[ad_1]
The conversation
White crowds revolted in Washington in 1848 to defend the rights of slave owners after 76 black slaves staged an unsuccessful mass escape on a boat
An abolitionist lithograph of the slave trade in Washington, DC, with the United States Capitol in the background. The summer of 2020 was not the first time America has seen protests and violence over the treatment of African Americans. An April 19, 1848 account of the capture of the pearl appeared in The Daily Union newspaper in Washington, DC Library of Congress Long before the protests on Black Lives Matter, long before the marches in the civil rights era, the conflicts racists rocked the nation. Capital city. But these riots in Washington, DC, were carried out by proscribed mobs. In the spring of 1848, conspirators orchestrated one of the largest escapes from slavery in U.S. history. In doing so, they unleashed a crisis that has entangled supporters of the abolition of slavery, white supremacists, the press and even the president. Daniel Bell, a free black in Washington, wanted to free his enslaved wife, children and grandchildren. Citing a promise of freedom from their former owner, he tried, but failed to do so in court. So he started planning an escape. A lawyer he consulted knew of other people who wanted to escape bondage. He and Bell decided to help them all. They approached Daniel Drayton. Sea captain, he had led small groups of fugitives to freedom. For $ 100, he agreed to charter a vessel for this larger program. Drayton, in turn, paid his colleague Captain Edward Sayres $ 100 to charter his schooner, the Pearl. On the night of April 15, the Pearl left Washington. Seventy-six black men, women and children, having quietly left the farms in the region, hid under the bridge. Drayton and Sayres steered the ship down the Potomac River. They were headed for Philadelphia, where slavery was illegal. The fugitives did not go far. The owners quickly noticed their absence and formed a group to find them. The group, aboard a steamboat, passed and requisitioned the Pearl as it entered Chesapeake Bay on April 17. The next day, the fugitives and their white accomplices crossed Washington and thrown into the city jail. Riots in the capital Furious at the contestation of social order by the conspirators, the white population of Washington wanted to punish someone. As Drayton and Sayres awaited trial behind bars, white supremacists turned against the abolitionist press. Opponents of slavery published several newspapers promoting their cause. In Washington, Gamaliel Bailey Jr. had founded the National Era in 1847. Bailey and his newspaper opposed escape attempts, but supported an end to the slave trade and ultimately slavery itself. On the nights of April 18 and 19, thousands of people gathered outside the offices of the national era. They gave speeches and spread a false rumor about journalists’ involvement in Pearl’s escape. Leaders of the protesters reportedly included US government employees. Soon the protesters turned violent. They threw stones at the building the first night and intended to destroy it the second. Both nights, however, they dispersed in the face of local police. Abolitionist newspaper editor Gamaliel Bailey Jr., whose presses have been attacked by proscribed mobs. Mathew Brady, Photographer / The Massachusetts Historical Society / Wikipedia Presidential Intervention The crisis began with slavery. Of the more than 3 million black Americans in 1848, nearly 90% were held in slavery. They lived and worked on farms in the South owned by the same white men who claimed them as property. Every year, thousands of them have fled in search of freedom. James K. Polk, the nation’s president, both defended and enriched slavery. He enslaved more than 50 people on his Mississippi cotton plantation. While editing his letters, the last volume of which has just been published, I often read his complaints about the escapes there. Like other slave owners, he relied on relatives and paid agents to capture, return, and physically punish the fugitives. President James K. Polk, who helped calm the rioters. N. Currier, lithograph / Library of Congress After Pearl’s flight, Polk shared the rioters’ belief in white supremacy and their outrage at resistance to slavery. He also shared their hostility towards abolitionists and pro-reform newspapers, blaming those in his newspaper for the whole incident: “The outrage committed by stealing or seducing slaves… had produced the excitement and threat of violence. on the abolitionist press. ” Yet on April 20, the president was concerned about the violence in Washington. He was particularly troubled by the involvement of federal employees. He ordered them to “refrain from participating in any scenes of riot or violence” and threatened those who disobeyed with prosecution. Polk also ordered U.S. Deputy Marshal Thomas Woodward to cooperate with local law enforcement to quell the riots. As Polk told an adviser, he intended “to exercise all the constitutional powers … with which the president was cloathe’d” to restore peace. It worked. When the crowd gathered in the National Era on the night of the 20th, it was successfully countered by municipal and federal officers. About 200 rioters marched to Bailey’s home, threatening to tar and feather it. But he managed to put them down, even earning applause for his speech from the once hostile crowd. The violence was over. Following Pearl’s capture, this poster was produced by the government in Washington, DC, warning white citizens, who feared a slave revolt, not to riot or commit acts of violence. Library of Congress / Wikipedia The losers and the winners Captains Drayton and Sayres suffered for their efforts. Found guilty of illegally transporting slaves, they remained incarcerated until President Millard Fillmore forgave them in 1852. The people they had helped escape were even worse off. The abolitionists bought very little their freedom, but almost all returned to slavery. Many have been sold further south, further from their dream of freedom than ever. The national era, apart from the broken windows, came out unscathed. The municipal and federal authorities, by putting an end to the riots, had protected the freedom of the press to print unpopular opinions. The rioters also came out very well. None have been charged with a crime. Polk, perhaps, benefited the most. He avoided great bloodshed on his watch and earned praise for his cooperation with the local police. Yet he never questioned the complaints of the rioters or the racist society they were defending. [Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Michael David Cohen, American University. Read more: John Brown was a violent crusader, but he paved the moral path that the cautious Lincoln took to end slavery Before the Sanctuary Cities, here’s how black Americans protected runaway slaves The author and his current project, the correspondence of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore, receives funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the Summerlee Foundation and the Watson-Brown Foundation. He had previously received funds from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation, the Delaplaine Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Tennessee Historical Commission. He is a member of the Association for Documentary Editing, the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Southern Historical Association.
[ad_2]
Source link