery
Rights
slogan
the Whig
been
which
attracted
Frederick
2,500
Douglass,
including
people
Lucretia
of Jerry's indicted
and
Mott,
many
Lloyd Garrison,
rescuers.38 The city's belief in the
it
inviolability of human freedom had led
to a violent but successful confrontation with the federal
government.
meeting,
William
IV
antebellum America,
collective violence such as the Jerry rescue
Throughout
was used to
values. In
accomplish political goals and express community
were
for
New
and
there
Baltimore,
York,
Boston,
Philadelphia,
example,
re
riots
between
and
northern
abolitionists
i860;
1830
thirty-five major
ported 209 violent disorders in the 1830s and 1840s. Rioting was a frequent
to control competition
and effective means
groups
by which
attempted
Civil War.39
May,
38
No
wonder
Recollections,
pp.
Douglass'
Frederic^
to
respond
influence. From
was a pervasive
political
violence
37
or
themselves
among
to
challenges
their
status,
power,
or
wealth,
riots to election-day brawls, group
anti-immigrant
of
American
life in the decades before the
part
Abraham
Lincoln
Loguen,
378-79;
8 April
1852,
Paper,
pp.
complained
of
that "Accounts
24 Oct.
The Liberator,
422-24;
4 March
1853.
1851;
4 Feb.,
29 Oct.
Douglass'
1852. By
Paper,
1852; Frederic^
had
indicted
grand
twenty-six
jury in Buffalo
people
In January
Reed was
found
for participating
the Jerry Rescue.
of 1853 Enoch
was
an
was
S. Salmon
heard. W.
tried and
but died while
guilty
being
appeal
cases
on two other
The
and a jury was
divided
defendants.
remaining
acquitted
a
were
to
and later dropped
because
it proved
jury
postponed
impossible
empanel
rescuers
had
Slave Law.
which
the Fugitive
The
had no decided
about
opinions
on a
who
arrested
the United
States marshall
Allen,
Jerry, indicted
charge of
Henry
was
because
Allen
the jury agreed
he was
legally
quickly
kidnapping;
acquitted
see the
a Federal
accounts
and
the trials,
law. For
of the indictments
executing
21 Nov.
to William
Samuel
National
Lloyd
1851;
Intelligencer,
Joseph May
Anti-Slavery
19 November
Garrison,
The
Story
Bugle,
1851
in
15 Oct.
of His
25 Sept.
a federal
1851,
Mifflin
Life
and
Allen,
U.S.
in Wendell
Told
by
his
Garrison,
Phillips
Children,
4 vols.
William
(Boston
Garrison:
Lloyd
York:
and New
Trial
3, 335;
of
pp. 426-42;
Loguen,
1894),
with
Marshall,
of
for Kidnapping,
Arguments
on the
Slave
& Charge
of the Fugitive
of Justice Marvin,
Constitutionality
New
in
the
Court
Journal Office,
Law,
of
1852).
Daily
Yor\
Supreme
(Syracuse:
39 Richard
Historical
Studies
Maxwell
Strain
Brown,
of Violence:
of American
Houghton,
Henry
Counsel
Violence
W.
and
Vigilantism
Company,
Deputy
(New
York:
Oxford
Univ.
Press,
1975),
pp.
91-143;
43 8
me A. So\olow
Jay
news of the times. They
outrages committed by mobs form the every-day
.
.. Whatever,
to Louisiana.
have pervaded the country, from New England
then,
The
mon
cause
their
it is common
be,
may
to the whole
country."40
of the Jerry rescuers differed from the com
group violence in two respects. First, most rioting
violence
pro-abolitionist
types of antebellum
this
during
era
was
either
expressive
or
rioting,
Expressive
preservationist.
gang
fights, firemen's brawls, election riots, and labor
it
violence, reinforced the rioters' own sense of solidarity and communicated
to the outside world. Preservationist groups used collective violence to impose
over
their dominance
blacks, or
Catholics, Mormons,
alleged outsiders
abolitionists.41 The Jerry rescue, by contrast, combined both forms. The
Committee
and its supporters were trying to cement community
Vigilance
a
sense of
solidarity, express their
justice, and apply moral values against
or intruders. In
as
group which was perceived
consisting of either aliens
were
Commissioner
and
Sabine
the
Syracuse,
they
deputy marshalls, who
which
included
were
local residents, and the two men from Missouri,
James Lear and Marion
rescue did not represent an internal
The
sheriff
Samuel
Smith.
County
Jerry
over Syracuse
conflict in which abolitionists
triumphed
pro-slavery advocates
a distant enemy and its
but instead was a community demonstration
against
local
law
enforcers.
violence of the Jerry rescue marked the development
of
strife
in pre-Civil War America:
type
rioting.
pro-abolitionist
As Leonard L. Richards has cogently argued with regard to the 1830s,
abolitionists were often the victims of "gentlemen
of property and standing"
who saw themselves as guardians of civic order,
and the law.
public morality,
of
the
residents to
defied
local
crusaders,
Antislavery
they feared,
right
own patterns of behavior. The abolitionists'
their
develop
evangelical fervor
Second,
of a novel
the collective
Michael Feldberg, The Philadelphia Riots of 1844: A Study of Ethnic Conflict
(Westport
Carthage
111.: Univ.
delphia
Press,
Conn.:
Greenwood
Conspiracy
of Illinois
in Three
: The
Press,
Trial
of
H.
1975); Dallin
the Accused
Assassins
Sam Bass Warner
Press,
1975);
Periods
of Its Growth
(Philadelphia:
Paul O. Weinbaum,
Mobs
125-57;
and Marvin
S. Hill,
of Joseph Smith
(Urbana,
Jr, The Private
City: Phila
of Pennsylvania
University
Oaks
and Demogogues:
The New
pp.
1968),
:
to Collective
in the Early
Violence
Response
(Ann Arbor, Mich.
19th Century
The Protestant
A Study
1800-1860:
Press,
Crusade,
1978); Ray A. Billington,
Natavism
of the Origins
of American
(New York: The Macmillan
Company,
1938);
David
in Its Jacksonian
American
Historical
Grimsted,
Review,
"Rioting
Setting,"
Clement
"Mob Violence
in the Old
77 (1972),
Eaton,
South," Mississippi
361-97;
Review,
29 (1942),
351-70.
Valley Historical
Yor\
UMI
40
P. Basler,
Collected
ed., The
Roy
of Abraham
Worlds
Univ.
I, 109.
Brunswick,
N.J.:
Press,
Rutgers
1953-55),
41 Michael
The
Turbulent
Era: Riot
and Disorder
Feldberg,
Univ.
Press,
(New York: Oxford
1980).
Lincoln,
9
in Jacksonian
vols.
(New
America
of Northern
Growth
and appeals to individual
religious, and community
as Utica
and
Cincinnati,
Antislavery
conscience
authority.
Sentiment
threatened
discovered
financiers,
bankers,
lawyers,
traditional
Richards
the 1850s
during
439
forms of parental,
that in cities such
and
merchants,
sturdy
to expel abolitionists who tried to impose alien standards on
the local citizenry. In New York state, which was second
to Ohio
in
only
in
anti-abolitionist
the
violence
Even
in
the
mid-i830s.
activity,
peaked
artisans
rioted
burned-over
rioters
district,
attacked
in
advocates
antislavery
Genessee,
and
Erie, Niagara,
Oneida,
Ostego,
Allegany,
Chautauqua,
counties.42 Yet by the 1850s these areas had become abolitionist
was
the Fugitive
Slave Law. Why
rejected
strongholds which
openly
so
like
northern
hostile
toward
the
of
rendition
communities,
many
Syracuse,
Oswego,
Madison
By
runaways?
the
examining
Jerry
rescuers,
we
can
understand
better
reasons
why the city declared its communal
solidarity by violently
the federal government.
To compare the Jerry rescuers with
the anti-abolitionist
mobs
and Cincinnati
(1835)
from
(1836),
I have
court
newspapers,
contemporary
assembled
resisting
in Utica
data on the Syracuse
proceedings,
accounts,
eyewitness
the
rioters
and
I). Police records could not be used because all the
(see Appendix
to
this has meant
material
1870 has been lost. Unfortunately,
prior
police
that almost all of the fifty-two male participants who could be positively
memoirs
identified were
active and prominent
local abolitionists. Richards was able to
more
lists
much
because in Utica the abolitionists and
compile
representative
names
of nearly all the rioters and in Cincinnati
their opponents published the
the records of arrests and reports of judicial proceedings were more complete
than in Syracuse.43 Nevertheless,
classifications of
by using the occupational
Sidnev Aronson,44 we can compare the three different mobs and so uncover
significant
differences
42 Leonard
L. Richards,
in Jacksonian
America
ment
Rejecting
Northern
43
Books,
see Lorman
A.
Anti-Slavery,
Opposition
and similarities
"
Gentlemen
(New
Ratner,
in occupation
and motivation.
Mobs
and Standing":
Anti-Abolition
of Property
a similar
Oxford
Univ.
Press,
argu
1970). For
as Cause
Concern
for Social
of
"Northern
Order
York:
The Historian,
1831-1840,"
to the Anti-Slavery
Movement,
28
(1965),
1831?1840
1-18;
(New
Powder
York:
Keg:
Basic
1968).
134-50.
pp.
as Richards
York
the New
riot of 1836
I have
excluded
considering
City
violence.
it was
of antebellum
anti-abolitionist
atvpical
admits,
44
in the Higher
Civil
Standards
Status
and Kinship
Service:
Aronson,
of
Sidney
Thomas
and Andrew
in the Administrations
Selection
Jefferson,
of John Adams,
a
Aronson
Mass.:
Harvard
Univ.
constructed
Press,
1964).
Jackson
(Cambridge,
and middle-ranking
The
classification
of hightwo-tiered
occupations.
highest
Richards,
because,
category
gentry,
category
teacher.
as merchant,
bank
landed
such
includes
cashier,
banker,
occupations
The
middle
and
doctor.
minister,
lawyer,
professor,
president,
college
and
such as clerk,
involves
editor,
tavernkeeper,
occupations
shopkeeper,
classification
also uses the Aronson
Richards
system.
Jayme A. So\olow
44?
and the
Perhaps the most striking difference between the anti-abolitionist
riots was the active
abolitionist
of blacks in fugitive
slave
participation
rescues. Of the
involved in the Jerry rescue,
fifty-two Syracuse abolitionists
seven were blacks: Prince Jackson, Samuel R. Ward,
Jermain W. Loguen,
Peter Hallenbeck, William
and
Reed. Sometimes
Enoch
Gray, James Baker,
led by white abolitionists, but also acting on their own initiative, blacks in
a
to prevent the rendition of
northern communities demonstrated
willingness
were
fellow blacks. Some of these protesters
in a precarious
themselves
were
too
because
slaves.
After
the
of the
indictment
position
fugitive
they
two
black
members
of
the
and
Ward
rescuers,
Committee,
Jerry
Vigilance
to
avoided
Canada.
the
decade,
Loguen,
prosecution by fleeing
Throughout
both free and runaway blacks played a prominent
role in almost all the
attempted
fugitive
slave
rescues.45
the whites
involved in the Jerry rescue came from occupa
Interestingly,
tions which had also been well represented among the earlier anti-abolitionist
rioters in Cincinnati
and Utica.
In those two cities, a
num
disproportionate
ber of commercial and professional men had rioted
the
abolitionists.
against
Richards
calculated that about three-fourths of those involved were
profes
sionals, merchants, bank keepers, shopkeepers, or clerks. Many were descended
from old and distinguished
families closely identified with
the mercantile
in
economy of Jeffersonian and early Jacksonian America. The abolitionists
those cities, by way of contrast, had a lower
proportion of commercial and
supporters
professional
and many
were
manufacturers
or
artisans,
foreigners,
of evangelical churches. The
differing social composition of the
to Richards,
indicated
that men rioted against the
according
abolitionists
because
the anti-slavery
crusade challenged
local patterns of
and
influence.46
authority
and members
two groups,
In Syracuse
a
number of commercial
and
disproportionate
rescue.
in
the
S.
H.
for
Potter,
professional people participated
Jerry
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
similarly,
the Syracuse
the New
and Buffalo
York, Albany
and Syracuse Railroad, and was
Telegraph
president
of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad. E. W. Leavenworth
also was a director
of the same corporation. And Vivus W.
Smith edited the Syracuse Daily
45
46
City Waterworks,
the Rochester
Company,
Ward,
pp.
429-34;
pp. 133-226.
Loguen,
in his
Gerald
New
York
abolition
Sorin,
pp. 134-50.
study of antebellum
discovered
that they included
and artisans
farmers, manufacturers,
many
careers
who
not
skills
pursued
requiring
broadly
upon
applicable
dependent
status.
determined
See Sorin,
The New
A Case
Abolitionists:
traditionally
Yor\
Richards,
ists, also
Story
of Political
Radicalism
(Westport,
Conn.:
Greenwood
Press,
1971).
Growth
Journal.
of Northern
as an
Using
index
Sentiment
Antislavery
those
rescuers
Jerry
whose
the 1850s
during
occupations
are
441
known,
elite of a
appear that they represented the financial and professional
commercial
of them (68 percent) being
center, twenty-eight
prosperous
it would
and
professional
?
6, physicians
?
the
3. Of
were
commercial
?
4,
teacher
1, journalists
thirteen
remaining
skilled
?
viz:
men,
?
(32
laborers and tradesmen,
lawyers
?
percent),
6, merchants
4, ministers
?
editors
2, clerks
2, newspaper
one was
a manufacturer,
seven
and only five were
unskilled
or semi
skilled.
of the known Jerry rescuers is remarkably
of
adversaries. Throughout
their
the antebellum
analysis
were
believed
that
their
commercial
and
opponents
they
professional
who
incited mechanics
and the lower orders into rioting.47 "Purse
This occupational
like the abolitionists'
era,
men
breakdown
to abolition
proud aristocrats" provoked "penniless profligates,''
according
ists such asWilliam
Goodell and Lydia Maria Child, because northern elites
were tied to southern economic and
political institutions and thus regarded
the
emancipation
struggle
as
a threat
to
their
status.48
The
Jerry
rescue,
how
this popular abolitionist belief because the mob
ever, does not fit in with
so
contained
crusade.
many people traditionally hostile to the antislavery
so many
of
did
the
then,
Why,
representatives
major professional occupations
in Syracuse participate in a pro-abolitionist
riot ?
conclude
Based on Richards' analysis of anti-abolitionist mobs, we might
because
that the Jerry rescue received widespread
support
Syracuse's citizens
same way as
regarded the Fugitive Slave Law and its supporters in much the
- as
the anti-abolitionist
their opponents
mobs had previously
perceived
intruders who threatened to weaken
cherished values and destroy
dangerous
the power of local elites. Syracuse was a community
that took pride in its
the passage of the
amicable race relations and republican institutions. Until
nor
the
Slave
federal
Law, neither the local
government
seriously
Fugitive
But after 1850, Syracuse thwarted any
threatened community
autonomy.
attempt to reclaim fugitive slaves because local citizens such as Sabine, Allen,
the
his assistants, and the two Missouri
residents were seen to be disrupting
community
consensus
and
imposing
rescuers
standards
unacceptable
on
local
citizens.
the established
order
defending
Jerry
pictured
law
enforcement
of
both
officers
encroachments
resident
and
the
against
as
in
meddlesome
outsiders. And,
riots, Syracuse's
many of the pro-abolitionist
leaders assured the Jerry rescuers that they had done their duty by upholding
the sanctity of public opinion. On 14 October a convention met in Syracuse
The
themselves
47 The
2 (July 1836),
Record,
Anti-Slavery
48 American
Fourth
Anti-Slavery
Society,
Slavery
Society,
1837),
pp.
57-60.
73-82.
Annual
Report
(New
York:
American
Anti
44 2
me A. So\olow
Jay
the principles of the American
and the extent to
government,
which
they
trampled under foot by the fugitive slave law."49 There May
to
and other local notables reiterated their opposition
slavery and declared
that Syracuse had not violated the law on i October. They had set aside an
cruel edict; they trampled upon tyranny."50 The city had vindi
"unnatural,
man.
the
natural
cated
rights of
This hostile reaction to people who were perceived as intruders helps
even diehard Democrats
such as Caleb Davis and Jason Wood
explain why
to "consider
are
the
ruff participated
in the rescue. Such conversions occurred throughout
in
lecturers
local
Parker
Hale
abolitionist
country. John
vehemently
opposed
the
Presidential
in
he
candidate
and
but
became
1835,
1847
Liberty Party's
in 1852 he headed the Free Soil ticket.51 Orsamus B. Matteson,
who was
and a close
involved in the 1835 Utica riot, became a Radical Republican
associate of Hale and Thaddeus
Stevens.52 Apparently
the antislavery crusade
was
successful
in
northerners
many
convincing
that
slave
the
was
power
a
greater threat to their status and authority than organized abolitionism.53
The
threatened
local elites and community
rejection of agitators who
to
turn
in
could
used
attack abolitionists or deny
be
however,
autonomy,
to
abolitionists argued that slavery was a menace
blacks equal rights. When
the Union
and a great evil, Syracuse citizens showed hostility toward the
South and slavery but nevertheless
retained a belief in black inferiority. And
could still be the objects of mob violence if local communities
abolitionists
were
that the antislavery crusade was threatening and dis
again persuaded
secession
crisis abolitionists were attacked and silenced
the
ruptive. During
throughout
York.
upstate New
led a mob
that routed
In Buffalo,
former
Governor
Horatio
reso
Seymour
antislavery gathering
were
lutions supporting
the Crittenden Compromise.
Abolitionist
speakers
shouted down in Utica, Rochester, Rome, and Auburn. And
in Syracuse,
which had been a haven for runaway slaves and opponents of the Fugitive
49 Samuel
Joseph May,
of Onondaga
5?
Ibid., p. 18.
51 Richard
H.
Harvard
52
Henry
Present
53 For
Univ.
County
Sewell,
Press,
J. Cookingham,
2 vols.
Time,
excellent
of the Rev.
Speech
Agan
(Syracuse:
John
an
P. Hale
and
and passed
to the Convention
Samuel
J. May,
of Citizens
2.
& Summers,
Printers,
1851), p.
the Politics
of Abolition
(Cambridge,
Mass.:
1965).
History
(Chicago:
of the
of Oneida
S. J. Clarke
slave power
County,
Publishing
New
Yor\,
Company,
to the
iyoo
1, 252?54.
1912),
see R?ssel
B. Nye,
David
pp. 282-315;
from
concept,
analyses
conspiracy
Freedom
111.: Univ.
of Illinois
Press,
(Urbana,
1972),
Brion Davis,
La. :
The Slave Power
and the Paranoid
Conspiracy
Style (Baton Rouge,
: Images
Louisiana
State Univ.
Press,
of Un-American
1969); The Fear of Conspiracy
to the Present
Subversion
the Revolution
Univ.
Press,
from
(Ithaca: Cornell
1971),
Fettered
pp.
102-48.
of Northern
Growth
Antislavery
Sentiment
during
the 1850s
443
Slave Law, abolitionists were attacked by mobs wielding
pistols and knives
and throwing rotten eggs. Effigies of Susan B. Anthony
and Samuel Joseph
were
streets and burned in the city square.54 When
May
dragged through the
abolitionists
seemed to promote disunion
by their militant
ideology and
to compromise,
of property and standing"
turned
"gentlemen
even
a pre
in
abolitionists
Syracuse,
again. Thus,
against
occupied
rallies and presence during
the secession winter
carious position. Their
a season of mob violence
since the early years of the
inaugurated
unparalleled
opposition
them
movement.
antislavery
need more
cities in
mobs
in northern
of pro-abolitionist
the growth of antislavery sentiment in the decade
It is possible that Syracuse was an untypical northern
before the Civil War.
and receptivity
community because of its relatively homogeneous
population
We
studies
order better to understand
to
reform
causes.
the
Nevertheless,
rhetoric,
and
behavior,
occupational
of the Jerry rescuers and their supporters demonstrates
that the
backgrounds
citizens of Syracuse supported the antislavery crusade for many of the same
reasons
that mobs
attacked
moted
community
sition to those who
Anti-Slavery
Slavery
Society,
Society,
1861),
Opposition
to
the
slave
power
pro
solidarity and reinforced widely accepted beliefs in oppo
seemed to threaten local elites and traditional authority -
the South and its northern
54 National
abolitionists.
allies.
Standard,
Twenty-Eighth
pp. 182-88; May,
19, 26 Jan., 2, 9, 16 Feb.
Annual
Report
(New York:
Recollections,
pp. 389-95.
Anti
1861; American
American
Anti-Slavery
Jayme A. So\olow
444
Appendix
Person
Samuel
Prince
Jason
Gerrit
Participants
Rescue*
in the Jerry McHenry
Place of
Residence
Race
J. May
F. King
Sereno
Charles
I :Known
Jackson
Merrick
S. Hoyt
Smith
Occupation
white
Syracuse
Unitarian
white
Syracuse
teamster
black
Syracuse
barber
white
Syracuse
brick
white
Syracuse
Petersboro
white
minister
and
dyer
layer
carriage manufacturer
businessman
landowner,
James Fuller
R. William
Pease
white
Syracuse
druggist,
white
Syracuse
Charles
Wheaton
white
Syracuse
physician
hardware
Samuel
R. Ward
black
Syracuse
Congregational
Smith
white
Syracuse
newspaper
Sedgwick
Putnam
white
Syracuse
lawyer
clerk
Vivus
Charles
Hiram
E. W.
W.
B.
Leavenworth
Barnes
George
Patrick
H. Agan
John Wilkinson
John Thomas
William
C. Crandell
Thomas
Joseph
R.
S. H.
Potter
Johnson
owner
store
white
Syracuse
white
Syracuse
lawyer
white
Syracuse
bookkeeper
white
Syracuse
newspaper
white
Syracuse
minister
editor
editor
lawyer
white
Syracuse
newspaper
white
Syracuse
unknown
journalist
unknown
white
G. White
Carter
George
L. D. Mansfield
physician
editor
unknown
white
unknown
white
unknown
minister
white
Syracuse
unknown)
minister
(denomination
white
Syracuse
(denomination
unknown)
William
L.
white
Salmon
Jermain W.
Loguen
R. R. Raymond
James
J. W.
black
Syracuse
A. M.
white
Syracuse
minister
Syracuse
unknown)
mason
white
Merrick
Montgomery
Abner
Bates
Granby
physician
unknown
E. minister
(denomination
white
Syracuse
tanner
Bates
white
Syracuse
food
Clapp
Baker
white
Syracuse
furnaceman
vendor
black
Syracuse
whitewasher
white
Syracuse
mason
Carter
George
Caleb Davis
white
Syracuse
unknown
white
Syracuse
butcher
Peter
Hallenbeck
black
Syracuse
unknown
Parsons
Field
white
white
Syracuse
blacksmith
Syracuse
unknown
white
Syracuse
Cazenovia
unknown
white
Fayetteville
unknown
white
Syracuse
Canastota
hardware
white
Syracuse
lawyer
white
Syracuse
journalist
James
Edward
James
Lemuel
Hunt
William
C.
Ira H.
P.
Cobb
Washington
Origen
Moses
black
Gray
Thomas
Samuel
Stikney
Vandeburgh
Sumner
Noble
white
laborer
unknown
and mason
Growth
Person
Enoch
Reed
black
white
Clary
F. Williston
i8j2
the 1850s
during
Syracuse
Syracuse
unknown
Syracuse
schoolteacher
white
Syracuse
physician
cabinet
white
Syracuse
white
Syracuse
white
Daily
derived
Journal
Office,
the Daily
1852).
Journal
shopowner
livery
tobacconist
Syracuse
from
445
Occupation
unknown
white
occupations
(Syracuse:
Sentiment
Place of
Residence
Jason Woodruff
D. O. Salmon
* All
Antislavery
Race
John Hornbeck
J. B. Brigham
Lyman
Charles
of Northern
City
Register
and Directory,
i8ji