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IX-X 


JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNIVERSITY  STUDIES 

'"""'^  IN 

HISTOEICAL    AND     POLITICAL    SCIENCE 
HERBERT  B.  ADAMS,  Editor 


History  is  past  Politics  and  Politics  present  History.-Freema?i 


ELEVENTH   SERIES 


IX-X 


BERNARD  C.  STEINER,  Ph.  D. 


baltimore 
The  Johns  Hopkins  Press 

PUBLISHED    MONTHtY 

September- October,  1893 


'"^^SEP  '^^  mi 


w«»«!^^ 


722 


I'OPy  RIGHT,  1SU3,  BY  THE  JoHNS  HOPKINS   FKESS. 


THE  FKIEDENWALD  CO.,  PKIXTERS, 
BALTIMORE. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction 7 

PeriodI.— 1636-1774.— Indian  Slavery 9 

Colonial  Legislation  on  Slaveiy 11 

Trials  Concerning  Slaves  in  Colonial  Days 17 

Social  Condition  of  Slaves  in  Colonial  Times    ........  20 

Period  II.— 1774-1869.— Slaves  in  the  Revolution 24 

Opinions  of  the  Forefathers  on  Slavery 28 

State  Legislation  on  Slavery 30 

Cases  Adjudicated  in  the  Higher  Courts  with  Reference  to 

Slavery 37 

Miss  Prudence  Crandall  and  her  School 45 

Nancy  Jackson  vs.  Bulloch 52 

The  Negroes  on  the  "  Amistad  " 56 

Growth  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Spirit 68 

Social  Condition  of  Slaves 78 

Appendix 83 


HISTORY  OF  SLAVERY  LN  CONNECTICOT. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Few  questions  have  been  more  interesting  to  the  American 
people  than  slavery,  and  the  number  of  works  which  have 
appeared  upon  the  subject  has  been  proportional  to  the 
interest  aroused.  The  slavery  of  negroes  has  been  discussed 
from  almost  every  point  of  view,  and  yet  the  influence  of 
slavery  upon  individual  States  of  the  Union  and  its  dififerent 
history  and  characteristics  in  the  several  States  have  not 
received  the  attention  they  deserve.  There  have  been  two 
able  works  dealing  with  this  branch  of  the  subject,  tracing 
thoroughly  the  course  of  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  two 
States  of  Massachusetts  and  Maryland.''  As  Massachusetts 
was  the  first  State  of  the  original  number  to  free  her  slaves, 
and  as  Maryland  was  a  typical  Border  State,  these  mono- 
graphs, apart  from  their  accuracy  and  completeness,  have 
been  valuable  contributions  to  the  study  of  slavery-  in  the 
separate  States,  but  they  stand  almost  alone. 

It  has  been  the  intention  of  the  writer  to  take  up  the  history 
of  slavery^  in  his  native  State — Connecticut.  The  develop- 
ment of  slavery  and  the  conditions  surrounding  it  there  were 
not  greatly  dififerent  from  those  existing  in  the  larger  State 
immediately  to  the  north,  yet  there  were  certain  phases  of 
the  "  peculiar   institution "    in    Connecticut    which    yield    a 


^  I  allude  to  Dr.  Geo.  Moore's  "  Notes  on  Slavery  in  Massachu- 
setts "  and  Dr.  J.  R.  Brackett's  ''Negro  in  Maryland."  Tremain's 
"  Slaveiy  in  the  District  of  Columbia,"  in  Univ.  of  Neb.  Studies,  and 
Ingle's  "Negro  in  the  District  of  Columbia. "in  J.  H.  U.  Studies, are 
noteworthy-  See  also  Morgan's  brief  account  of  "  Slavery  in  New- 
York  "  in  the  Am.  Hist.  Ass.  Papers.  I  might  add  Ed.  Bettle, 
"  Notices  of  Negro  Slavery  as  Connected  with  Pennsylvania,"  Vol. 
I.,  p.  365  ff.,  Penn.  Hist.  Soc.  Memou-s. 


8  Histonj  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [378 

noteworthy  return  to  the  student.'  Though  the  formal  aboU- 
tion  of  slavery  in  Connecticut  did  not  take  place  until  1848, 
there  had  been  practically  very  few  slaves  in  the  State  since 
1800,  and  the  treatment  of  the  slave  had  been  always  compar- 
atively mild  and  lenient.  In  the  history  of  the  opinion  of  the 
people  in  regard  to  slaver)^,  we  shall  find  two  fairly  well 
marked-ofif  periods,  under  each  of  which  we  shall  treat  separ- 
ately the  legal,  political,  and  social  aspects  of  slavery.  The 
first  of  these  periods  extends  from  the  settlement  of  the  col- 
ony until  the  passage  of  the  Non-importation  Act  of  1774, 
and  is  characterized  by  a  general  acquiescence  in  the  exist- 
ence of  slavery  and  a  somewhat  harsh  slave  code. 

The  second  period,  extending  from  1774  to  1861,  is  marked 
by  the  diminution  and  extinction  of  slaven'.  It  might  be 
divided  into  two  subdivisions.  The  first  subdivision  extends 
from  October,  1774,  to  the  rise  of  the  Abolitionists,  about 
1830,  and  is  characterized  by  the  gradual  emancipation  of  the 
slaves  and  amelioration  of  their  condition. 

In  the  second  subdivision,  lasting  from  about  1830  till  the 
Civil  War.  we  find  the  formal  abolition  of  slavery  and  the 
rise  of  the  slavery  question  as  a  political  issue,  culminating  in 
the  resistance  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act,  and  ending  in  the 
Act  of  1857.  The  period  closes  with  the  acceptance  of  the 
Fifteenth  Amendment  in  1869. 


'  The  author  regrets  that  he  was  unable  to  consult  Dr.  Wm.  C. 
Fowler's  "Historical  Status  of  the  Negro  in  Connecticut"  until 
these  pages  were  passing  through  the  press.  Any  new  matter 
therein  contained  has  been  embodied  in  foot-notes,  as  far  as  possi- 
ble. Tlie  labor  and  research  Dr.  Fowler  bestowed  on  his  paper 
make  it  very  valuable.  It  appeared  in  Dawson's  Historical  Maga- 
zine for  1874.  Vol.  XXIH..  pp.  12-18,  81-85,  148-153,  260-266. 


PERIOD  I.— 1636-1774. 
Indian  Slavery. 

In  Connecticut,  as  in  many  otlier  States,  the  first  slaves 
were  not  of  African  race,  but  were  aborigines,  taken  in  battle 
and  sold  as  slaves,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  forefathers  of  the  early  settlers  had- sold  the  captives 
of  their  spear,  over  a  millennium  before.  After  the  fierce  and 
bloody  Pequod  War,  the  colonists  found  on  their  hands  a 
number  of  captive  Indians,  whose  disposition  formed  a  press- 
ing question.  It  did  not  take  long  to  decide  it.  To  the 
shame  of  the  conquerors,  "  Ye  prisoners  were  devided,  some 
to  those  of  the  River  [Connecticut]  and  the  rest  to  lis  "  of 
Massachusetts.'  Of  those  taken  by  the  latter,  they  sent  "  the 
male  children  to  Bermudas,  by  Mr.  William  Pierce,  and  the 
women  and  maid  children  are  disposed  about  in  the  towns. 
There  have  now  been  slain  and  taken,  in  all,  about  700." 
Connecticut's  disposition  of  her  share  was,  doubtless,  much 
the  same  as  that  described  above.  In  the  same  spirit,  the 
Articles  of  Confederation  of  the  United  New  England  Colo- 
nies, in  which  both  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  were 
included,  when  drawn  up  on  May  19,  1643,  provided  that 
"  the  whole  advantage  of  the  warr  (if  it  please  God  to  bless 
their  Endeavours),  whether  it  be  in  lands,  goods,  or  persons, 
shall  be  proportionally  divided  among  the  said  Confederates."' 

The  Articles  of  Confederation  also  provided  "  that,  if  any 
servant  run  away  from  his  master  into  any  of  these  confed- 
erated jurisdictions,  that,  in  such  case,  upon  certificate  of  one 
magistrate  in  the  jurisdiction  of  which  the  said  sei'vant  fled, 
or  upon  other  due  proof,  the  said  servant  shall  be  delivered, 
either  to  his  master  or  any  other,  that  pursues  and  brings 
such  certificate  or  proof."  This  was  the  first  fugitive  slave 
law  in  force  in  Connecticut. 

^  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Series  IV.,  Vol.  III.,  p.  360. 
-Plymouth  Col.  Rec.  Vol.  IX..  p.  4. 


10  History  of  Slaverif  in  Connecticut.  [380 

Since  it  was  found  that  certain  Indian  villages  harbored 
fugitive  Indians,  the  Confederation,  on  Sept.  5,  1646,  decided 
that  such  villages  might  be  raided  and  the  inhabitants  carried 
ofif,  women  and  children  being  spared  as  much  as  possible, 
and  added,  to  its  eternal  shame,  that  "because  it  will  be 
chargeable  keeping  Indians  in  prison  and,  if  they  should 
escape,  they  ai'e  liable  to  prove  more  insolent  and  dangerous 
after,  it  was  thought  fit  that  upon  such  seizure . . .  the  magis- 
trates of  the  jurisdiction  deliver  up  the  Indians  seized  to  the 
party  or  parties  endamaged,  either  to  serve  or  to  be  shipped 
out  and  exchanged  for  negroes,  as  the  cause  will  justly  bear.'" 
The  Connecticut  Code  of  1646,  following  this  resolve  in  its 
language,  recognizes  Indian  and  negro  slavery." 

The  Confederation,  in  1646,  took  active  part  in  endeavor- 
ing to  make  Gov.  Kieft  of  New  Netherlands  return  "  an 
Indian  captive  liable  to  publicke  punishment  fled  from  her 
master  at  Hartford  "  and  "  entertained  in  your  house  at  Hart- 
ford and,  though  required  by  the  magistrate,"  she  was  "  under 
the  hands  of  your  agent  there  denyed,  and  was  said  to  have 
been  either  marryed  or  abused  by  one  of  your  men."  "  Such 
a  servant,"  they  say,  "  is  parte  of  her  master's  estate  and  a 
more  considerable  part  than  a  beast;  our  cliildren  will  not 
longe  be  secure  if  this  be  suffered."  This  last  sentence  clearly 
shows  the  outcropping  of  the  patriarchal  idea.  Kieft  refused 
to  give  her  up,  and  said,  "  as  concerns  the  Barbarian  hand- 
made," it  is  "  apprehended  by  some,  that  she  is  no  slave,  but 
a  freewoman,  because  she  was  neither  taken  in  war,  nor 
bought  with  price,  but  was  in  former  time  placed  with  me  by 
her  parents  for  education.'"  By  the  Inter-Colonial  Treaty  of 
Sept.  19,  1650,  the  provision  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation, 
in  regard  to  fugitives,  was  extended  to  include  the  intercourse 
of  the  New  Englanders  and  the  Dutch.''  King  Philip's  War 
again  threw  many  Indian  captives  into  the  settlers'  hands  and, 


'  Iliizju-d.  II.,  p.  G3. 

''Hllc  "  Iiullaiis."    (Vmii.  Hcc.  1..  Tt'M.    Not  in  K<.'visioii  of  1715. 
IMyiiioiith  lU'conls.  IX..  I'.,  M,  IIM). 
'Hiird,  "  Tjiw  of  Fn'otloin  niul  I^)iulap'  in  the  V.  S.."  I.,  209. 


381]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  11 

on  May  lo,  1677/  the  General  Court  decreed,  "for  the 
prevention  of  those  Indians  running  away,  that  are  disposed 
in  service  by  the  Authority,  that  are  of  the  enemie  and 
have  submitted  to  mercy,  such  Indians,  if  they  be  taken, 
shall  be  in  the  power  of  his  master  to  dispose  of  him,  as  a 
captive  by  transportation  out  of  the  country."  The  syntax 
of  the  enactment  is  confused,  its  cruelty  is  clear. 

The  number  of  Indian  slaves  seems  to  have  gradually  de- 
creased from  death,  interniarriage  with  negroes,  and  emanci- 
pation, though  as  late  as  May  i,  1690,  Gov.  Leisler  of  New 
York  met  with  the  Commissioners  of  Massachusetts,  Plym- 
outh, and  Connecticut,  and  they  all  covenanted  that  in  the 
contemplated  Indian  war,  "  all  plunder  and  captives  (if  any 
happen)  shall  be  divided  to  the  ofBcers  and  soldiers,  accord- 
ing to  the  custom  of  War."' 

Though  the  colonists  entertained  no  doubt  of  their  right  to 
sell  Indian  captives,  better  Puritan  nature  revolted  against  the 
idea  of  perpetual  hereditary  slavery,  and,  as  early  as  1722, 
we  find  doubts  expressed  as  to  the  status  of  the  child  of  an 
Indian  slave.' 

Dr.  Fowler  states  that  Indian  slaves  were  not  considered 
as  valuable  as  negroes. 

Further  remarks  as  to  legislation  in  regard  to  Indian 
slaves  will  be  found  in  a  subsequent  section. 

Colonial  Legislation  on  Slavery. 

The  earliest  law  on  any  of  Connecticut's  statute-books  in 
regard  to  slavery  is  a  quotation  from  Exodus  xxi.  16,  placed 
tenth  among  the  Capital  Laws  of  Connecticut,  on  Dec.  i, 
1642,  "  If  any  man  stealeth  a  man  or  mankind,  he  shall  be 
put  to  death."  This,  however,  was  understood,  of  course, 
only  to  include  in  its  protection  persons  of  white  race. 

When  or  how  negro  slavery  was  introduced  into  Connecti- 
cut, we  have  no  records  to  show.     "  It  was  never  directly 

^  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  II.,  308. 

^N.  Y.  Doc.  Hist,  n.,  pp.  134,  157. 

^  Trumbull's  "Connecticut,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  417.     Fowler,  p.  153. 


12  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [382 

established  by  statute,"  says  the  editor  of  the  Revision  of  the 
State's  Laws  in  1821,'  "  but  has  been  indirectly  sanctioned 
by  various  statutes  and  frequently  recognized  by  courts,  so 
that  it  may  be  said  to  have  been  established  by  law.""  Few 
slaves  \vere  imported  at  first,  and,  on  May  17,  1660,  we  find 
the  first  reference  to  negroes  in  the  Connecticut  Records.'" 
Then  the  distrust  of  bondmen  and  the  fear  of  treachery  in 
slaves,  nearly  always  shown  by  masters,  is  revealed  in  the 
General  Court's  order  "  that  neither  Indian  nor  negar  servants 
shall  be  required  to  train,  watch,  or  ward  in  the  Colony."' 

The  number  of  negroes  was  "  few,"  not  above  thirty,  only 
two  of  whom  were  christened,  in  1680,''  and  not  until  ten 
years  later  had  they  sufficiently  increased  so  as  to  call  the  atten- 
tion of  the  legislators  to  their  regxilation.  Connecticut  began 
her  black  code  in  October,  1690,"  by  passing  several  meas- 
ures, providing  that  a  "  negro,  mulatto,  or  Indian  servant " 
found  wandering  out  of  the  bounds  of  the  town  to  which 
he  belonged,  without  a  ticket  or  pass  from  an  Assistant, 
or  Justice  of  the  Peace,  or  his  owner,  shall  be  accounted 
a  runaway  and  may  be  seized  by  any  one  finding  him, 
lirought  before  the  next  authority  and  returned  to  his  master, 
who  must  pay  the  charges.  Even  a  ferr}anan,  transporting 
a  slave  without  a  pass,  was  liable  to  a  penalty  of  twenty  shil- 
lings for  each  ofTense.'  A  free  negro  without  a  pass  must 
pay  the  costs  if  stopped  and  brought  before  a  magistrate. 
The  last  two  laws  were  repealed  in  October,  1797.* 
The  next  statute,  save  one,  referring  to  slaves  was  passed 

'  Probably  Swift,  author  of  the  well-known  "  System." 
« Revision  of  1821,  Title  93,  Sec.  7,  note. 

'Dr.  Fowler  ('"Hist.  Stiitus,"  p.  12)  says  negro  slaves  were  in 
New  Haven  Colony  in  1()44. 

M'onu.  Col.  Hoc,  I..  ;yo. 

''They  came  sonicllincs  (lircc  and  four  n  ye.ir  from  Barbadoes. 
<'onn.  Col.  Roc,  111.,  ]).  2'.>S.    Answer  to  Queries. 

•  Conn.  ("„l.  lu-c.  IV..  ,,.  40.  Revision  of  1808.  Title  CL.,  Cli.  I., 
Sees.  1-4. 

"Tliis  :iinount  was  latt-r  chanjriMl  lo  $,";.,'U. 

"  lliud.  II..  p.  42. 


383]  History  of  Slavery  In  Connecticut.  13 

in  1703/  This  shows  clearly  the  survival  in  colonial  days  of 
the  potcstas  of  the  pater  familias  coming  down  from  the 
absolute  dominion  of  the  house-father  in  ancient  times.  It 
prohibits  any  "  licensed  innkeeper,  victualler,  taverner,  or 
retailer  of  strong  drink "  from  "  suffering  any  one's  sons, 
apprentices,  servants,  or  negroes  to  sit  drinking  in  his  house, 
or  have  any  manner  of  drink  there,  without  special  order  from 
parents  or  masters." 

Slaves  seem  now,  for  some  time,  to  be  repressed  by  laws 
continually  growing  harsher.  In  May,  1708,"  the  General 
Court,  taking  into  consideration  that  "  divers  rude  and  evil- 
minded  persons,  for  the  sake  of  filthy  lucre,  do  receive  prop- 
erty stolen  by  slaves,"  and  desiring  to  prevent  this  and  to  better 
govern  the  slaves,  decreed  that  any  one  buying  or  receiving 
from  slaves  property  without  an  order  from  their  masters,  must 
return  the  property  and  double  its  value  in  addition,  or,  if  he 
has  disposed  of  the  original  property,  treble  its  value,  and, 
if  he  will  not  do  this,  he  is  to  be  whipped  with  not  over  twenty 
stripes.  The  slaves  caught  in  theft  were  to  be  whipped  with 
not  over  thirty  stripes,  whether  the  receivers  of  the  goods 
from  them  were  found  or  not.  Further,  "  whereas  negro  and 
mulatto  servants  or  slaves^  are  become  numerous  in  some 
parts  c  .  this  Colonic  and  are  very  apt  to  be  turbulent  and 
often  quarrelling  with  white  people  to  the  great  disturbance 
of  the  peace,"  it  is  enacted  that  a  negro  disturbing  the 
peace  or  offering  to  strike  a  white  person,  is  to  be  subject 
to  a  penalty  of  not  over  thirty  stripes. 

In  spite  of  these  harsher  laws,  emancipation  was  becoming 
somewhat  common,  and  the  Colony  feared  that  it  would  have 
to  support  negroes  whose  years  of  usefulness  had  been  spent 
in  work  for  their  masters,  and  who  were  manumitted  by  them, 

'  Conn.  Col.  Rec.,  IV.,  438.  A  penalty  of  10  shillings  was  to  be 
imposed  for  a  breach  of  this  act.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
included  in  any  of  the  revisions  of  the  statutes. 

-Conn.  Col.  Rec,  v.,  p.  52.  This  was  m  force  in  1808.  Title  CL., 
Ch.  I.,  Sec.  5. 

3  Revision  of  1750,  p.  229. 


14  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [384 

when  old  and  helpless.  To  prevent  this,  in  May,  1702/  the 
legislature  provided  that  slaves,  set  free  and  coming  to  want, 
must  be  relieved  by  the  owners,  their  heirs,  executors,  or 
administrators.  To  this  act  a  second  one  was  added  in  171 1, 
providing  that  if  the  owners  or  their  representatives  refused 
to  maintain  such  emancipated  slaves,  it  should  be  the  duty 
of  the  selectmen  of  the  various  towns  to  do  so,  and  then  to 
sue  the  owners,  or  tiieir  representatives,  for  the  expense' 
incurred. 

The  terrible  war  between  the  South  Carolinians  and  the 
Tuscaroras,  ending  with  the  overthrow  of  the  latter,  left  a 
large  number  of  Indian  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  Caro- 
linians, who  shipped  them  as  slaves  to  the  other  colonies. 
This  importation  of  vengeful,  warlike  savages  alarmed  the 
people  of  Connecticut  and  led  to  the  first  steps  towards  pro- 
hibition of  the  slave  trade.  The  Governor  and  Council  met 
on  July  8,  171 5,  and  considering  the  fact  that  several  have 
brought  into  the  colony  Carolina  Indians,  "  which  have 
committed  many  cruel  and  bloody  outrages  "  there,  and  may 
draw  off  "  our  Indians,"  if  their  importation  be  continued,  and 
so  "  much  mischief "  may  follow,  they  decided  to  prohibit 
importation  of  Indian  slaves,  until  the  meeting  of  the  As- 
sembly, and  to  require  each  ship  entering  port  ^^dth  Indians 
on  board  to  give  bond  of  £50  to  transport  them  from  the 
colony  in  twenty  days.  Further,  Indians  brought  into  the 
colony  hereafter  are  to  be  "  kept  in  strictest  custody,"  con- 
fined and  "  prevented  from  communicating  with  other  In- 
dians," unless  owner  give  the  same  bond  as  above  to  remove 
them  from  Connecticut  in  twenty  days.' 

The  next  October,  the  General  Court,  copying  a  Massa- 
chusetts Act  of  1712,  made  the  prohibition  of  bringing  in 
Indian  slaves  permanent,  since  "  divers  conspiracies,  out- 
rages, barbarities,  murders,  burglaries,  thefts,  and  other  no- 


^  Conn.  Col.  Roc,  IV.,  375.  A  similar  act  to  the  same  piu-pose  was 
passed  in  May,  1703.    Conn.  Col.  Rec,  FV.,  408.    See  p.  32. 

'Conn.  Col.  Rec,  V.,  233.  The  whole  was  in  the  revision  of  1S08, 
Title  CL.,  Ch.  I.,  Sec.  11. 

3 Conn.  Col.  Rec,  V.,  516. 


385]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  15 

torious  crimes  at  sundry  times  and,  especially  of  late,  have 
been  perpetrated  by  Indians  and  other  slaves, ...  being  of 
a  malicious  and  vengeful  spirit,  rude  and  insolent  in  their 
behaviour,  and  very  ungovernable,  the  overgreat  number  of 
which,  considering  the  different  circumstances  in  this  Colony 
from  the  plantations  in  the  islands  and  our  having  consider- 
able numbers  of  Indians,  natives  of  our  countr}^, . . .  may 
be  of  pernicious  consequence."^  The  legislature  decreed  the 
forfeiture  of  all  Indians  hereafter  imported,  and  the  payment 
of  a  fine  of  £50  by  shipmaster  or  other  persons  bringing 
Indians. 

The  preamble  quoted  above  shows  that  this  measure  was 
not  prompted  by  afifection  for  the  slaves,  but  by  fear  of  them ; 
but  it  was  the  beginning  of  the  end — the  first  law  restricting 
slaveholders'  rights  in  Connecticut,  to  be  followed  by  one  and 
another  of  the  same  restrictive  kind,  until  all  men  who  trod 
the  soil  of  the  State  were  free. 

The  next  law  on  the  records  was  passed  in  May,  1 723,  and 
provided  that  a  slave  out  of  doors  after  9  P.  M.,  without 
order  from  master  or  mistress,  might  be  secured  and  brought 
before  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  by  any  citizen  and,  if  found 
guilty,  should  receive  not  over  ten  stripes,  unless  the  master 
were  willing  to  pay  a  fine  of  ten  shillings'  to  release  him. 
Any  one  who  should  receive  such  a  slave  must,  on  conviction, 
pay  a  like  fine,  half  to  the  town  and  half  to  the  informer. 

The  black  code  was  completed  by  the  act  of  May,  1730, 
declaring  that  a  slave  speaking  such  words  as  would  be 
actionable  in  a  free  person,  should  be  whipped,  on  conviction, 
with  not  over  forty  stripes  and  sold  for  the  costs,  unless  the 
master  were  willing  to  pay  them.  However,  there  was  a  ray 
of  justice  in  the  provision  of  the  law  that  the  slave  might 
make  the  same  pleas  and  ofifer  the  same  evidence  as  a  free 
person.' 

^  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  V.,  534.  Fee  of  2s.  6d.  for  registering  slave, 
which  must  he  done  in  twenty-four  hours  after  arrival.  The  slave 
must  be  taken  away  within  a  month. 

-Amount  to  be  paid  later  changed  to  .$1.67.  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  VI., 
391.    Repealed  by  Ch.  IV.,  Oct.  1797. 

3  Conn.  Col.  Rec.  VII.,  390.     In  Revision  of  1750,  p.  40. 


16  History  of  fSlacery  m  Connecticut.  [386 

From  this  time  on,  the  more  engrossing  subjects  of  the 
struggle  between  the  French  and  the  colonists,  and  the 
growth  of  material  prosperity  seem  to  have  thrust  aside  the 
topic  of  slavery  from  the  legislative  halls.  For  forty-four 
years  w^e  find  few  more  laws/  It  is  true,  however,  that  at 
the  General  Assembly  in  1738,  "it  was  inquired — whether 
the  infant  slaves  of  Christian  masters  may  be  baptized  in 
the  right  of  their  masters,  they  solemnly  promising  to  train 
them  in  the  knowledge  and  admonition  of  the  Lord;  and 
whether  it  is  the  duty  of  such  masters  to  ofifer  such  children 
and  thus  religiously  to  promise."  To  the  great  credit  of 
the  colonists,  both  these  questions  were  answered  affimia- 
tively,  and  thus  the  devout  Christians  of  Connecticut,  pre- 
serving the  solidarity  of  the  family,  unconsciously  went  back 
to  the  early  Aryan  custom,  that  the  God  of  the  house-father 
should  be  worshiped  by  all  under  his  sway.  The  growth 
of  free  ideas,"^  the  coming  of  the  Revolution,  the  increase  of 
the  slaves,  "  injurious,"  it  was  thought,  to  the  poor  and  "in- 
convenient"— for  the  best  motives  are  apt  to  be  mixed  of 
good  and  evil — led,  in  October,  1774,  to  the  f^nactment  of  the 
law  that  "  no  Indian,  negro,  or  mulatto  slave  shall  at  any  time 
hereafter'^  be  brought  or  imported  into  this  State,*  by  sea 
or  land,  from  any  place  or  places  whatsoever,  to  be  disposed 
of,  left,  or  sold  w^ithin  the  State,"  and  any  offender  against 
this  law  should  pay  iioo."  So  the  State  set  herself  as  reso- 
lutely against  the  slave  trade,  as  she  was  destined  to  do  later 
against  slavery  itself. 


'  In  1727  it  was  enacted  that  masters  and  mistresses  of  Indian 
children  were  to  use  their  utmost  endeavors  to  teach  them  to  read 
I'viifilish,  aud  to  instruct  them  in  the  Christian  faith.  Repriut  of 
\T.M,  p.  339.    Hurd,  I.,  p.  272. 

'Conn.  Col.  Rec,  XIV.,  155.  May,  1773,  "Negro's  memorial  post- 
poned to  October."    Nothing  more  of  it. 

3 Conn.  Col.  Rec,  XIV.,  329. 

^Note  the  early  use  of  tlie  word. 

f- Later  the  sum  was  fixed  at  $334.  By  act  of  October,  179S,  such 
prosecutions  must  be  bi^guu  in  three  years.  Revision  of  1808,  Title 
CI.,  Ch.  III.    By  Revision  of  1821,  Title  93,  Sec.  5,  tine  put  at  $350. 


387]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  17 

A  good  review  of  the  legal  condition  of  the  slave  in  these 
days  is  given  by  Judge  Reeves,^  who,  '*  lest  the  slavery,  which 
prevailed  in  this  State,  be  forgotten,"  mentioned  "  some 
things  that  show  that  slavery  here  was  very  far  from  being 
of  the  absolute  rigid  kind.  The  master  had  no  control  over 
the  life  of  his  slave.  If  he  killed  him,  he  was  liable  to  the 
same  punishment,  as  if  he  killed  a  freeman.  The  master 
was  as  liable  to  be  sued  by  the  slave,  in  an  action  for  beating, 
and  wounding,  or  for  immoderate  chastisement,  as  he  would 
be  if  he  had  thus  treated  an  apprentice.  A  slave  was  capa- 
ble of  holding  property  in  character  of  devisee  or  legatee. 
If  the  master  should  take  away  such  property,  his  slave 
would  be  entitled  to  an  action  against  him  by  his  prochei?i 
ami.  From  the  whole,  we  see  that  slaves  had  the  same  right 
of  life  and  property  as  apprentices,  and  that  the  difference 
betwixt  them  was  this,  an  apprentice  is  a  servant  for  time 
and  the  slave  is  a  ser\'ant  for  life."' 

Trials  concerning  Slaves  in  Colonial  Days. 

I  have  been  able  to  obtain  but  few  recorded  cases  in  which 
the  question  of  freedom  or  slavery  came  up  in  the  courts 

^  Law  of  Baron  and  Femme,  pp.  340-1.  Eeeves  says,  "  If  a  slave 
married  a  free  woman,  with  the  consent  of  his  master,  he  was  eman- 
cipated ;  for  his  master  had  suffered  him  to  contract  a  relation 
inconsistent  with  a  state  of  slavery."  Dane's  Abridgment,  IL,  p. 
313,  says,  '■'In  Connecticut  the  slave  was,  by  statute,  specially  for- 
bidden to  contract."     Vide  Hurd,  IL,  p.  43. 

2  In  the  Code  of  16.50,  under  the  title,  "  Masters,  Sojourners,  Ser- 
vants," the  last  named  are  forbidden,  under  penalty,  to  trade  ^^■ith- 
out  permission  of  their  masters,  and  provision  is  made  for  their 
recapture  by  pubUe  authority  if  they  run  away.  Refractory  ser- 
vants are  to  be  pimished  by  extension  of  their  time  of  service. 
The  lawmakers,  probably,  had  tn  mind  the  class  known  as  indented 
servants,  or  redemptioners.  m  formulating  this  act.  (Conn.  Rec,  I., 
539.)  In  the  Revision  of  1715,  title  "  Debts,"  it  was  provided  that  a 
debtor  without  estate  "  shall  satisfy  the  debt  by  service,  if  the 
creditor  shall  require  it,  iu  which  case  he  shall  not  be  disposed  in 
service  to  any  but  of  the  English  nation,"  to  prevent  the  sale  of 
the  debtor  to  the  French  in  Canada.  Delinquents  under  a  penal 
law  were,  by  an  act  of  1725,  to  be  disposed  of  at  service  to  any 
inhabitant  of  the  Colony  "  to  defray  the  Costs."  (Reprint  1737,  p. 
314.) 


18  Bistort/  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [388 

during  tliis  first  period.  In  the  end  of  1702  or  beginning 
of  1703,  a  slave,  Abda,  belonging  to  Capt.  Thomas  Richards 
of  Hartford,  escaped  from  his  master  and  was  succored  by 
Capt.  Joseph  Wadsworth  of  Hartford,  who,  on  Feb.  12th, 
1703,  opposed  the  constable  in  executing  a  writ  of  arrest  on 
Abda.  This  early  fugitive  slave  case  was  brought  before  the 
Governor  and  Council  on  Feb.  25.^  They  recommended 
the  County  Court  to  examine  the  case.  Apparently  Abda 
brought  an  action  on  the  case  against  Mr.  Richards,  as  a 
counter  suit,  claiming  damages  of  £20  from  his  master,  "  for 
his  unjust  holding  and  detaining  the  said  Abda  in  his  service 
as  his  bondsman,  for  the  space  of  one  year  past."  The  ver- 
dict was  for  ii2  damages,  "thereby  virtually  establishing 
Abda's  right  to  freedom,"  which  he,  a  mulatto,  seems  to  have 
claimed  largely  on  account  of  his  white  blood.^ 

Mr.  Richards  pressed  the  case  further  and,  in  May,  1704, 
obtained  from  the  General  Court  an  order  to  have  a  hearing 
before  it  in  October,  on  his  petition  concerning  Abda.'  At 
that  time  the  case  was  brought  up  and  the  fugitive  was  re- 
turned to  his  master,  as  Gov.  Saltonstall  said,  "  according  to 
the  laws  and  constant  practice  of  this  Colony  and  all  other 
plantations  (as  well  as  by  the  civil  law)  such  persons  as  are 
born  of  negro  bondwomen  are  themselves  in  like  condition, 
i.  e.  born  in  servitude.''  Nor  can  there  be  any  precedent  in 
this  Government,  or  any  of  Her  Majesty's  plantations,  pro- 
duced to  the  contrary  and,  though  the  law  of  this  Colony 
doth  not  say  that  such  persons  as  are  born  of  negro  woman 
and  supposed  to  be  mulattoes  shall  be  slaves  (which  was 
needless,  because  of  the  constant  practice  by  which  tliey  are 
held  as  such),  yet  it  saith  expressly  that  no  man  shall  put 
away  or  make  free  his  negro  or  mulatto  slave,  etc.,  which 


»  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  XV.,  548. 

"Moore's  "Notes  on  Slavery,"  p.  112,  quoting  J.  H.  Trumbull  In 
Conn.  Conrant,  Nov.  9.  1850.     Fowler.  "  Hist.  Status,"  pp.  14-16. 

"Conn.  Col.  Rec,  IV.,  478.    Papers  in  INIiscollaneous,  II.,  pp.  10-21. 

*  This  follovrinp:  as  a  precedent  the  Roman  Law  maxim,  "Partus 
sequitur  venti-em,"  at  th.is  early  day  in  Nmv  England  is  noteworthy. 


389]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  19 

undeniably  shows  and  declares  an  approbation  of  such  ser- 
vitude, and  that  mulattoes  may  be  held  as  slaves  -within  this 
government."' 

A  later  fugitive  slave'  we  find  advertised  for  in  the 
New  York  Jl/ercu/y  on  July  28,  1760,  and  the  adver- 
tisement has  many  little  touches  which  go  to  show  how 
slaves  lived  and  were  treated.  "  Run  away  from  Abraham 
Davenport  of  Stamford  in  Conn.,  the  4th  of  June  instant,  a 
Mulatto  Man  Slave  named  Vanhall,  aged  31  years,  about 
5  feet  4  or  5  inches  high,  very  swarthy;  has  a  small  Head 
and  Face,  a  large  Mouth,  and  has  an  odd  Action  with  his 
Head,  when  talking  with  any  Person  ;  has  very  long  Arms 
and  large  Hands  for  a  Person  of  his  size  and  has  an  old 
Countenance  for  one  of  his  Age;  his  Hair,  like  others  of 
his  kind  was  but  lately  cut  oflf;  was  brought  up  to  the  Farm- 
ing business,  is  a  lively  active  Fellow  and  pretends  to  under- 
stand the  Violin.  Had  on,  when  he  went  away,  a  Felt  Hat, 
a  Grey  Cut  Wig,  a  light  homespun  Flannel  lappelled  Vest, 
which  had  been  lined  with  fine  old  Cotton  and  Linnen 
Ticken,  Doeskin  Breeches,  he  took  several  pairs  of  Stock- 
ings and  one  or  two  pairs  of  Shoes,  a  Violin  and  a  small 
Hatchet,  &c.,  and  'tis  probable  he  might  change  his  Cloaths. 
Whoever  takes  up  and  secures  said  Mulatto,  so  that  his 
Master  may  have  him  again,  shall  receive  £5.  Reward,  and 
reasonable  charges  paid." 

Late  in  Colonial  times,'  we  find  Hagar,  a  New  London 
negress,  appearing  before  the  Governor  and  Council  and 
pleading  that  she  and  her  children  were  lawfully  freed  by 
her  former  master,  James  Rogers,  and  so  her  refusal  to  yield 
herself  as  a  slave  to  James  Rogers,  Jr.,  his  grandson,  was 
justified.  The  decision  was  that  she  should  give  bond  to 
prove  her  freedom  at  the  next  County  Court  and  be  secured 
from  molestation  in  the  meanwhile. 


'  Moore,  Notes  on  Slavery,  pp.  24-25,  quoting  J.  H.  Trumbull's 
"  Hist.  Notes,"  etc.,  No.  VI. 
"Am.  Hist.  Mag.,  XIH.,  p.  498.   Vide  Fowler,  "  Hist.  Status,"  p.  148. 
s  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  XV.,  p.  582, 


20  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [390 

Social  Condition  of  Slaves  in  Colonial  Times. 

On  this  topic  comparatively  little  can  be  found.  Each 
large^  village  had  its  negro  corner  in  the  Meeting  House 
gallery  and  in  the  graveyard.  In  the  larger  towns,  such 
as  Norwich,  New  Haven,  Hartford,  and  New  London,  there 
were  several  hundred  negroes.  They  were  for  the  most 
part  indulgently  treated  and  admitted,  at  least  in  many  places, 
into  the  local  churches  as  fellow-members  with  the  white 
population.^  They  must,  however,  occupy  their  allotted 
gallery  seats,  whicli  in  Torrington  were  boarded  up  so  that 
the  negroes  could  see  no  one  and  be  seen  by  none.  If 
they  attempted  to  sit  elsewhere,  or  refused  to  go  to  church 
if  made  to  sit  there,  excommunication  was  apt  to  follow.' 

Among  early  negro  slaves  recorded  in  Connecticut  are 
some  belonging  to  John  Pantry  of  Hartford  in  1653,  and  one 
Cyrus,  belonging  to  Henry  Wolcott,  Jr.,  of  Windsor,  and 
rated  at  £30  in  his  inventor}\*  Miss  Caulkins  states  that 
early  in  the  eighteenth  century  slaves  were  worth  from  60  shill- 
ings to  £30,  and  that  later  the  best  were  valued  as  high  as  £1 00. 
She  instances  the  purchase  of  a  negro  boy  by  Rev.  William 
Hart  of  Saybrook  in  1749  for  £290,  Old  Tenor,  about  equal 
to  £60  in  coin.^  In  1708,  and  probably  the  same  state  of 
things  continued  later,  we  learn  the  negroes  mostly  came 
from  "neighboring  governments,  save  some  times  half  a 
dozen  a  year  from  the  West  Indies  " ;  but  "  none  ever  im- 
ported by  the  Royal  African  Company  or  separate  traders."' 

^  In  1726  Suffield  voted  Rev.  Mr.  Devotion  £20  towards  purchas- 
ing negroes.    TrunibuH's  "  Hartford  Comity,"  11.,  p.  40(». 

"E.  q.  Phebe,  colored  servant  of  Joel  Thrall,  joined  ToiTington 
Church,  17.56.    Orcutt's  "  Torrington,"  p.  211. 

'Jacob  Prince,  a  free  negro,  was  so  excommunicated  in  Goshen. 
Orcutt's  "  Torrington,"  p.  218. 

•»  1680,  slaves  sold  at  £22.    Conn.  Col.  Rec,  III.,  298. 

Stiles,  "Ancient  Windsor,"  p.  489,  notices  an  early  deed  of  s;ile, 
dated  1694,  from  a  Bostonian  to  a  Windsor  man,  for  a  negro. 
Twenty-one  negi'oes  died  in  South  Windsor  from  1736  to  1768,  of 
wliich  number  eleven  belonged  to  the  Wolcott  family, 

'  Hist,  of  Norwich,  p.  828.     Vide  Fowler,  "  Hist.  Status,"  p.  148. 

6  Conn.  Col.  Roc,  XV.,  557. 


391]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  21 

For  the  most  part,  only  one  or  two  negroes  were  owned  by 
any  person.  In  some  parts  of  the  State,  as  at  Waterbury," 
we  find  it  customary  for  the  clergymen  to  have  two  slaves, 
a  man  and  a  woman.  Occasionally,  however,  more  were 
owned  by  a  wealthy  man,  as  in  the  case  of  Capt.  John  Per- 
kins of  Hanover  Society,^  Norwich,  who  lefi  fifteen  slaves 
by  his  will  in  1761.  The  slaves  were  generally  kindly  treated 
and  were  docile,  though  we  hear  of  the  death  of  a  man  in 
1773  from  lockjaw,  caused  by  a  bite  in  the  thumb  by  a  young 
slave  he  was  chastising.'  The  majority,  however,  could  show 
much  miore  amicable  relations.  For  example,  Mingo,*  in 
Waterbury,  who,  about  1730,  when  a  boy,  was  hired  out  by 
his  master  to  drive  a  plow,  later  to  work  with  a  team  and, 
1764,  at  his  master's  death,  was  allowed  to  choose  which  son 
he  would  live  with.  He  chose  to  live  with  the  one  who  kept 
the  old  homestead  and  remained  there  until  he  began  keep- 
ing a  tavern,  when  he  left  and  went  to  another  son's.  He 
had  a  family,  and  left  considerable  property  at  his  death  in 
1800.  Indeed,  as  early  as  1707,  we  have  evidence  of  the 
possession  of  property  by  a  negro,  for,  in  October  of  that 
year,  Lieut.  John  Hawley,  administrator  to  the  estate  of 
John  Negro,  was  granted  power  by  the  General  Court  to 
sell  iio  worth  of  his  land,  it  appearing  from  the  Fairfield 
County  Probate  Records  that  he  owed  that  amount  more 
than  his  moveables  would  pay.° 

Tow^ards  the  close  of  this  period,  the  reasonableness  and 
justice  of  holding  slaves  began  to  be  questioned  and  eman- 

'  Bronson's  "  Waterbury,"  321.    « CaulMns'  "  Norwich,"  p.  328. 

^'Caulkins'  "Norwich,"  p.  329.  Godfrey  Malbone  of  Brooklyn 
owned  50  or  60  slaves.     Fowler,  p.  16. 

^The  first  negro  there.  Bronson's  "  Waterbury,"  p.  321.  He  also 
refers  to  Parson  Scovil's  Dick,  brought  from  Africa  when  a  boy 
and  sold  several  times,  with  the  understanding  he  could  return 
when  he  pleased.  He  left  some  property  at  his  death  in  1835,  aged 
90.  Also  to  I.  Woodruff  of  Westbury,  who  owned  an  Indian  woman 
tni  her  death  in  1774.  In  Wintonbury  (Bloomfleld)  there  were 
probably  not  over  a  dozen  slaves  in  all  in  colonial  times.  In  Bristol 
a  few  of  the  farms  were  cultivated  by  slave  labor,  and  one  family 
owned,  three  negroes.  TrumbuU's  "  Hartford  Coimty,"  H.,  pp.  35,  51. 

5  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  VI.,  35. 


22  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [392 

cipations,  "  from  a  conscientious  regard  to  justice,"  begin  to 
appear.  One  man  in  Norwich  not  only  freed  three  slaves, 
but,  "  as  a  compensation  for  their  services,  leased  them  a 
very  valuable  farm  on  very  moderate  rate,"^  That  section 
of  the  State  seems  to  have  been  considerably  stirred  on 
this  question,  and  in  the  Norwich  Packet,  July  7,  1774,  we 
find  an  anti-slavery  appeal  of  sufficient  vigor  to  warrant  quo- 
tation in  full: 

"  To  all  you  who  call  yourselves  Sons  of  Liberty  in 
America,  Greeting: 

"  My  Friends,  We  know  in  some  good  measure  the  in- 
estimable value  of  liberty,  But  were  we  once  deprived  of 
her  she  would  then  appear  much  more  valuable  than  she 
now  appears.  We  also  see  her,  standing  as  it  were,  tiptoe 
on  the  highest  bough  ready  for  flight.  Why  is  she  depart- 
ing? What  is  it  disturbs  her  repose?  Surely,  some  foul 
monster  of  hideous  shape  and  hateful  kind,  opposite  in  its 
nature  to  hers,  with  all  its  frightful  appearances  and  proper- 
ties, iron  hands  and  leaden  feet,  formed  to  gripe  and  crush, 
hath  intruded  itself  into  her  peaceful  habitation  and  ejected 
her.  Surely  this  must  be  the  case,  for  we  know  oppositions 
can  not  dwell  together.  Is  it  not  time,  high  time  to  search 
for  this  Achan?  this  disturber  of  Israel?  High  time,  I  say, 
to  examine  for  the  cause  of  those  dark  and  gloomy  appear- 
ances tliat  cast  a  shade  over  our  glor}^,  and  is  not  tliis  it? 
Are  we  not  guilty  of  the  same  crime  we  impute  to  others? 
Of  the  same  facts,  that  we  say  are  unjust,  cruel,  arbitrary, 
despotic,  and  without  law  in  others?  Paul  argued  in  this 
manner — 'Thou  that  teachest  another,  teachest  thou  not 
thyself?  Thou  that  preachest  a  man  should  not  steal,  dost 
thou  steal?  Thou  that  makest  thy  boast  of  the  law,  through 
breaking  "the  law  dishonorest  thou  God?'  And  may  we 
not  use  the  same  mode  of  argument  and  say — We  that  de- 
clare, and  that  with  much  warmth  and  zeal,  it  is  unjust,  cruel, 
barbarous,  unconstitutional,  and  without  law  to  enslave,  ifo 
we  enslave f    Yes,  verily  we  do!     A  black  cloud  witnesscth 

^  Caulkins'  "  Norwich."  p.  329. 


393]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  23 

against  us  and  our  oivn  mouths  condemn  us!  How  prepos- 
terous our  conduct  !  How  vain  and  hypocritical  our  pre- 
tences! Can  we  expect  to  be  free,  so  long  as  we  are  deter- 
mined to  enslave?     (Signed)  Honesty."^ 

Before  we  turn  from  Colonial  times,'  the  fact  is  worthy 
of  note  that,  though  "  redemptioners "  were  not  common 
in  Connecticut,  white  men  were  often  bound  out  to  service 
for  a  term  of  years,  as  in  other  colonies.  We  find 
in  1670  a  man  sold  to  the  Barbadoes  for  four  years  as  a 
slave,  for  "notorious  stealing,"  "breaking  up  and  robbing 
of "  two  mills  and  living  "  in  a  renegade  manner  in  the  wil- 
derness." In  1756,  a  town  pauper  in  Waterbury,'  for  steal- 
ing, was  whipped  and  bound  out  to  the  plaintiff,  as  a  ser- 
vant, till  the  sum  stolen  and  the  costs  be  paid  by  his  work, 
and  the  law  on  the  statute-books  was  that  "  all  single  per- 
sons, who  lived  an  idle  and  riotous  life,"  might  be  bound  out 
to  service  to  pay  the  costs  of  prosecution. 

'  The  emancipation  of  slaves  is  not  looked  on  by  Dr.  Fowler  as 
greatly  contributing  to  their  welfare.  He  quotes  an  essay  published 
in  1793  by  Noah  Webster,  Jr. :  ''  Nor  does  the  restoration  to  freedom 
correct  the  depravity  of  their  hearts.  Born  and  bred  beneath  the 
frowns  of  power,  neglected  and  despised  in  youth,  they  abandon 
themselves  to  ill  company  and  low  vicious  pleasures,  till  their  habits 
are  formed  ;  when  manumission,  instead  of  destroying  their  habits 
and  repressing  their  corrupt  inclinations,  serves  to  afford  the  more 
numerous  opportunities  of  indulging  both.  Thus  an  act  of  strict 
justice  to  the  slave,  very  often,  renders  him  a  more  worthless  mem- 
ber of  society. "     •'  Hist.  Status  of  the  Negro,"  p.  149. 

^  Dr.  Fowler;  "Hist.  Status,"  pp.  12-13,  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that  Louis  Berbice,  from  Dutch  Guiana,  killed  by  his  master,  Gys- 
bert  Opdyck,  commissary  at  the  Dutch  fort  in  Hartford,  in  Nov., 
1639,  was  probably  the  first  negro  in  Conn.  He  gives  a  list  of  the 
early  owners  of  negroes  and  notes  that  in  1717,  the  Lower  House 
passed  a  bill  prohibiting  negroes  purchasing  land,  or  living  in  fam- 
ilies of  their  own,  without  liberty  from  the  town. 

^  Bronson's  Waterbury,  p.  321. 


PERIOD  II.— 1 774- 1 869. 
Slaves  in  the  Revolution.' 

The  subject  of  using  negroes  in  the  army  first  came  be- 
fore the  General  Assembly  in  May,  1777,  when  a  committee 
was  appointed  "  to  take'  into  consideration  the  state  and 
condition  of  the  negro  and  mulatto  slaves  in  this  State,  and 
what  may  be  done  for  their  emancipation."  I  would  hazard 
a  guess  that  this  committee  was  appointed  in  consequence 
of  a  resolution  of  the  town  of  Enfield,  on  March  31,  1777, 
appointing  a  committee  of  three  to  prefer  a  memorial  to 
the  Assembly,  to  "pray'  that  the  Negroes  in  this  State  be 
released  from  tlieir  Slavery  and  Bondage."  The  Assembly's 
committee,  of  which  Hon.  Matthew  Griswold  was  chairman, 
reported  a  recommendation  that  the  effective  negro  and 
mulatto  slaves  be  allowed  to  enlist  with  the  Continental  bat- 

*  Connecticut  Committee  of  Safety. 

Monday,  September  4,  1775. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  committee  On  information,  by  letter,  from 
Major  Latimer,  "  tbat  one  of  the  Vessels  lately  taken  by  Captain 
Wallace,  of  the  Rose,  man-of-war,  &c..  at  Stoningtun,  was  by  stress 
of  weather  drove  back  to  New-London,  with  one  white  man,  a  petty 
officer,  and  three  negroes  on  board,  and  were  in  his  custody,  and 
a.sking  directions  how  to  dispose  of  them,  &c.  And  by  other  infor- 
mation it  appears  that  two  of  the  negroes  belong  to  Deputy  Gov- 
ernour  Cooke,  of  Bhode-Mand.  and  were  lately  seized  and  robbed 
from  him,  with  and  on  board  a  vessel,  by  said  Wallace,  and  tliat  the 
other  belonged  to  one  Captain  Collins.   And,  on  consideration, 

Voted  and  Ordered,  That  the  Major  give  infomiation  to  the  owner 
of  the  vessel,  and,  on  his  request,  deUver  her  up  to  him,  and  send 
the  white  man  to  the  jail  at  Windham,  and  the  three  negroes  to  the 
care  of.  and  to  be  employed  for  the  present  by.  Captain  Niles,  at  Nor- 
unch,  who  is  fixing  out  a  small  Armed  Vessel,  &c. .  until  the  Gov- 
emour  shall  advise  Deputy  Govemour  Conke  of  the  matter,  that 
they  may,  on  proper  notice,  be  returned  to  their  owners."— Am. 
Arch.,  IV.,  III..  ]).  672. 

■•'  Livermore,  "  Historical  Research,"  p.  11.3. 

s Trumbull's  "Hartford  County,"  II.,  p.  151. 


395]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  25 

talions  now  raising  in  this  State,  under  the  following  regu- 
lations and  restrictions :  viz.,  that  all  such  negro  and  mulatto 
slaves  as  can  procure,  either  by  bounty,  hire,  or  in  any  other 
way,  such  a  sum  to  be  paid  to  their  masters,  as  such  negro 
and  mulatto  shall  be  judged  to  be  reasonably  worth  by  the 
selectman  of  the  to^vn  where  such  negro  or  mulatto  be- 
longs, shall  be  allowed  to  enlist  into  either  of  said  battalions, 
and  shall  thereupon  be,  de  facto,  free  and  emancipated ;  and 
that  the  master  of  such  negro  or  mulatto  shall  be  exempted 
from  the  support  and  maintenance  of  such  negro  or  mulatto, 
in  case  "  he  "  shall  hereafter  become  unable  to  support  and 
maintain  himself."  Further,  if  a  slave  desire  to  enlist  for 
the  war,  he  may  be  appraised  by  the  selectmen  and  his  mas- 
ter may  receive  the  bounty  and  half  the  slave's  annual  wages 
until  the  appraised  sum  be  equaled.  The  Upper  House 
rejected  this  report. 

At  that  session,  however,  an  act  was  passed  that  any  two 
men,  "who  should  procure  an  able  bodied  soldier,"  should 
be  exempted  from  the  draft,  during  the  continuance  of  the 
substitute's  enlistment.  "  Of  recruits,"  writes  Dr.  J.  H. 
Trumbull,  "and  draughted  men  thus  furnished,  neither  the 
selectmen  nor  commanding  officers  questioned  the  color, 
or  the  civil  status;  white  and  black,  bond  and  free,  if  able 
bodied,  went  on  the  roll  together,  accepted  as  the  represen- 
tatives or  substitutes  of  their  employers." 

In  October,  1777,'  the  Assembly  passed  an  act  similar  to 
the  one  proposed  in  May.  It  authorized  the  selectmen,  on 
application  from  a  master  of  a  slave,  to  inquire  "into  the 
age,  abilities,  circumstances,  and  character"  of  the  slave, 
and,  being  satisfied  "  that  it  was  likely  to  be  consistent  with 
his  real  advantage,  and  that  it  was  probable  that  he  would 
be  able  to  support  himself,  and  is  of  good  and  peaceable 
life  and  conversation,"  they  could  free  the  master  from  all 
liability  for  support  of  his  freedman.  This  offered  an  addi- 
tional inducement  to  masters  to  free  slaves  to  make  up  the 

» Revision  of  1808,  Title  CL.,  Ch.  I.,  Sec.  12.  Vide  Stiles'  "Anc. 
Windsor,"  I.,  p.  491. 


26  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [396 

town's  quota  of  men,  and  Dr.  Trumbull  says  "  some  hun- 
dreds of  black  slaves  and  free  men  enlisted."  The  rolls  of 
the  companies  show  no  distinction  of  color.  The  surnames 
Liberty,  Freeman,  Freedom  are  frequently  found.^  In  Weth- 
ersfield,  on  the  blank  leaves  of  the  book  of  town  votes, 
among  records  of  emancipation  from  motives  of  humanity, 
or  for  money,  we  find  record  of  John  Wright  and  Luke 
Fortune  freeing  their  slave  Abner  Andrew,  on  May  20,  1777, 
to  be  their  substitute  in  the  army.  Other  certificates  free 
slaves  on  condition  of  "  enlisting  in  the  Continental  Army 
in  Col.  Wallis'  Regiment"  and  "and  after  the  customary 
three  years  service,"  and,  as  late  as  1780,  Caesar  was  manu- 
mitted by  David  Griswold  there,  on  "  condition  of  enlistment 
and  faithfully  serving  out  the  time  of  enlistment,"  which  was 
three  years.^ 

David  Humphreys  commanded  a  company  entirely  com- 
posed of  negroes,  their  roster  shov^ing  fifty-six  names,^  first 
of  which  is  Jack  Arabas,  of  whom  we  shall  hear  again.  It 
was  said  Humphreys  nobly  volunteered  to  command  the 
company,  when  others  refused,  and  continued  its  captain 
until  peace  was  declared.  The  company  was  in  Meigs' 
(later  Butler's)  regiment  of  the  Connecticut  Line. 

At  Fort  Griswold,  when  Col.  Ledyard  was  murdered,  a 
negro  soldier  named  Lambert  avenged  his  death  by  thrust- 
ing a  bayonet  through  the  British  officer  who  slew  his 
superior,  and  then  fell  a  mart}T,  pierced  by  thirty-three  bay- 
onet wounds.* 

"  As  to  the  efficiency  of  the  senace  they  rendered,"  says 
Dr.  J.  H.  Trumbull,"  "  I  can  say  nothing  from  the  records, 


^  Livermore's  "  Historical  Research,"  p.  115. 

2Am.  Hist.  5ilag.,  XXI.,  422.    Trumbull's  "  Hartford  County,"  II.,  , 
475. 

^  Williams'  "  Hist,  of  Negi'o  Race  in  America,"  I.,  361. 

■*  Wilson,  "  Rise  and  Fall  of  tlie  Slave  Power,"  I.,  p.  19. 
L-ivermoro's  "  Historical  Research,"  p.  115.  Lib  Quy,  native 
African,  was  a  ti'usty  Continental  soldier  from  Norwich  in  1780 
and  '81  (Caiilkins'  "  Noi-wich,"  p.  331).  Oliver  Mitchell,  a  nejn'o 
Revolutionary  soldier,  died  of  a  fit  in  his  boat,  INIarch,  1840.  in 
which  he  had  been  to  Hartford  to  draw  liis  pension  (Stiles'  "Ancient 
Windsor,"  I.,  p.  489). 


397]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  27 

save  what  is  to  be  gleaned  from  scattered  files. ...  So  far 
as  my  acquaintance  extends,  almost  every  family  has  its 
traditions  of  the  good  and  faithful  service  of  a  black  servant 
or  slave,  who  was  killed  in  battle  or  served  through  the  war 
and  came  home  to  tell  stories  of  hard  fighting  and  draw  his 
pension.  In  my  own  town — not  a  large  one — I  remember 
five  such  pensioners,  three  of  whom  I  believe  had  been  slaves, 
and  were  in  fact  slaves  to  the  day  of  their  death;  for  (and 
this  explains  the  uniform  action  of  the  General  Assembly 
on  petitions  for  emancipation)  neither  the  towns  nor  the 
State  were  inclined  to  exonerate  the  master,  at  a  time  when 
slavery  was  becoming  unprofitable,  from  the  obligation  to 
provide  for  the  old  age  of  his  slave." 

An  interesting  Revolutionary  case  is  that  of  the  slaves  of 
Col.  William  Browne  of  Salem,  Mass.,  a  Tory,  whose  large 
farm  in  Lyme  was  confiscated.  It  was  leased  for  a  term 
of  years  with  nine  slaves,  who  petitioned  for  liberty  in  1779, 
through  Benjamin  Huntington,  administrator  on  confiscated 
estates.  The  lessee  offered  to  consent  to  their  freedom 
without  requiring  a  diminution  in  the  rent.  Mr.  Huntington 
drew  up  their  petition  to  the  Assembly,"  stating  that  they, 
"  all  friends  to  America,  but  slaves  lately  belonging  to  Col. 
Wm.  Browne,"  who  "  fled  from  his  native  country  to  his 
master,  King  George,  where  he  now  lives  like  a  poor  slave," 
"though  they  have  flat  noses,  crooked  shins,  and  other 
queemess  of  make,  peculiar  to  Africans,  are  }'et  of  the  human 
race,  free-born  in  our  country,  taken  from  thence  by  man- 
stealers,  and  sold  in  this  country,  as  cattle  in  the  market, 
without  the  least  act  of  our  own  to  forfeit  liberty;  but  we 
hope  our  good  mistress,  ^/le  free  State  of  Connecticut,  en- 
gaged in  a  war  with  tyranny,  will  not  sell  honest  Whigs 
and  friends  of  the  freedom  and  independence  of  America, 
as  we  are,  to  raise  cash  to  support  the  war:  because  the 
Whigs  ought  to  be  free  and  the  Tories  should  be  sold." 
They  ofTer,  if  set  free,  to  get  security  to  indemnify  the  State 

'  Great  Prince,  Little  Prince,  Luke,  Caesar,  Prue  and  her  three 
children.    LiveiTQore,  "  Historical  Research,"  p.  116. 


28  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [398 

ill  case  of  their  coming  to  want  ;  but,  though  the  Lower 
House  was  favorable,  the  Upper  one  refused  to  grant  the 
petition. 

Opinions  of  the  Forefathers  on  Slavery. 

One  of  the  earhest  in  Connecticut  to  come  out  boldly 
against  slavery  was  Rev.  Levi  Hart  of  Preston,  who,  on 
Sept.  20,  1774,  at  Farmington,  preached  a  sermon  at  the 
meeting  of  "  the  Corporation  of  Freemen,"  in  which  he 
condemned  the  slave  trade  and  severely  criticized  slave- 
holding.^ 

Dr.  William  Gordon  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  though  living 
out  of  Connecticut,  became  interested  in  the  abolition  of 
slavery  there  and  sent  a  plan  for  its  gradual  extermination 
to  the  "Independent  Chronicle"  of  Nov.  14,  1776,  which  is 
very  severe  on  slaveholders  and  paints  the  deathbed  of  one 
of  them." 

In  the  Constitutional  Convention'  of  1787  we  have  full 
expression  of  the  views  of  Roger  Sherman  and  Oliver  Ells- 
worth, two  of  Connecticut's  three  delegates.  The  former 
said  "  that  the  abolition  of  slavery  seemed  to  be  going  on 
in  the  United  States  and  that  the  good  sense  of  the  several 
States  would  probably  by  degrees  complete  it."*  He  re- 
garded the  slave  trade  as  iniquitous;  but,  the  point  of  rep- 
resentation having  been  settled  after  much  difficulty  and 
deliberation,'  he  did  not  think  himself  bound  to  make  oppo- 
sition." He  objected,  however,  to  the  tax  on  imported  slaves, 
as  implying  that  slaves  were  property,  and  that  the  tax  im- 
posed was  too  small  to  prevent  importation."  He  thought 
that,  "  as  the  States  were  now  possessed  of  the  right  to  im- 
port slaves,  as  the  public  good  did  not  require  it  to  be  taken 

» Trumbull's  "  Memorial  Histoiy  of  Hartford  Co.,"  IT.,  p.  102. 

'Moore,  "Notes  on  Slaveiy  in  Mass.,"  p.  177. 

3  Connecticut  voted  for  .Jefferson's  ordinance  of  1784. 

••  Livenuore,  "  Historic  Research,"  p.  51. 

'IMadison  Tapers,  V.,  391  (Elliot). 

«Wilson,  "Rise  and  Fall,"  p.  51. 


399]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  29 

from  them,  and  as  it  was  expedient  to  have  as  few  objections 
as  possible  to  the  proposed  scheme  of  government,  it  would 
be  best  to  leave  the  matter  as  we  tind  it.'"  He  said,  when 
Baldwin  of  Georgia,  a  man  of  Connecticut  birth,  stated  his 
State  would  not  confederate  unless  allowed  to  import,  that 
it  was  better  to  let  the  Southern  States  import  slaves'  than 
to  lose  those  States,  if  they  made  that  a  si/ie  cpia  non.  He 
thought  it  would  be  the  duty  of  the  General  Government' 
to  exercise  the  power  of  prohibiting  importation,  if  it  were 
given  it.  He  preferred  not  to  use  the  word  slaves  in  the 
Constitution,  and  saw  no""  more  propriety  in  the  public  z€\z- 
ing  and  surrendering  a  slave  than  a  horse.  Ellsworth  said, 
"  Let  every  State  import  what  it  pleases.  The  morality  or 
wisdom  of  slavery  are  considerations  belonging  to  the  States. 
What  enriches  a  part  enriches  the  whole,  and  the  States  are 
the  best  judges  of  their  particular  interests.  The  old  Con- 
federation had  not  meddled  with  this  point,  and  he  did  not 
see  any  greater  necessity  for  bringing  it  into  the  policy  of  the 
new  one."  He  had^  "  never  owned  a  slave  and  could  not 
judge  of  the  effects  of  slavery  on  character."  He  said,  how- 
ever, that,  if  it  was  "  to  be  considered  in  a  moral  light,  we 
ought  to  go  further  and  free  those  already  in  the  country. 
As  slaves  also  multiply  so  fast  in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  it  is 
cheaper  to  raise  than  import  them,  whilst  in  the  sickly  rice 
swamps,  foreign  supplies  are  necessary.  If  we  go  no  fur- 
ther than  is  urged,  we  shall  be  unjust  towards  South  Caro- 
lina and  Georgia.  Let  us  not  intermeddle.  As  population 
increases,  poor  laborers  will  be  so  plenty  as  to  render  slaves 
useless.  Provision  is  already  made  in  Connecticut  for  abol- 
ishing it,  and  the  abolition  has  already  taken  place  in  Massa- 
chusetts. As  to  the  dangers  of  insurrections  from  foreign 
influence,  that  will  become  a  motive  to  kind  treatment  of 

the  slaves."^ 

—  .  . 

^  Ldvermore,  p.  56.  -  Liver  more,  p.  GO. 

^  Elliot,  v.,  pp.  457  461  and  471.     Connecticut  voted   to  extend 
the  open  period  from  1800  to  1808. 

•!  Livermore,  p.  57. 

f'ln  1787,  Connecticut  voted  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  for 
the  three-fifths  compromise. 


30  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [400 

Mistaken  in  many  respects  as  these  men  were,  tliey  un- 
doubtedly represented  the  current  opinion  of  their  time. 

We  find  a  contrar}^  opinion  in  the  resolves  of  the  Danbur}-- 
Town  Meeting  on  December  12, 1774,  that,  "  It  is  with  singu- 
lar pleasure,  we  notice  the  second  article  of  the  Association, 
in  which  it  is  agreed  to  import  no  more  Negro  slaves,  as  we 
cannot  but  think  it  a  palpable  absurdity,  so  loudly  to  com- 
plain of  attempts  to  enslave  us,  while  we  are  actually  enslaving 
others,  and  that  we  have  great  reason  to  apprehend  the  en- 
slaving the  Africans  is  one  of  the  crying  sins  of  our  land,  for 
which  Heaven  is  now  chastising  us.  We  notice  also  with 
pleasure  the  late  Act  of  our  General  Assembly,  imposing  a 
fine  of  i  1 00  on  any  one,  who  shall  import  a  Negro  Slave  into 
this  Colony.  We  could  also  wish  that  something  further 
might  be  done  for  the  relief  of  such,  as  are  now  in  a  state  of 
slaver}'  in  the  Colony,'  and  such  as  may  hereafter  be  born  of 
parents  in  that  unhappy  condition." 

State  Legislation  on  Slavery. 

The  growth  of  free  ideas  went  on  apace,  after  tiie  State 
became  independent.  In  1780,  a  bill  for  gradual  emanci- 
pation passed  the  Upper  House,  was  continued  until  the 
next  session  and  then,  apparently,  set  aside.  It  provided 
that  no  Indian  or  colored  child,  then  living  and  under  seven 
years  of  age,  nor  any  bom  afterwards,  should  be  held  as  a 
slave  beyond  the  age  of  twenty-eight.^  In  1784,  however, 
the  measure  was  passed  and  emancipation  was  begun.  The 
Legislature  enacted  that,  "Whereas  sound  public  policy  re- 
quires tliat  the  abolition  of  slaver}^  should  be  effected,  as 
soon  as  may  be  consistent  with  the  rights  of  individuals 
and  the  public  safety  and  welfare,"  no  negro  or  mulatto, 
bom  after  March  i,  1784,  should  be  held  as  a  slave  after 
reaching  the  age  of  twenty-five."    This  regard  for  the  exist- 

^  Am.  Arch.,  IV.,  I.,  pp.  1038. 

-Jameson,  "Essays  in  Const.  Ilist.,"  p.  296  (Brackett,  "  Status  of 
the  Slave,  1775-1789  "). 

3  Revision  of  1808,  Title  CL.,  Ch.  I.,  Sec.  13.  Fowler,  "Hist. 
Status,"  p.  85,  shows  that  this  really  made  slaves  in  the  same  con- 


401]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  31 

ing  rights  of  property  was  shown  by  the  gradual  aboHtion 
of  slavery  in  Connecticut/  the  holding  of  slaves  not  being 
absolutely  forbidden  until  1848,  when  any  one  to  be  a  slave 
must  have  been  sixty-four  years  old. 

In  October,  1788,  a  bill  was  passed,  forbidding  any  inhabi- 
tant of  Connecticut  to  receive  on  his  vessel  "  any  inhabitants 
of  Africa  as  slaves,"  under  penalty  of  $1,667  ^or  the  use  of  the 
vessel  and  $167  additional  for  each  slave  carried.'  Half  of 
this  fine  was  to  go  to  the  plaintiff  and  half  to  the  State ;  but, 
by  the  act  of  October,  1798,' prosecutions  must  begin  in  three 
years.  Furthermore,  insurance  on  ships  used  in  the  slave 
trade,  or  on  slaves  carried,  is  to  be  void.  We  have  seen  the 
importation  of  slaves  forbidden  in  this  act:  the  exportation 
"  of  any  free  negro,  Indian,  or  mulatto,  or  person  entitled  to 
freedom  at  twenty-five,"  inhabitants  of  Connecticut,  was  to  be 
punished  by  a  fine  of  $334  levied  on  any  who  should,  as  prin- 
cipal or  accessory,  ''  kidnap,  decoy,  or  forcibly  carry  away  " 
such  persons  from  the  State.  "Any  friend  of  the  inhabitant " 
carried  off  may  prosecute  and  receive  "  fit  damages,"  and  must 
give  bond  to  use  such  rightly  for  "  the  injured  inhabitant,"* 
or  family.  This  prohibition  was  not  to  prevent  persons  remov- 
ing from  the  State  from  taking  their  slaves  with  them,  nor 
to  prevent  persons  living  in  Connecticut  from  sending  their 
slaves  out  of  the  State,  on  ordinary  and  necessary  business. 
This  sale  of  slaves  out  of  the  State  was  soon  stopped,  for, 
in  May,  1792,  the  law  was  so  changed  tliat  the  taking  a  slave 
from  the  State,  or  assistance  therein,  was  punishable  with  a 

dition  as  apprentices,  and  claims  the  law  was  passed  partly  through 
economical  reasons,  as  there  were  more  laborers  than  employment. 

*  In  October,  1788,  owners  must  lile  certificate  of  bu-th  of  each 
slave  within  six  months  thereof,  or  pay  $7  for  each  month's  delay, 
half  to  complainant  and  half  to  poor  of  town.  October,  1789,  the 
latter  half  was  to  go  to  the  State.  Revision  of  1808,  Title  CL.,  Ch. 
v.,  Sec.  5,  and  Ch.  VI. 

« Revision  of  1808,  Title  CL.,  Ch.  V.,  Sec.  1.  Penalty  changed  to 
$170  and  $1700  by  Revision  of  1821,  Title  93,  Sec.  7.  Penalty  was 
originally  £1000.    Root's  Reports,  I.,  xxxi. 

3  Revision  of  1808,  Title  CI.,  Ch.  in. 

^Revision  of  1808,  Title  CL.,  Ch.  V.,  Sees.  3-4.  Penalty  changed 
to  $350  m  Revision  of  1821,  Sec.  6. 


32  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [402 

like  fine  of  $334,  half  of  which  should  go  to  tlie  plaintiff  and 
half  to  the  State.  Notes,  bonds,  or  mortgages  given  in 
payment  for  slaves  thus  sold  out  of  the  State  were  to  be 
void.  The  same  exemptions  as  to  persons  removing  from 
the  State  or  sending  their  slaves  out  temporarily,  were  made 
as  in  the  former  law.^ 

At  the  same  session  of  the  Assembly,  the  age  of  the  slave 
at  manumission  was  limited  to  the  period  between  twenty- 
five  and  forty-five  years,  and  the  certificate  given  at  eman- 
cipation by  the  selectmen  was  ordered  to  be  recorded  in  the 
Town  Records.^  This  somewhat  reactionary  act,  modifying 
the  law  of  1702,  designed  to  regulate  the  giving  of  freedom, 
was  followed  in  five  years  by  one  still  further  limiting  the 
bounds  of  slavery;  for  in  May,  1797,  it  was  enacted  that  no 
negro  or  mulatto  bom  after  August,  1797,  should  be  a  slave, 
after  reaching  the  age  of  twenty-one.^ 

Here  the  laws  with  regard  to  slavery  remained  without 
essential  change  for  many  years.  Not  until  1833  do  we  find 
another  important  act  passed  in  regard  to  slavery,  and  then, 
under  the  influence  of  the  outcry  against  Miss  Prudence 
Crandall,  the  Legislature  put  on  the  statute-book  the  most 
shameful  law  we  meet  in  our  study .^  It  stated  that,  "  whereas 
attempts  have  been  made  to  establish  literary  institutions  in 
this  State,  for  the  instruction  of  colored  persons  belonging 
to  other  States  and  countries,  which  would  tend  to  the  great 
increase  of  the  colored  population  of  the  State  and  thereby 
to  the  injury  of  the  people,"  any  person  establishing  such  a 
school  without  the  consent  in  writing  of  the  selectmen  and 
civil  authority  of  the  town,  should  pay  a  fine  of  $100  to 
the  State  Treasurer  for  the  first  offense  and  double  for  each 

1  Revision  of  1808,  Title  CL.,  Ch.  VI.,  Sees.  1,  2,  8. 

5  Revision  of  180S,  Title  CL.,  Ch.  n.  Free  negroes  could  vote 
until  the  Constitution  of  1818  restiicted  the  suffrage  t-o  white  males. 

» Revision  of  1808.  Title  CL.,  Ch.  III. 

•■May  24,  1833.  Act  of  1838,  Ch.  Sec.  1.  Sec.  2  provided  that 
a  colored  person  not  an  inhabitant  of  Connecticut,  residing  in  a 
town  for  education,  might  be  removed  as  any  other  alien.  S(>c.  3 
provided  tliat  the  evidence  of  such  colored  person  is  both  admissi- 
ble and  compulsory  against  the  teacher. 


403]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  33 

succeeding  one,  the  fines  increasing  in  geometrical  pro- 
gression. The  law  was  not  destined  to  be  a  blot  upon  any  of 
the  States'  codes,  but  was  repealed  in  1838  by  the  Legislature, 
under  the  leadership  of  Francis  Gillette,^  a  young  represen- 
tative from  Hartford,  who  was  afterwards  United  States 
Senator.  That  same  Legislature  passed  resolutions  against 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  the  slave  trade  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  and  in  favor  of  the  right  of  petition.  Nay  more, 
that  same  year  was  passed  the  "Act  for  the  Fulfilment  of 
the  Obligations  of  this  State  imposed  by  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  in  regard  to  persons  held  to  service  or 
labor  in  one  State  and  escaping  into  another,  and  to  secure 
the  right  of  trial  by  juiy  in  the  cases  herein  mentioned."' 
Prof.  W.  C.  Fowler  called  this  law  a  "  nullification  "'  of  the 
United  States  Act  of  1793,  which  provided  that  the  owner 
or  his  attorney  could  take  the  fugitive  slave  before  any 
magistrate  of  the  county,  city,  or  town  wherein  tlie  arrest 
might  be  made,  and,  on  proof  by  oral  testimony  or  affidavit, 
taken  before  and  certified  to  by  a  magistrate  of  any  State 
or  Territory,  the  magistrate  must  give  a  certificate,  which 
should  be  sufficient  warrant  for  removing  the  slave  from  the 
State. 

Let  us  see  now  how  Connecticut  fulfilled  her  obligations, 
in  this  early  personal  liberty  law.  Instead  of  following  the 
provisions  of  the  United  States  law,  she  enacted  that  the 
captured  fugitive  should  be  brought  before  the  county  or 
city  court  on  a  writ  of  liabeas  corpus^  and  no  magistrate  not 
having  the  power  to  issue  that  writ  should  give  the  claimant 
any  warrant  or  certificate,  under  penalty  of  $500.  When 
he  arrived  at  court,  the  claimant  must  pay  all  fees  in  advance 
and  must,  "by  affidavit,  set  forth  minutely"  the  ground  of 


^  Wilson,  "  Else  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power,"  I.,  372.  The  Legis- 
lature, however,  by  a  vote  of  165  to  33,  rejected  a  constitutional 
amendment  allowing  negroes  the  suffrage.  Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  54,  p. 
193.  In  1842  the  State  agam  protested  against  the  annexation  of 
Texas.    Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  62,  p.  140. 

•^  Revision  of  1838,  Title  97,  Ch.  II. 

^  Local  Law  in  Mass.  and  Conn.,  p.  98. 


34  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [404 

his  claim  to  the  slave's  services,  the  time  of  the  slave's  es- 
cape, and  the  place  where  the  slave  then  was,  or  was  be- 
lieved to  be.  The  judge  was  next  to  allow  necessary  time 
for  further  proof  and,  meantime,  commit  the  fugitive  to  the 
custody  of  the  sheriff.  The  questions  of  fact  were  to  be  tried 
by  a  jury,  on  which  no  one  was  to  sit  "who  believes  there 
is  not,  constitutionally  or  legally,  a  slave  in  the  land,"  in 
this  showing  the  early  distrust  of  the  Abolitionists.  If  the 
claimant  does  not  prove  the  claim,  he  is  liable  to  the  pay- 
ment of  costs  and  damages;  if  he  does  prove  it,  he  may 
take  the  slave  from  the  State,  but  must,  "without  unneces- 
sary delay,"  take  him  by  the  "  direct  route "  to  his  home. 
In  the  same  act,  the  law  against  transporting  slaves  from 
the  State,  save  as  above,  is  made  universal  and  the  penalty 
for  its  violation  fixed  at  $500,  to  go  to  any  one  prosecuting. 
Any  fugitive  arrested,  contrary  to  the  act,  may  have  a  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  sued  out  by  his  next  friend ;  and,  as  an  after- 
thought, at  the  very  end,  we  read  that  nothing  in  this  act 
shall  extend  to  the  United  States  Courts. 

As  the  feeling  grew  more  bitter,  even  this  law  was  felt  to 
be  too  much  of  a  yielding  in  principle  and,  in  1844,'  the 
Legislature  decided  that  no  Judge,  Justice  of  tlie  Peace,  or 
other  officer  should  issue  a  warrant  "  for  the  arrest  or  de- 
tention of  any  person  escaping  into  this  State,  claimed  to 
be  fugitive  from  labor  or  service  as  a  slave,"  or  grant  a 
certificate  to  the  claimant.  Such  papers,  if  issued,  are  to  be 
void,  but,  as  before,  the  people  soothed  their  consciences 
with  the  belief  they  were  fulfilling  their  obligations,  by  say- 
ing "  nothing  herein  shall  interfere  with  United  States  offi- 
cers."" 
.    In  1847,^  ^y  ^  great  majority,  the  State  rejected  a  proposal 

^  Compilation  of  1854,  Title  51,  Sec.  5.  The  preamble  stated  that 
"  it  has  been  decided  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
since  "  1S3S  "  that  both  the  duty  and  the  poAver  of  legislation  on 
that  svibject  pertains  exclusively  to  the  National  government." 

-'In  1845  the  Legislatui-e  of  Connecticut  protested  against  the 
admission  of  Texas  as  a  Slave  State.    Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  G9,  p.  24G. 

^  The  vote  was,  for.  5.353;  against,  19.148.  Over  half  the  legal 
voters  did  not  vote.    Niles' Reg.,  Vol.  73,  Nov.  6, 1847.    Fowler,  p.  152. 


J 


405]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  35 

to  allow  colored  men  the  ballot,  but  the  next  year'  it  decreed, 
what  was  already  almost  accomplished  by  tlie  action  of 
former  laws,  "  that  no  person  shall  hereafter  be  held  in 
slavery  in  this  State,"  that  emancipated  slaves  must  be  sup- 
ported by  their  masters/  and  that  no  slave  shall  be  brought 
into  Connecticut.  Thus  Connecticut  became  in  law  a  Free 
State,  as  she  long  had  been  in  fact.  When  the  fugitive  slave 
law  of  1850  was  passed,  the  rising  tide  of  indignation  swept 
over  Connecticut.  Here  and  there  some  resisted  the  tor- 
rent and  organized  Union  Saving  Meetings,  like  the  one 
the  famous  Rev.  N.  W.  Taylor  addressed  at  New  Haven, 
deprecating  agitation,  counseling  obedience,  declaring  tliat 
he  had  not  been  able  to  discover  that  the  article  in  the  Con- 
stitution for  the  rendition  of  fugitives  was  "  contrary  to  the 
law  of  nature,  to  the  law  of  nations,  or  the  law  of  God,"  and 
claiming  that  it  was  "  lawful  to  deliver  up  fugitives  for  the 
high,  the  great,  the  momentous  interests  of  the  Southern 
States."^  But  the  majority  sympathized  rather  with  Gov.  H. 
B.  Harrison,  when  he  introduced  his  "  personal  liberty  bill " 
in  the  Senate  of  1854,'  and  "  avowed  his  belief  that  it  would 
render  the  fugitive  slave  law  inoperative  in  Connecticut." 
The  Hon.  Henry  C.  Deming,  in  opposing  the  bill,  said, 
though  it  was  "  nicely  drawn,"  he  thought  it  conflicted  in 
spirit  with  the  United  States  Constitution,  as  it  undoubtedly 
did,  and  that  "it  was  not  in  equity  and  justice  deserved  by 
our  Southern  brethren,  if  they  behave  pretty  well."  The 
advocates  of  the  bill  used  no  such  mild  terms.  The  Hon. 
John  Boyd,  late  Secretary  of  State,  said  "  desperate  diseases 
require  desperate  remedies."  He  had  "  some  faith  in  the 
homoeopathic  remedy  that  like  requires  like,"  and,  as  he  be- 
lieved "  the  exigencies  of  the  time  "  demanded  it,  he  thanked 
]\Ir.  Harrison  for  introducing  the  bill.     He  added,  "  if  Shy- 

1  Compilation  of  1854,  Title  51,  Sees.  1  and  2.  Vide  Conn.  Repts., 
II.,  355. 

-  Remember  all  such  must  have  been  over  sixty -four  years  of  age. 

^Wilson,  "  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power,"  II.,  318. 

^Fowler,  "  Local  Law  in  Mass.  and  Conn.,"  pp.  98-99.  It  was 
introduced  about  Jime  25. 


36  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [40G 

lock  claims  his  pound  of  flesh,  he  must  be  careful  not  to 
take  any  of  the  blood."  Judge  Sanford  saw  in  the  bill  "  new 
and  important  principles,  which  he  believed  were  entirely 
constitutional  and  would  be  so  decided  by  the  Supreme 
Court."  Ex-Gov.  Wm.  S.  Miner  could  not  find  a  "  single 
line,  sentence,  or  word  "  unconstitutional  in  the  bill.  Judge 
Sanford  spoke  again  and  again,  using  such  language  as  this : 
that  he  thought  the  South  had  driven  this  matter  so  fast  that 
it  had  "  driven  us  back  to  our  reserved  rights,  if  we  had  any." 
He  would  occupy  the  last  inch  the  Constitution  left  them, 
come  square  up  to  the  line,  but  not  one  step  over.  He 
would  oppose  the  fugitive  slave  law  by  any  means  in  his 
power  within  the  limits  of  the  Constitution.  He  said,  with 
great  clearness,  dignity,  and  force,  that  the  bill  was  consti- 
tutional, that  the  emergencies  of  the  times  demanded  such 
a  law;  he  portrayed  the  odious  features  of  the  fugitive  slave 
law  and  said  the  slave-catcher  was  the  most  despicable  of 
men.  At  the  same  time  a  bill  was  introduced,  which,  how- 
ever, did  not  pass,  prohibiting  the  use  of  any  court-house, 
jail,  or  other  public  building  for  the  trial  or  confinement 
of  fugitive  slaves.  To  this,  Mr.  Boyd  proposed  an  amend- 
ment that  a  building  used  for  such  a  purpose  should  "  be 
rased  to  the  foundation  and  remain  a  perpetual  ruin."  Even 
the  excited  Senate  had  good  sense  enough  to  vote  this  frantic 
proposition  down. 

The  law  as  passed,  entitled  "  An  Act  for  the  Defense  of 
Liberty  in  this  State,"  provided  that  "  any  person,  who  shall 
falsely  and  maliciously  pretend  that  any  free  person  is  a 
slave,  intending  to  remove  him  from  Connecticut,  shall  pay 
a  fine  of  $5000  and  be  imprisoned  five  years  in  the  State 
Prison."  In  trials,  two  credible  persons,  or  equivalent  evi- 
dence, were  required  to  prove  the  defendant  a  slave,  and 
depositions  were  not  to  be  received  as  evidence.  Witnesses 
falsely  representing  free  persons  as  slaves  are  to  receive  the 
punishment  mentioned  above,  and,  with  the  intention  to  sat- 
isfy their  consciences  that  they  were  not  violating  United 
States  law,  the  legislators  added  that  any  person  hindering 


407]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  37 

an  officer  from  the  arrest  of  a  fugitive,  or  aiding  an  accused 
person  to  escape,  was  to  be  imprisoned  one  year  in  State's 
prison.  The  last  section  of  the  bill  contained  an  interesting 
reminder  of  colonial  customs,  in  providing  that  the  act 
should  not  cover  the  case  of  apprentices. 

Though  slavery  is  still  found  as  a  title  in  the  Revision^  of 
1866,  the  last  act  on  the  subject  was  passed  in  1857,  and 
with  that  the  statutory  history  of  slavery  in  Connecticut  may 
well  be  ended.  At  that  time  it  was  enacted  that  "  any  person 
held  to  service  as  a  slave  in  any  other  State  or  country,"  and 
not  being  a  fugitive  from  another  of  the  United  States,  "  com- 
ing into  this  State,  or  being  therein,  shall  forthwith  become 
and  be  free." 

Cases  Adjudicated  in  the  Higher  Courts  with 
Reference  to  Slavery. 

The  question  as  to  the  manumission  of  slaves  by  service 
in  the  Continental  Army  with  the  master's  consent,  was  de- 
cided in  the  case  of  Jack  Arabas  versus  Ivers^  Ivers,  the 
master,  permitted  Arabas  to  enlist  in  the  army.  He  served 
through  the  war  and  was  discharged  at  its  end,  when  Ivers 
again  claimed  him.  He  fled  to  the  eastward,  was  overtaken 
and  brought  back  to  New  Haven,  where  he  was  put  in  the 
jail  for  safekeeping.  He  sued  out  a  "habeas  corpus"  and 
the  court  granted  it,  "  upon  the  ground  that  he  was  a  free 
man,  absolutely  manumitted  from  his  master  by  enlisting 
and  serving  in  the  army."  It  was  a  fine  idea,  that  he  who 
helped  to  free  his  country  could  not  be  a  slave. 

The  only  other  case  in  the  Connecticut  reports  as  to  manu- 
mission is  Geer  versus  Huntington^"  where  the  plaintiff 
claimed  a  negro  as  his  slave  by  a  bill  of  sale  from  his  former 
mistress,  while  the  defendant  claimed  that  the  mistress  had 
told  him  he  should  be  servant  to  no  one  but  her  and  should 
be  free  at  the  age  of  twenty-five.     As  he  had  passed  that 

^ Title  LVIIL,  Sees.  1-6.         'Root's  Reports,  I.,  p.  92,  1784. 
3  Root's  Reports,  II.,  364. 


38  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [408 

age  before  he  left  her  service,  the  court  held  him  to  have  been 
freed,  by  a  liberal  interpretation  of  her  pr  ^mise. 

The  only  case  I  have  found  tried  in  Connecticut  in  regard 
to  the  Slave  Trade,  save  the  famous  Amistad  case,  to  be 
treated  later,  is  that  of  the  United  States  versus  Jo/m  Smith.' 
It  was  an  action  to  recover  double  the  value  of  Smith's 
interest  in  over  one  hundred  negro  slaves,  transported 
in  the  brig  Heroine,  of  which  he  was  sole  owner  and 
master,  from  Africa  to  Havana,  and  there  sold,  contrary  to 
the  Act  of  Congress  of  May  lo,  iSoo.  The  Heroine  was 
in  Africa  between  Dec.  i,  1805  and  April  i,  1806,  and,  arriv- 
ing at  Havana  before  June  i,  Smith  sold  the  slaves  before 
the  end  of  that  month  for  not  less  than  $10,000,  so  action 
was  brought  for  $20,000.  One  of  the  crew  was  offered 
as  a  witness  by  the  government;  but  Smith's  attorney  ob- 
jected to  this  testimony  on  the  ground  that  it  would  incrimi- 
nate the  man  and  subject  him  to  a  fine  of  not  over  $2000  and 
two  years  imprisonment,  according  to  the  above-mentioned 
Act  of  Congress.  The  government  said  they  had  entered  a 
7tolle  prosequi  in  his  case  and  it  was  too  late  to  institute 
another  proceeding  against  him.  The  defense  pleaded  that 
the  witness  had  fled  from  justice  and  that  in  such  case  the 
statute  of  limitations  would  not  hold.  Further,  he  might  be 
excused  from  testifying,  as  he  was  unwilling;  but  the  judge 
ruled  that  a  witness  could  not  plead  his  wrong-doing  as  a 
defense  and  must  testify.  However,  there  was  a  verdict  for 
the  defendant,  as  the  judge  charged  the  jury  that  the  offense 
was  completed  when  the  vessel  arrived  at  Havana,  not  when 
die  slaves  were  sold,  and  the  prosecution,  though  begun 
within  the  prescribed  period,  two  years,  of  the  latter  date, 
was  not  within  two  years  of  the  former. 

The  most  frequent  cause  of  negroes  appearing  in  cases 
before  the  Supreme  Court  was  the  law  of  settlement.  When 
negroes  became  infirm  and  were  penniless,  it  was  an  import- 
ant question  who  should  support  them,  and  from  this  several 

^  Day's  Reports,  IV.,  p.  121.  IT.  S.  Circuit  Court,  Hartford,  Sept., 
1809.  Fowler's  "Hist.  Status."  pp.  16-18.  has  interesting  facts  on 
slave  trade  in  Conn. 


409]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  39 

cases  arose.  The  first  of  these/  Wilson  ct  al.  vs.  Hinkley  et 
al.,  in  the  Tolland  County  Court,  was  a  case  of  an  appeal  from 
a  judgment  of  a  Justice  of  the  Peace.  In  this  court,  Hinkley 
and  others,  selectmen  of  the  town  of  Tolland,  sued  the 
selectmen  of  the  town  of  Coventry  for  support  of  Amy 
Caesar  and  her  children.  This  Amy,  daughter  of  an  Indian 
woman,  was  bom  in  Tolland,  and  lived  with  a  citizen  of  that 
town  as  servant  till  eighteen  years  of  age.  Then  she  was  set 
at  liberty  and,  after  four  years  more  in  Tolland,  married  Tim- 
othy Caesar,  also  a  child  of  an  Indian  woman  and  slave  to  a 
citizen  of  Mansfield,  where  they  lived  nine  months.  Thence 
they  removed  to  Coventry,  Timothy  being  granted  pemiission 
to  do  so  by  his  master.  There  they  lived  eighteen  months, 
since  which  time  Amy  and  her  children  had  apparently  lived 
in  Tolland.  Tolland's  claim  for  reimbursement  was  resisted 
by  Coventry,  which  said  the  former  masters  of  Amy  and 
Timothy  should  support  them.  The  court  decided  that 
Timothy,  "  being  born  of  a  free  woman,  a  native  of  the  land, 
was  not  a  slave,"  applying  apparently  the  old  civil  law 
maxim.  "  Nor  "  was  he  "  a  servant  bound  for  time,  nor  an 
apprentice  under  age,  nor  under  disability  to  gain  settlement 
by  commorancy";  therefore,  by  residence  in  Coventry  over  a 
year  he  had  gained  settlement  for  himself  and  wife,  and,  as 
she  was  never  a  "  slave  or  servant  bought  for  time,"  Coventry 
must  pay  the  expense  of  her  support. 

The  next  case  was  also  one  in  which  the  same  town  of 
Tolland  was  interested;  Ebenezer  Kingsbury  vs.  Tolland? 
Joseph  Kingsbury,  of  Norwich,  bought  two  native  Africans, 
Cufif  and  Phyllis,  as  "  servants  for  life,"  and  gave  them  to  his 
wife.  She  died,  December,  1773,  freeing  them.  In  1776, 
with  the  consent  of  Ebenezer  Kingsbury,  their  former  m.is- 
tress's  sole  executor,  they  removed  to  Tolland  and,  after  liv- 
ing there  nine  years,  came  to  want  and  were  supported  by  the 
town.  The  town  brought  suit  against  Kingsbury  and  won 
in  the  County  Court;  but  in  the  Court  of  Appeals  lost  its 
case,  on  the  technicality  that  he  was  sued  personally  and  not 

^  Kirby  Keports,  202.      ^  Root's  Reports,  February,  1796. 


40  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [410 

as  executor.  The  court,  however,  in  an  obiter  dictum,  inti- 
mated the  personal  representatives  and  next  of  kin  were  liable, 
if  sued  as  such,  for  the  support  of  freed  slaves,  if  there  were 
sufficient  assets. 

A  third  case  was  Bolton  vs.  Haddani^  by  which  was  deter- 
mined that  a  slave  was  domiciled  with  his  master  and,  if  manu- 
mitted in  any  way,  continued  an  inhabitant  of  the  same  town 
as  before,  unless  he  became  legally  settled  elsewhere. 

Twenty  years  now  pass  before  we  find  another  such  case; 
then,  November,  1817,  was  decided  the  case  of  Windsor  vs. 
Hartford?  This  rather  important  case  regarded  the  resi- 
dence of  a  negress,  Fanny  Libbet,  and  her  two  illegitimate 
children,  Fanny,  herself  illegitimate,  was  born  in  Hartford 
in  1785  and,  at  the  age  of  three,  was  given  by  her  master  to 
Ills  son  in  Wethersfield.  There  she  lived  until  twenty-five 
years  of  age,  when  her  term  of  service  by  law  expired.  Her 
mother  had  been  sold  to  a  citizen  of  Windsor  in  1795  and 
was  emancipated  by  him  in  1801.  Fanny  w^ent  to  her  mother 
as  soon  as  she  could, ,  and  there  her  two  children  were  born. 
Windsor  supported  them  for  a  while  and  then  sued  Hartford, 
on  the  ground  that  Fanny,  born  after  March  i,  1784,  was 
never  a  slave  and  so  took  her  settlement  from  her  birthplace, 
Hartford.  The  court  so  decided,  stating  that  "  she  is  to  be 
considered  as  a  free  person  and  never  w^as  a  slave,"  an  im- 
portant interpretation  of  the  act  of  1784.  Her  residence  in 
Wethersfield  was  that  of  an  apprentice,  and  she  had  never 
gained  settlement  in  Windsor.  As  she  never  had  been  a 
slave,  her  former  master  was  not  liable  to  her  support. 

Soon  after  was  tried  the  case  of  the  Town  of  Cohinibia  vs. 
Williams  et  alium.  A  citizen  of  Groton  had  left  a  slave, 
Adam,  who  had,  after  his  master's  decease,  removed  to 
Columbia  and  there  became  a  town  charge.  The  town  sued 
the  heirs  of  Williams,  and  they  claimed  that  the  suit  was 
improperly  brought,  that  Groton  ought  have  been  sued,  as 
Adam  had  a  settlement  with  his  master  there,  which  town 


^  Hoot's  Reports,  II.,  p.  517.    Pebniary,  1797.    Tolland  County. 

« Conn.  Reports,  II.,  p.  355. 

•'Conn.  Reports,  III.,  467,  October  28,  1820. 


411]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  41 

could  then  have  recovered  from  them.  As  it  was  admitted 
that  Adam  had  never  been  manumitted,  the  court  sustained 
the  claims  of  the  defendants,  and  the  town,  on  this  point, 
lost  its  case  and  a  new  trial  was  ordered,  which  seems  never 
to  have  come  off. 

Flora,^  slave  of  Elisha  Pitkin,  gave  rise  to  two  cases.  Pit- 
kin et  al.  vs.  Pitkin  et  al.,  the  first,  was  brought  by  the  exec- 
utors of  Elisha  Pitkin  against  certain  of  his  heirs.  He  exe- 
cuted a  deed  of  gift  of  all  his  real  estate  to  the  plaintiffs  and 
defendants  in  1816,  but  kept  it  in  his  possession  until  his 
death,  three  years  later.  When  he  died,  he  bequeathed  his' 
remaining  property  by  testament  to  the  plaintiffs  and  certain 
of  the  defendants,  to  be  equally  divided  among  them,  they 
being  enjoined  to  take  care  of  Flora  and  bear  the  expense 
equally,  or  to  have  the  executors  reserve  sufficient  estate  for 
her  support.  The  executors  claimed  they  paid  "  large  sums  " 
for  her  support,  supposing  there  was  sufficient  estate;  but,  at 
final  settlement,  found  not  enough  was  left  outside  of  the  real 
estate  conveyed  by  deed.  This  they  ask  the  court  to  order 
sold,  sufficiently  to  provide  for  Flora's  support.  The  defend- 
ants demurred,  and  their  demurrer  being  sustained,  the  plain- 
tiffs carry  the  case  to  the  higher  court.  The  plaintiffs  con- 
tended that,  "  where  there  is  service  for  life  there  must  be 
support  for  life,"  and,  therefore,  the  support  of  the  slave  was 
a  charge  upon  the  estate,  that  Mr.  Pitkin's  intention  was  to 
have  her  supported,  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  executors  to 
support  her,  and  they  were  consequently  not  volunteers  and 
had  a  superior  equit)-  to  that  of  the  defendants,  and  that  the 
court  should  decide  the  case  according  to  its  equities.  The 
defendants  said  Mr.  Pitkin  did  not  charge  Flora's  support  on 
the  real  estate,  that  the  executors  were  volunteers,  having 
nothing  to  do  with  the  real  estate,  and  that,  if  the  land  should 
be  liable,  it  should  be  so  decided  in  a  probate,  not  in  a  chan- 
cery court.    The  court  decided  in  favor  of  the  defendants, 

'Conn.  Reports,  VII.,  p.  315,  June,  1829,  and  VIII.,  392,  Jime, 
1831. 
*  Probably  not  all,  tbough  of  this  I  am  not  absolutely  sui*e. 


42  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [412 

on  this  last  contention,  and  on  the  ground  that  it  could  not 
foresee  what  sums  mig-h'-  be  needed  for  her  support,  and 
hence  could  not  determine  on  the  quantity  of  land  to  be  sold. 
Having  lost  their  case,  the  executors  seem  to  have  given 
up  trying  to  support  Flora  and  to  have  endeavored  to  throw 
the  expense  on  the  town  of  East  Hartford,  which  sued  them  in 
1 83 1,  alleging  that  it  had  supported  Flora  three  years.  The 
defendants  demurred  that  the  selectmen  were  not  obliged  to 
support  her,  and  as  volunteers  the}'  cannot  recover,  for  "  the 
duty  of  support  rests  on  the  master  alone,"  and  he  is  only 
liable  to  the  town  for  the  support  of  emancipated  slaves. 
"  Slavery  is  not  founded  in  reason  and  justice,  like  the  rela- 
tions of  husband  and  wife."  Thirdly,  as  the  supplies  were 
not  furnished  in  Elisha  Pitkin's  lifetime,  the  defendants 
should  be  sued  as  owners,  not  executors.  The  prosecution, 
on  the  other  hand,  asserted  that  the  relation  of  master  and 
slave  is  recognized  by  statute  law;  during  the  continuance  of 
this  relation  the  master  is  liable  for  support  of  slave,  which 
slave  if  unemancipated  remains  part  of  the  estate;  that  a  needy 
slave  must  be  relieved  by  the  town  in  which  is  his  settlement, 
for  which  relief  recovery  is  to  be  had  at  law.  Judge  Daggett, 
in  his  majority  opinion,  confined  himself  to  the  obligation  of 
the  selectmen  for  her  support.  He  said  the  only  cases  where 
the  town  would  have  to  support  a  slave  were  when  both 
master  and  slave  were  paupers,  or  a  slave  emancipated  in 
accordance  with  the  act  of  1792  should  become  such.  In  this 
suit  neither  was  the  fact,  and  the  town  was  a  volunteer  and 
could  no  more  recover  than  if  it  had  supported  a  vnie  or  child 
of  a  man  of  means.  Chief  Justice  Hosmer  agreed  with  this 
reasoning,  from  which  Judge  Peters  dissented,  though  he 
agreed  with  the  decision.  He  said,  "  The  relation  of  master 
and  servant,  or  qualified  slaver\',  has  existed  in  Connecticut 
from  time  immemorial  and  has  been  tolerated  (not  sanc- 
tioned) by  the  legislature.  But  absolute  slavery',  where  the 
master  has  unlimited  power  over  the  life  of  the  slave,  has 
never  been  permitted  in  this  State."  He  continued.  Flora 
at  Mr.  Pitkin's  death,  not  being  specially  devised,  vested  as  a 


413]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  43 

chattel  in  the  executors.  "They  alone  could  sell  her;  they 
became  her  masters  and  she  their  slave,  and  they  alone  were 
to  maintain  her."  He  thought,  however,  she  ought  to  be 
maintained  by  the  town  as  a  vagrant,  when  the  town  could 
recover  by  implied  promise;  basing  his  decision  for  the 
defendants,  on  the  technicality  that,  "  when  an  executor  cov- 
enants or  promises,  he  binds  himself  personally  and  not  the 
heirs  or  estate  of  the  testator,  therefore  they  should  not  have 
been  sued  as  executors,  but  as  persons." 

Judge  Williams  filed  a  dissenting  opinion,  in  which  Judge 
Bissell  concurred.  He  placed  the  chief  importance  on  the 
implied  promise,  stating,  "  that  slavery  has  existed  in  this 
State  cannot  be  denied,  and  a  few  solitary  cases  still  exist,  to 
attest  to  the  melancholy  truth . . .  The  man  who  had  a  right 
to  all  the  time  and  services  and  even  offspring  of  his  un- 
happy slave,  must,  of  course,  be  bound  to  maintain  him." 
Executors  are  liable  for  debts  arising  after  death  of  the  tes- 
tator, "  where  the  demand  arises  from  an  obligation  existing 
upon  the  testator  in  his  life."  Such  an  obligation  was  the 
support  of  this  slave,  which,  as  personal  property,  vested  in 
the  executors.  He  thought  that  it  was  not  necessary  to  sue 
them  personally,  that  the  onus  probmidi  rested  on  them,  that 
there  were  no  assets.  The  town  was  not  a  volunteer,  for 
"  the  woman  must  be  relieved  by  the  town  where  she  was,  or 
starve."  He  quoted  a  statute  providing  that  "all  poor  and 
impotent  persons,"  without  estate  or  relatives,  "  shall  be  pro- 
vided for  and  supported  by  the  town."  The  town  cannot 
wait  to  hunt  up  the  persons  legally  liable,  before  rendering 
aid.  "  The  owner  of  the  slave  is  primarily  liable,  and  it  is 
only  his  neglect  of  duty  which  makes  the  defendants  liable 
at  all,  and  it  is  admitted  that,  in  consequence  of  that  neglect, 
the  defendants  would  be  responsible  to  any  individual -who 
supplied  the  necessities  of  the  slave,"  and  the  judge  then  said 
he  saw  no  reason  why  the  town  also  should  not  recover. 
His  opinion,  leaving  the  interpretation  of  the  statutes  and 
basing  itself  on  abstract  considerations,  stated  that,  "  by  the 
principles  of  natural  justice  they  are  bound  to  refund,  and  I 


44  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [414 

am  not  satisfied  that  any  technical  rule  of  law  can  be  inter- 
posed to  prevent  it." 

The  opinions  in  this  case  seemed  important  enough  to 
devote  some  space  to  it.  The  next  case'  we  note  is  that  of 
Colchester  vs.  Lyme,  for  support  of  Jenny.  She  had  be- 
longed to  a  citizen  of  Lyme  until  fifty-six  years  of  age,  when 
she  was  emancipated  and  went  to  live  in  Colchester.  Com- 
ing to  want,  the  town  sued  her  old  residence  for  her  support, 
claiming  that,  as  she  was  over  forty-five  when  emancipated, 
the  liability  of  her  master  to  support  her  continued,  and, 
"  while  the  liability  of  the  master  to  support  the  slave  remains, 
the  incapacity  of  the  slave  to  acquire  a  new  settlement  re- 
mains also."  This  the  defense  denied,  and  the  court  decided 
in  their  favor.  The  opinion  stated:  "  If  she  had  been  white, 
or  never  a  slave,  she  would  have  had  a  settlement  in  Col- 
chester. Does  the  fact  she  was  once  a  slave  alter  matters? 
There  was  nothing  in  the  statute  (of  1777)  which  in  the  least 
impaired  the  right  of  the  master  to  give  entire  freedom  to  his 
slave  at  any  time."  The  want  of  a  certificate  only  continued 
the  master's  liability  to  support  the  slave.  "  By  relinquish- 
ing all  claims  to  service  and  obedience,"  he  "  effectually 
emancipated  her,  and  thus  she  became  S7ii  Juris  and  entitled 
to  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  other  free  citizens  of  the 
State,  among  which  the  right  of  acquiring  a  new  place 
of  settlement  was  the  most  important. . . .  The  town  where 
the  emancipated  slave  belongs  or  has  a  settlement,  is  the 
town  empowered  by  statute  to  recover  from  the  master  or 
his  heirs,... and  if  Colchester  is  such  a  town,  then  Col- 
chester only  can  recover  from  the  former  master  or  his 
representatives."^ 

The  last  case  of  the  kind  is  Nezv  Haven  vs.  Huntington, 
decided  as  late  as  1852,  in  which  it  was  adjudged  that  the 
settlement  of  a  free  woman  in  Connecticut  is  not  superseded 
by  marriage  with  a  slave  of  another  State,  nor  by  his  subse- 
quent emancipation,  unless  the  laws  of  the  other  State  (which 


'  Conn.  Reports,  Xin.,  p.  274,  July,  1S39. 

^(htilford  vs.  Oxford,  Conn.  Ileports,  EX.,  321,  is  a  suit  for  the 
support  of  an  illegitimate  free  mulatto. 


415]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  45 

in  this  case  was  New  York)  so  provide,  and  her  settlement  is 
communicated  both  to  legitimate  and  illegitimate  children 
born  in  Connecticut  after  the  marriage.' 

Considerable  attention  has  been  given  to  these  cases,  as 
they  illustrate  important  principles  of  the  laws  of  the  State  and 
show  how  the  judges  interpreted  those  laws. 

Miss  Prudence  Crandall  and  her  School. 

In  the  autumn  of  1831/  Miss  Crandall,  a  Quakeress,  resid- 
ing in  the  southern  part  of  Canterbury,  opened  a  girls'  school 
in  that  town.  She  had  taught  at  Plainfield  successfully,  and 
moved  to  Canterbury,  at  the  request  of  some  prominent 
citizens,  buying  a  house  on  the  Green.  Her  school  was  a 
success  from  the  outset,  until  she  received  as  pupil  a  colored 
girl,  Sarah  Harris,  about  seventeen  years  of  age,  the  daugh- 
ter of  a  respectable  man  who  owned  a  small  farm  near  the 
centre.  The  girl  was  a  member  of  the  village  church,  and 
had  been  at  the  district  school,  in  the  same  class  as  some  of 
Miss  Crandall's  pupils.  She  now  wished  "to  get  a  little 
more  learning — enough  to  teach  colored  children."  Pre- 
vious to  this  admission  to  the  school,  Miss  Crandall  had 
employed  as  a  servant  a  "nice  colored  girl,"  Marcia,  who 
was  afterward  married  to  Charles  Harris,  the  brother  of 
Sarah.  Young  Harris  took  Garrison's  "Liberator"  and 
loaned  it  to  Marcia,  who  used  frequently  to  show  the  paper 
to  Miss  Crandall.  "  Having  been  taught  from  early  child- 
hood the  sin  of  slavery,"  as  she  wrote  in  1869,  "my  sympa- 
thies were  greatly  aroused,"  and  so  Miss  Crandall  agreed  to 
receive  Sarah  Harris  as  a  day  scholar.  "  By  this  act,"  she 
continued,  in  the  same  letter,  "  I  gave  great  offense.  The 
wife  of  an  Episcopalian  clergyman,  who  lived  in  the  village, 
told  me  that,  if  I  continued  that  colored  girl  in  my  school,  it 

'  Conn.  Reports,  XXII. 

>  The  cMef  authorities  are  Lamed's  "  Hist.  Windham  Co.,"  Vol. 
II.,  Book  IX.,  Chap.  III.,  pp.  491  sq.;  S.  J.  May,  "Recollections  of 
the  Anti-slaveiy  Conflict,"  pp.  47-71,  which  Wilson,  "Rise  and 
FaU,"  I.,  pp.  240-245,  and  Wilhams,  "  Hist.  Negro  Race,"  II.,  pp.  149- 
156,  almost  entirely  followed;  Crandall  vs.  Conn.,  Conn.  Reports. 


46  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [416 

could  not  be  sustained.  I  replied  to  her  '  that  it  might  sink, 
then,  for  I  should  not  turn  her  out':  I  veiy  soon  found  that 
some  of  my  school  would  not  return,  if  the  colored  girl  was 
retained.  Under  the  circumstances,  I  made  up  my  mind 
that,  if  it  were  possible,  I  would  teach  colored  girls  exclu- 
sively." Now,  though  Miss  Crandall  was  undoubtedly 
shamefully  treated  by  the  people  of  the  town,  they  neverthe- 
less had  just  ground  of  complaint  from  the  course  she  pur- 
sued. Because  some  of  her  patrons  were  offended  at  the 
entrance  of  one  colored  girl  into  her  school,  she  determined 
to  give  up  teaching  white  girls  entirely,  and  to  bring  a 
number  of  colored  children  into  the  most  aristocratic  part  of 
the  town,  while  the  people  who  had  received  her  most  kindly 
and  had  consented  to  act  as  visitors  to  her  school  were  not 
regarded.  She  consulted  leading  Abolitionists  in  New 
York  and  Boston,  but  no  one  in  the  town,  whose  interests 
were  most  immediately  concerned  in  the  opening  of  such  a 
school.  Some  irritation  might  therefore  have  been  expected, 
but  the  conduct  of  the  townspeople  went  beyond  all  bounds 
and  was  thoroughly  disgraceful.  Miss  Crandall's  conduct, 
on  the  other  hand,  apart  from  her  initial  lack  of  consideration 
for  the  judgment  of  those  around  her,  was  consistent,  cour- 
ageous, and  praiseworthy. 

When  she  announced  her  purpose  to  open  a  school  for 
•*  young  ladies  and  little  misses  of  color,"  dismay  seized  all.  A 
committee  of  four  of  the  chief  men  of  the  village  visited  her 
to  remonstrate  with  her,  and,  on  her  proving  obdurate,  a 
town  meeting  was  called  for  March  9,  1833,  to  meet  in  the 
Congregational  Meeting-house.  Miss  Crandall  had  not 
shown  a  conciliating  spirit.  When  Esquire  Frost  had 
labored  to  convince  her  of  the  impropriety  of  her  step  "  in  a 
most  kind  and  affecting  manner,"  and  "hinted  at  danger 
from  these  leveling  opinions "  and  from  intermarriage  of 
whites  and  blacks.  Miss  Crandall  at  once  replied,  "  Moses 
had  a  black  wife."  She  asked  Rev.  Samuel  J.  INIay,  pastor  of 
the  Unitarian  Church  in  Brooklyn,  George  W.  Benson,  the 
President,  and  Arnold  Bufifum,  Agent  of  the  New  England 


417]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  47 

Anti-Slavery  Society,  to  present  her  cause  at  the  town 
meeting.  Judge  Rufus  Adams  offered  the  following  reso- 
lutions: "Whereas,  it  hath  been  publicly  announced  that  a 
school  is  to  be  opened  in  this  town  on  the  first  Monday  of 
April  next,  using  the  language  of  the  advertisement,  '  for 
young  ladies  and  little  misses  of  color,'  or  in  other  words 
for  the  people  of  color,  the  obvious  tendency  of  which  would 
be  to  collect,  within  the  town  of  Canterbury,  large  numbers 
of  persons  from  other  States,  whose  characters  and  habits 
might  be  various  and  unknown  to  us,  thereby  rendering 
insecure  the  persons,  property,  and  reputations  of  our  citi- 
zens. Under  such  circumstances,  our  silence  might  be  con- 
strued into  an  approbation  of  the  project.     Thereupon: 

"  Resolved,  that  the  locality  of  a  school  for  the  people  of 
color,  at  any  place  within  the  limits  of  this  town,  for  the 
admission  of  persons  of  foreign  jurisdiction,  meets  with  our 
unqualified  disapprobation,  and  it  is  to  be  understood  that 
the  inhabitants  of  Canterbury  protest  against  it  in  the  most 
earnest  manner. 

"  Resolved,  that  a  committee  be  now  appointed,  to  be  com- 
posed of  the  civil  authority  and  selectmen,  who  shall  make 
known  to  the  person  contemplating  the  establishment  of  said 
school,  the  sentiments  and  objections  entertained  by  this 
meeting,  in  reference  to  said  school,  pointing  out  to  her  the 
injurious  effects  and  incalculable  evils  resulting  from  such 
an  establishment  within  this  town,  and  persuade  her  to  aban- 
don the  project." 

The  Hon.  Andrew  T,  Judson,  a  Democratic  politician,  later 
Congressman  and  United  States  District  Judge,  who  resided 
next  to  Miss  Crandall,  and  who  had  been  horrified  at  the 
prospect  of  having  a  school  of  negro  girls  as  his  neighbor, 
addressed  the  meeting  "in  a  tone  of  bitter  and  relentless 
hostility  "  to  Miss  Crandall.  After  him.  Rev.  Mr.  May  and 
Mr.  Bufifum  presented  a  letter  from  Miss  Crandall  to  the 
Moderator,  asking  that  they  might  be  heard  in  her  behalf. 
Judson  and  others  at  once  interposed  and  prevented  their 
speaking.     They  had  intended  to  propose  that,  if  the  town 


48  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [418 

would  repay  Miss  Crandall  the  cost  of  her  house  and  give 
her  time  to  remove,  she  would  open  her  school  in  some  more 
retired  part  of  the  town  or  vicinity.  Doubtless  this  would 
not  have  been  satisfactory  to  the  people,  but  that  does  not 
excuse  the  lack  of  courtesy  on  the  part  of  the  people  in 
refusing  to  hear  what  Miss  Crandall's  agents  had  to  propose. 
The  resolutions  were  passed,  but  nothing  deterred  the  fear- 
less woman.  She  opened  her  school  with  from  ten  to  twenty 
girls  as  pupils.^  This  still  more  enraged  the  townspeople, 
and,  at  a  second  town  meeting,  it  was  resolved:  "That  the 
establisJiment  or  rendezvous,  falsely  denominated  a  school, 
was  designed  by  its  projectors,  as  the  theatre,  as  the  place  to 
promulgate  their  disgusting  doctrines  of  amalgamation  and 
their  pernicious  sentiments  of  subverting  the  Union.  Their 
pupils  were  to  have  been  congregated  here  from  all  quarters, 
under  the  false  pretense  of  educating  them;  but  really  to 
SCATTER  FIREBRANDS,  arrotvs,  and  death  among  brethren  of 
our  own  blood."  A  committee  of  ten  was  appointed  to  draw 
up  and  circulate  a  petition  to  the  General  Assembly,  "  depre- 
cating the  evil  consequences  of  bringing  from  other  States 
and  other  towns,  people  of  color  for  any  purpose,  and  more 
especially  for  the  purpose  of  disseminating  the  principles  and 
doctrines  opposed  to  the  benevolent  colonizing  system." 
Other  towns  were  asked  to  prefer  "petitions  for  the  same 
laudable  object."  The  people  had  completely  lost  their 
heads  and  were  mad  with  rage  and  fear.  As  a  result  of  this 
petition,  the  shameful  act  of  May  24,  1833,  before  referred  to, 
was  passed. 

The  conduct  of  the  people  of  Canterbury  was  even  more 
indefensible  than  their  words.  They  hunted  up  an  obsolete 
vagrant  law,  providing  that  the  selectmen  might  warn  any 
non-inhabitant  of  the  State  to  depart,  demanding  $1.67  for 
each  week  tliey  should  thereafter  stay,  and,  if  the  fine  were 
not  paid,  or  the  person  were  still  in  the  town  after  ten  days, 
he  should  be  whipped  on  the  bare  body,  with  not  over  ten 


'  Pupils  came  from   Philadelphia,  New  York,   Providence,  and 
Boston,  says  May. 


419]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  49 

stripes.  An  endeavor  was  made  to  put  this  law  in  force 
against  Miss  Crandall's  pupils,  and  one  of  them,  Ann  Eliza 
Hammond,  a  girl  of  seventeen,  from  Providence,  was  arrested. 
Rev.  Mr.  May  and  other  residents  of  Brooklyn  gave  bonds 
for  $10,000,  so  the  attempt  was  given  up. 

The  lawless  treatment  of  the  school  and  scholars  was 
worse  than  the  legal  one.  The  stage-driver  refused  to  carry 
the  pupils  to  the  school,  the  neighbors  refused  to  give  Miss 
Crandall  a  pail  of  water,  though  they  knew  their  sons  had 
filled  her  well  with  stable  refuse  the  night  before.  Boys  fol- 
lowed the  school  with  homs  and  hootings  on  the  streets,  and 
stones  and  rotten  eggs  were  thrown  at  Miss  Crandall's  win- 
dows. A  systematic  policy  of  boycotting  and  intimidation 
was  carried  out.  The  village  stores  were  closed  against  the 
school.  Men  went  to  Miss  Crandall's  father,  a  mild  and 
peaceable  Quaker  living  in  the  southern  part  of  the  town, 
and  told  him,  "when  lawyers,  courts  and  jurors  are  leagued 
against  you,  it  will  be  easy  to  raise  a  mob  and  tear  down  your 
house."  He  was  terrified  and  wished  his  daughter  to  yield, 
but  she  boldly  refused.  He  petitioned  the  Legislature  against 
the  passage  of  the  act  of  May  24,  1833,  but  in  vain.  The 
sentiment  of  men  from  other  towns  was  that  they  would  not 
want  a  negro  school  on  their  common. 

After  the  passage  of  the  act,  two  leading  citizens  told  him 
"  your  daughter  will  be  taken  up  the  same  way  as  for  steal- 
ing a  horse  or  for  burglar}^  Her  property  will  not  be  taken, 
but  she  will  be  put  in  jail,  not  having  the  liberty  of  the  yard. 
There  is  no  mercy  to  be  shown  about  it." 

A  few  days  later,  Messrs.  May  and  George  W.  Benson 
visited  Miss  Crandall,  to  advise  with  her  as  to  the  fine  and 
imprisonment  provided  by  the  act  as  penalty  for  teaching 
colored  children  not  residing  in  the  State.  As  Wilson  puts 
it,  the  result  of  their  conference  was  a  determination  to  leave 
her  in  the  hands  "  of  those  with  whom  the  hideous  act  orig- 
inated." 

On  June  27,  1833,  Miss  Crandall  was  arrested,  brought 
before  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  committed  for  trial  before 


50  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [420 

the  County  Court  in  August.  Mr.  May  and  her  friends  were 
told  that  she  was  in  the  sheriff's  hands  and  would  be  put  in 
jail  unless  bonds  were  given.  They  resolved  not  to  do  so, 
but  to  force  the  framers  of  the  statute  to  give  bonds  them- 
selves or  commit  her  to  jail.  The  sheriff  and  jailer  saw  this 
would  be  a  disgrace  and  lingered ;  but  her  friends  were  firm, 
and  Miss  Crandall  spent  the  night  in  a  cell  which  had  last 
been  occupied  by  a  condemned  murderer.  The  next  morn- 
ing bonds  were  given,  by  whom  it  does  not  appear;  but  the 
fact  of  her  incarceration  caused  a  revulsion  of  popular  feel- 
ing in  her  favor.  Mr.  Arthur  Tappan  wrote  at  once  to  ]\Ir. 
May,  indorsing  his  conduct,  authorizing  him  to  spare  no 
reasonable  cost  in  defense  at  his  expense  and  to  employ  the 
ablest  counsel. 

The  Hon.  Wm.  W.  Ellsworth,  Calvin  Goddard,  and  Henry 
Strong  were  retained  and  prepared  to  argue  that  the  laws 
were  unconstitutional.  Mr.  Tappan  took  such  interest  in  the 
case  that  he  left  his  business  to  have  a  personal  interview 
with  Miss  Crandall  and  Mr.  May.  To  the  latter  he  said, 
"  The  cause  of  the  whole  oppressed  race  of  our  country  is  to 
be  much  affected  by  the  decision  of  this  question.  You  are 
almost  helpless  without  the  press.  You  must  issue  a  paper, 
publish  it  largely,  send  it  to  all  persons  whom  you  know  in 
the  country  and  State,  and  to  all  the  principal  newspapers  of 
the  country.  Many  will  subscribe  for  it  and  contribute 
largely  to  its  support,  and  I  will  pay  whatever  it  may  cost." 
Mr.  May  took  the  advice  and  started  the  "  Unionist,"  with 
Charles  C.  Burleigh,  of  Plainfield,  as  editor. 

On  August  23,  the  case  of  T/^c  State  versus  Crandall  was 
tried  at  Brooklyn,  before  Judge  Joseph  Eaton;  Messrs.  A.  T, 
Judson,  Jonathan  Welch,  Esq,,  and  J.  Bulkley  appearing  as 
counsel  for  the  State.  Mr.  Judson  denied  that  negroes  were 
citizens  in  States  where  they  were  not  enfranchised,  and 
asked  why  men  should  be  educated  who  could  not  be  free- 
men. The  defense  claimed  that  the  law  conflicted  with  the 
clause  of  the  United  States  Constitution  allowing  to  citizens 
of  one  State  equal  rights  in  others.     Tlie  judge  charged 


421]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  51 

the  jury  that  the  law  was  constitutional,  but  the  jury  disa- 
greed, standing  seven  for  conviction  and  five  for  acquittal. 

The  prosecution  did  not  wait  for  a  new  trial  in  December, 
but  went  before  the  Connecticut  Superior  Court.  Judge 
Daggett  presided  over  the  October  Session.  According  to 
Mr.  May,  he  was  known  to  be  an  advocate  of  the  new  law,  and 
in  the  course  of  an  elaborate  opinion  said,  "  it  would  be  a 
perversion  of  the  terms  and  the  well  known  rule  of  construc- 
tion to  say  that  slaves,  free-blacks,  or  Indians  were  citizens 
within  the  meaning  of  the  Constitution."  The  jury  gave  a 
verdict  against  Miss  Crandall  and  her  counsel  appealed  to 
the  Court  of  Errors.  It  heard  the  case  on  July  22,'  1834, 
and  reversed  the  previous  decision,  on  the  ground  of  "  in- 
sufficiency of  information,"  and  that  there  was  no  allegation 
that  the  school  was  set  up  without  a  license,  and  so  left  the 
constitutional  question  unsettled. 

Meantime  the  school  had  been  continued,  W.  H.  Burleigh 
and  his  sister  and  Miss  Crandall's  sister  Almira  assisting  in 
the  work."  They  even  had  at  times  a  sort  of  exliibition  of  the 
pupils'  progress.  The  opposition  to  the  school  in  Canter- 
bury did  not  diminish;  the  trustees  of  the  Congregational 
church  refused  to  let  Miss  Crandall  and  her  pupils  worship 
there.  The  Friends  Meeting  at  Black  Hill  and  the  Baptist 
church  at  Packerville,  both  a  few  miles  off,  received  tliem, 
but  were  almost  the  only  ones  to  show  kindness.  Even  the 
physicians  of  the  place  refused  to  attend  Miss  Crandall's 
household.  After  the  opponents  failed  in  the  courts,  they 
resorted  more  than  before  to  violent  means.  Early  in  Sep- 
tember an  attempt  was  made  to  bum  her  house,  and  her 
enemies  went  so  far  as  to  arrest  a  colored  man  she  had 
employed  to  do  some  work  for  her,  and  to  claim  she  had 
the  fire  started  to  excite  sympathy.  A  still  more  dastardly 
attack  was  made  on  the  building  on  September  9,  by  a  body 
of  men,  who  at  night  broke  all  the  windows  and  doers  with 

'A.  T.  Judson  and  0.  F.  Cleaveland '  f or  State,  W.  W.  Ellsworth 
and  Calvin  Goddard  for  Miss  Crandall. 
Lamed,  II.,  p.  499. 


52  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [422 

clubs  and  crowbars.  The  house  was  left  nearly  uninhabit- 
able. Miss  Crandall's  friends  all  advised  her  to  give  up  the 
school,  and  she  did  so,  sending  the  twenty  girls  then  compos- 
ing it  to  their  homes.  Mr.  May  said  when  he  gave  the 
advice  to  yield,  the  words  blistered  his  lips  and  his  bosom 
glowed  with  indignation.  "I  felt  ashamed  of  Connecticut," 
he  wrote  in  his  Memoirs,  "  ashamed  of  my  State,  ashamed  of 
my  country,  ashamed  of  my  color." 

Miss  Crandall  was  soon  after  married  to  Mr.  Calvin 
Philleo  and  left  Canterbury.  The  town,  feeling  obliged  to 
justify  its  conduct,  spread  upon  its  records  the  following 
resolve:  "That  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  the 
nation  with  all  its  institutions,  of  right  belong  to  the  white 
men,  who  now  possess  them, . .  .  that  our  appeal  to  the 
Legislature  of  our  own  State,  in  a  case  of  such  peculiar 
mischief,  was  not  only  due  to  ourselves,  but  to  the  obliga- 
tions devolving  upon  us  under  the  Constitution.  To  have 
been  silent  would  have  been  participating  in  the  wrongs 
intended.. .  .We  rejoice  that  the  appeal  was  not  in  vain." 

Here  ends  the  wretched  story.  But  its  results  were  far- 
reaching.  As  Lamed,  the  historian  of  Windham  County,  well 
writes,  if  Miss  Crandall  did  not  succeed  in  educating  negro 
girls,  she  did  in  altering  the  opinions  of  that  part  of  Con- 
necticut, which  became  the  strongest  anti-slavery  part  of  the 
State. 

Nancy  Jackson  vs.  Bulloch. 

This  celebrated  case,  interpreting  the  acts  of  1774  and  1784 
and  practically  ending  slavery  in  Connecticut,  deserves 
especial  notice.  In  this  case,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State, 
by  a  bare  majority,  decided  that  the  statutes  just  mentioned 
"  were  designed  to  terminate  slaver)^  in  Connecticut  and  that 
they  are  sufficient  for  that  purpose.  The  act  of  1774  aimed  a 
blow  at  the  increase  of  slaves,  that  of  1784  struck  at  the 
existence  of  slavery.  The  former  was  intended  to  weaken 
the  system ;  the  latter  to  destroy  it.  The  former  lopped  ofif  a 
limb  from  the  trunk;  the  latter  struck  a  deadly  blow  at  the 


423]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  53 

root,  and  ever  since  it  has  withered  and  decayed,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  here  and  there  a  dying  Hmb,  slavery  has 
disappeared  from  our  State  and  will  in  a  short  time  be  known 
only  in  our  history,  unless  indeed  it  is  to  revive  and  flourish, 
by  the  construction  we  shall  now  give  to  the  statutes.  To  us 
it  appears  as  if  there  was  nothing  in  the  intent  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, or  in  the  words  of  the  act,  which  requires  such  a  con- 
struction.'" 

The  facts  of  the  case  were  as  follows:  J.  S.  Bulloch,  a 
citizen  of  Georgia,  owned  a  slave,  Nancy  Jackson,  bom  in 
Georgia  in  1813.  In  June,  1835,  he  came  to  Connecticut  and 
settled  at  Hartford,  to  live  there  temporarily  while  his  children 
were  being  educated. 

Since  that  time  Nancy  had  been  residing  with  Bulloch's 
family  in  Hartford,  while  he  had  only  spent  the  summer  in 
Connecticut,  returning  to  Georgia  for  the  winter.  Nancy, 
through  her  next  friend,  brought  an  action  for  unjust  confine- 
ment against  Bulloch,  and,  a  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  being 
sued  out,  the  case  was  heard  in  June,  1837.  Chief  Justice 
Williams,  in  giving  the  opinion  of  the  Court,  went  over  tlie 
whole  law  of  slavery,  and  this  makes  the  decision  more  val- 
uable. He  took  the  broad  ground  "  that  every  human  being 
has  a  right  to  liberty,  as  well  as  to  life  and  property,  and  to 
enjoy  the  fruit  of  his  own  labor;  that  slavery  is  contrary  to 
the  principles  of  natural  right  and  to  the  great  law  of  love; 
that  it  is  founded  on  injustice  and  fraud  and  can  be  supported 
only  by  the  provisions  of  positive  law,  are  positions  which  it 
is  not  necessary  to  prove."  The  defendant  admitted  that 
slavery  was  local  and  must  be  governed  by  State  law,  and 
that  neither  the  fugitive  slave  clause  nor  any  other  clause 
of  the  United  States  Constitution  applies  to  this  case;  there- 
fore he  can  have  no  higher  claims  than  an  inhabitant  of  a 
foreign  State.     "  It  cannot  be  denied  that  in  this  State  we 

have  not  been  entirely  free  from  the  evil  of  slavery A 

small  remnant  still  remains  to  remind  us  of  the  fact 

How  or  when  it  was  introduced  into  this  State  we  are  not 


^  Conn.  Reports,  XII.,  p.  38. 


54  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [424 

informed.. .  .It  probably  crept  in  silently,  until  it  became 
sanctioned  by  custom  or  usage."  He  went  on  to  state  tliat 
if  it  depended  entirely  on  that  fact,  it  might  be  enquired 
whether  tlie  custom  was  "  reasonable,"  but  for  a  century 
slavery  has  been  somewhat  recognized  by  statute  and  thus  has 
received  the  implied  sanction  of  the  Legislature.  He  then 
takes  up  the  claims  of  the  plaintifif's  counsel  that  the  slaves 
are  freed  by  the  first  article  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  which  states 
that  all  men  are  equal  in  rights  "  when  they  form  a  social 
compact."  This,  says  the  Judge,  does  not  apply,  as  slaves 
would  not  be  parties  to  a  social  compact,  and  the  article  is  not 
as  broad  as  the  famous  Massachusetts  one.  Another  article 
of  the  Bill  of  Rights  states,  "the  people  shall  be  secure  in 
their  persons,  houses,  papers,  and  possessions  from  unreason- 
able searches  and  seizures  " ;  but  the  usage  of  "  people  "  in 
the  United  States  Constitution  proved,  according  to  the 
court,  tliat  the  word  here  need  not  include  slaves.  A  third 
article  in  the  Bill  of  Rights  provided  that  "  no  person  shall  be 
arrested,  detained,  or  punished,  except  in  cases  clearly  war- 
ranted by  law."  But  was  this  detention  warranted  by  the 
law?  This  is  to  be  answered  by  examination  of  the  statutes; 
that  of  1774  prohibited  the  importation  of  slaves  into  Con- 
necticut, that  of  1784  provided  that  all  born  "in  the  State" 
after  March  i  of  that  year  should  be  free  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
five.  This  last  law.  Swift  thought,^ "  has  laid  the  foundation 
for  the  gradual  abolition  of  slavery;  for,  as  the  children  of 
slaves  are  born  free,  being  servants  only  until  twenty-five 
years  of  age,  the  consequence  is  that  as  soon  as  the  slaves 
now  in  being  shall  have  become  extinct,  slavery  will  cease, 
as  the  importation  of  slaves  in  future  is  prohibited ...  As 
slavery  is  gradually  diminishing  and  will  in  a  short  time 
be  extinguished,  there  being  but  few  slaves  in  the  State,  it 
will  be  unnecessary^,  in  this  place,  to  make  any  remarks  upon 
a  subject  that  has  so  long  engrossed  the  attention  of  tlie 
humane  and  benevolent  part  of  mankind  in  the  present  age." 
These  words  are  quoted  approvingly  and  the  statement  is 


1  Swift's  System,  I.,  220. 


425]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  55 

made  that,  unless  there  is  some  defect  in  the  acts,  tliere  has 
been  no  real  slavery  in  Connecticut  since  1784.  The  acts 
were  passed,  not  to  interfere  with  vested  rights,  but  to  prevent 
the  increase  of  evils  which  would  result  from  the  competi- 
tion of  slave  labor  "  with  the  labor  of  poor  whites,  tending  to 
reduce  the  price  of  their  work  and  prevent  their  employment, 
and  to  bring  the  free  laborer,  in  some  measure,  into  the 
ranks  with  slaves."  The  Court  decided  that,  though  the  law 
of  1774  did  not  prevent  a  master  transporting  a  slave  through 
the  State,  it  did  prevent  him  from  keeping  her  there,  and  that 
a  slave  may  be  "  left,"  "  although  the  owner  does  not  intend 
to  reside  permanently  himself,  or  to.  suffer  such  slave  perma- 
nently to  remain  here."  On  the  construction  of  this  word 
"left,"  and  on  the  post-nati  argument  from  the  act  of  1784, 
the  Court  declared  Nancy  free.  As  to  the  words  "  bom 
within  this  State,"  in  the  act  of  1784,  the  Court  held  "within 
this  State  "  surplusage,  stating,  as  a  reason,  that  the  Legisla- 
ture could  not  legislate  for  any  other  State.  At  any  rate  it  is 
certain  that  foreigners  could  claim  no  more  rights  than 
natives,  and  as  natives  can  only  hold  persons  as  slaves  under 
twenty-five  years  of  age,  citizens  of  other  States  could  do  no 
more. 

The  dissenting  judges  laid  stress  on  the  words  "  in  this 
State"  in  the  act  of  1784,  and  claimed  that  "left,"  in  the  act 
of  1774,  meant  to  desert,  abandon,  withdraw,  or  depart  from, 
that  mere  length  of  stay  does  not  matter,  as  long  as  the  animus 
revertcndi  remains.  They  state,  however,  they  are  glad  their 
interpretation  does  not  consign  the  woman  to  slavery ;  though 
they  "  maintain  that  the  State  of  Connecticut,  from  time 
immemorial,  has  been,  and  to  a  certain  extent  now  is,  a  slave- 
holding  State." 

This  case  showed  clearly  that  the  judiciary  of  the  State 
would  lean  to  the  side  of  freedom  whenever  possible,  and 
virtually  made  Connecticut  a  free  State  by  its  liberal  con- 
struction of  the  laws,  though  tlie  formal  removal  of  the  State 
from  the  slaveholding  column  was  not  to  take  place  for 
some  ten  years  more. 


56  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [4=26 

The  Negroes  on  the  "Amistad." 

In  August,  1839/  the  people  of  Connecticut,  New  York 
and  Rhode  Island  were  excited  by  tidings  of  a  suspicious 
craft,  thought  to  be  a  pirate.  It  was  a  long,  low,  black 
schooner,  manned  by  negroes,  and  orders  were  issued  to  the 
United  States  steamer  Fulton  and  several  revenue  cutters  to 
chase  her.  On  August  26,  1839,  the  United  States  brig 
Washington  was  sounding  off  Culloden  Point,  lying  between 
Gardner's  and  Montauk  Points.  While  there,  a  vessel  was 
•noticed  lying  off  the  shore  and  a  boat  passing  between  her 
and  the  shore,  where  a  number  of  persons  were  with  carts  and 
horses.  Lieut.  Gedney,  commanding  the  Washington,  sent 
a  boat  to  investigate,  and  when  the  vessel  was  boarded  she 
proved  to  be  manned  by  negroes,  of  whom  about  twenty 
were  on  board,  togetlier  with  two  white  iiien,  who  came  for- 
ward and  claimed  protection."  The  story  was  soon  told. 
The  vessel  was  a  slaver,  the  Amistad,  which  had  brought 
African  slaves  kidnapped  in  April,  from  Lemboko,  in  the 
Mendi  country,  near  Liberia.  Jose  Ruiz  bought  forty-nine 
of  them  and  Pedro  ]\Iontes  took  four  more.  These  they 
re-embarked  on  the  Amistad  at  Havana  on  June  27,  1839, 
and  sailed  for  Guanajah,  Porto  Principe.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  the  slave  trade  was  prohibited  by  Spain  and  the 
Africans  so  introduced  ought  still  to  be  free.  The  trade  was, 
however,  carried  on  surreptitiously  to  a  large  extent,  and 
those  thus  taken  to  Cuba  were  called  "  Bozals,"  in  distinc- 
tion   from   the  "  Ladrinos,"^    or   native    slaves.     The  ship's 

^  This  account  is  chiefly  drawn  from  Wilson,  "  Rise  and  Fall  of 
the  Slave  Power,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  45G-466;  J.  Q.  Adams'  Diaiy;  Niles' 
Piegister;  Williams,  "  EQst.  of  Nesro  Race,"  11.,  p.  93;  Barber, 
Jno.  W.,  "A  History  of  the  Amistad  Captives. .  .with  Biograph- 
ical Sketches  of  each  of  the  smTivLng  Afilcans,  also  an  account  of 
the  trials  had  on  their  case,  etc.,"  Xew  Haven,  1840;  S.  E.  Bald- 
win, "The  Captives  of  the  Amistad.''  N.  H.  Col.  Ilist.  Papers.  IV.. 
pp.  397-404. 

=  Niles'  Reg..  Vol.  57.  j.]'-  1-  -^^i-  29- 

3A  false  translation  of  this  word  in  a  public  document  caused 
great  trouble.    Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  59,  p.  301. 


427]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  57 

papers  falsely  referred  to  them  as  "  ladrinos,"  legal  slaves. 
The  captain  of  the  ship  was  Ramon  Ferrers,  and  the  crew 
seems  to  have  consisted  of  two  men  and  a  cook,  besides  a 
negro  cabin-boy.  On  the  fifth  night  out  from  Havana  the 
slaves  rose,  under  the  leadership  of  Joseph  Cinquez  or 
Cingue,  attacked  and  slew  the  captain  and  cook  with  knives 
such  as  were  used  to  cut  sugar-cane,  and,  according  to  one 
story,  slew  the  two  men  in  the  crew.  The  cabin-boy, 
Antonio,  however,  said  in  court  that  the  men  lowered  a 
small  boat  and  escaped.  Ruiz  and  Montes  were  bound  and 
kept  alive  to  navigate  the  ship.  The  negroes  tried  to  return  to 
Africa  and  had  the  vessel  steered  eastward  by  the  sun  during 
the  day,  while  by  night  the  white  men  steered  to  the  north- 
west, hoping  to  fall  in  with  a  man-of-war  or  to  reach  some 
country.  After  boxing  for  four  days  in  Bahamas  Channel, 
they  steered  for  St.  Andrew  Island,  near  New  Providence; 
thence  to  Green  Key,  where  the  blacks  laid  in  a  supply  of 
water;  thence  for  New  Providence,  where  the  negroes  would 
not  suffer  the  vessel  to  enter  port,  but  anchored  off  the  coast 
every  night.  The  whites  were  treated  with  some  severity, 
and  with  the  constant  fear  of  death  staring  them  in  the  face, 
their  lot  must  have  been  most  unenviable.  Montes,  too,  was 
suffering  from  two  wounds  in  the  head  and  arm.  The  ship  was 
three  days  off  Long  Island,  to  the  eastward  of  New  Provi- 
dence, and  then  Uvo  months  on  the  ocean,  during  which  time 
tliey  were  boarded  several  times  by  vessels,  once  by  an 
American  schooner  from  Kingston,  which  remained  along- 
side for  twenty-four  hours  and  traded  with  the  negroes,  find- 
ing they  had  plenty  of  money.  This  was  the  Spaniards' 
story,  to  which  they  added  that  they  were  always  sent  below 
in  such  cases.  Our  admiration  for  Cinquez  rises  when  we 
consider  that,  for  this  long  period,  he  managed  to  continue 
his  ascendancy  over  his  comrades,  especially  considering  how 
difficult  were  the  circumstances  of  the  case.  On  August  20, 
near  New  York  harbor,  a  pilot-boat  met  the  Amistad  and 
furnished  the  negroes  apples,  and  when,  shortly  after,  a  second 
one  met  them,  they  suspected  the  whites  had  taken  them  to  a 


58  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [428 

strange  land  and  refused  to  let  the  pilot  board  her,  while  they 
exhibited  such  anger  towards  tlie  Spaniards  that  they  feared 
for  their  lives  more  than  ever.  On  the  24th,  off  Montauk 
Light,  the  Spaniards  tried  to  run  the  vessel  aground,  but 
failed,  and  the  tide  drifted  it  on,  until  they  anchored  where 
they  were  found.  After  anchoring,  about  twenty  of  the 
negroes  went  on  shore  for  water  and  three  of  them  bought 
dogs  from  some  of  the  inliabitants.  The  news  quickly 
spread.  Capt.  Green,  who  came  up,  according  to  his  report, 
induced  the  negroes  to  promise  to  give  him  the  ship.  They 
desired  him  to  take  them  to  Sierra  Leone.  Just  then 
appeared  Lieut.  Gedney  and  took  possession  of  the  vessel  and 
of  the  negroes.  Before  Cinquez  would  suffer  himself  to  be 
taken  he  leapt  overboard  and  loosed  from  his  waist  into  the 
water  300  doubloons  which  he  had  taken  from  the  captain. 
The  Africans  taken  were  forty-four  in  number,^  the  rest  hav- 
ing died.  Of  this  number,  three  were  girls,  the  rest  men. 
Cinquez,  the  leader,  was  described  as  about  twenty-five  or 
twenty-six  years  of  age,  five  feet  eight  inches  in  height,  erect 
in  figure,  well  built,  and  very  active.  His  countenance  was 
unusually  intelligent;  he  possessed  uncommon  decision  and 
coolness,  and  a  composure  indicative  of  much  courage.  Lieut. 
Gedney  took  the  Amistad  with  all  on  board  to  New  London, 
where  a  judicial  investigation  was  held  on  August  29,  on 
board  the  Washington,  before  the  United  States  District 
Judge  A.  T.  Judson,  whom  we  have  already  seen  in  the  Cran- 
dall  trouble.  As  a  result  of  this  examination  the  Africans 
were  taken  to  the  New  Haven  jail  on  Sept.  i,  and  on  the  14th 
were  removed  to  Hartford,  save  one  left  behind  on  account  of 
sickness.  The  case  now  became  very  complicated.  Ruiz  and 
Montes  claimed  the  Africans  as  their  slaves  and  preferred 
charges  of  murder  against  them.  The  Africans  claimed  free- 
dom and,  through  their  friends,  preferred  charges  of  assault 
and   batter}'   and   of  false   imprisonment    against    Ruiz  and 

*  Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  57,  p.  48  and  50.  They  were  shown  in  Hartford 
at  121^  cents  admission.  Wild  stories  were  spread  that  one  of  them 
was  a  cannibal. 


429]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  59 

Montes.  Lieut.  Gedney  claimed  salvage  on  vessel,  cargo  and 
slaves.  Capt.  Green  and  the  Long  Islanders  had  a  counter 
claim  for  the  same.  The  owners  of  the  cargo  in  Havana 
claimed  it,  and  the  Spanish  minister,  "  forgetful  of  his  country's 
laws,"  demanded  not  only  that  it,  but  also  that  tlie  blacks  be 
given  up  under  the  treaty  of  1795,  that  the  negroes  might  be 
tried  in  Cuba,  and  maintained  that  if  they  should  be  tried,  con- 
victed and  executed  in  Connecticut,  the  effect  would  not  be  as 
good  as  if  done  in  Cuba,  The  District  Attorney,  Holabird, 
claimed  that  the  Africans  should  be  held  subject  to  the  Pres- 
ident's orders,  to  be  taken  back  to  Africa,  according  to  the 
Act  of  181 9,  and  that,  as  the  Government  of  Spain  had 
claimed  them,  they  should  be  kept  until  the  pleasure  of  the 
United  States  be  known.  Holabird  was  thoroughly  subser- 
vient to  the  slavery  interest  and  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of 
State  asking  if  there  were  not  treaty  stipulations  which  would 
authorize  "  our  government "  to  deliver  them  up  to  Spain,  and 
if  so,  "  whether  it  would  be  done  before  our  court  sits,"  as  he 
did  not  wish  them  tried  there.  The  Secretary  of  State  knew 
there  was  no  such  treaty,  and  if  there  were,  as  Wilson  well 
says,  the  President  could  not  supersede  criminal  warrants,  but 
he  instructed  the  District  Attorney  "to  take  care  that  no 
proceedings  of  your  Circuit  Court,  or  any  other  judicial 
tribunal,  place  the  vessel,  cargo,  or  slaves  ('  a  gratuitous 
assumption,'  remarks  Wilson)  beyond  the  control  of  the  Fed- 
eral Executive."  While  the  demands  of  Calderon,  the  Span- 
ish minister,  were  supported  b}'  the  pro-slavery  press,  the 
anti-slavery  men  in  New  York  City  appointed  a  committee, 
composed  of  S.  S.  Jocelyn,  Joshua  Leavitt,  and  Lewis  Tappan, 
to  solicit  funds,  employ  counsel,  and  see  that  the  interests  of 
the  Africans  were  carefully  cared  for.  As  a  result,  Seth  P. 
Staples  and  Theodore  Sedgwick,  Jr.,  of  New  York,  were 
employed  as  counsel  and  wrote  to  President  Van  Buren 
denying  that  these  Africans  were  slaves,  contending  that,  in 
rising  against  the  whites,  they  only  obeyed  the  dictates  of 
self-defense,  and  praying  that  their  case  should  not  be 
decided  "in  the  recesses  of  the  Cabinet,  where  these  un- 


GO  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [430 

friended  men  can  have  no  counsel  and  can  produce  no  proof; 
but  in  the  halls  of  Justice,  with  the  safeguards  she  throws 
around  the  unfriended  and  oppressed."  The  letter  was  turned 
over  to  Felix  Grundy,  the  Attorney  General,  a  violent  oppo- 
nent of  emancipation,  and  one  who  favored  surrender  to  Spain. 
He  replied  he  could  see  no  "  legal  principle  upon  which  the 
government  would  be  justified  in  going  into  an  investigation 
for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  facts  set  forth  in  the 
papers  clearing  the  vessel  from  one  Spanish  port  to  another" 
as  evidence  as  to  whether  the  negroes  were  slaves  or  not. 
He  thought,  as  the  Africans  were  charged  with  violation  of 
Spain's  laws,  they  should  be  surrendered;  so  that,  if  guilty, 
"  they  might  not  escape  punishment,"  and  that,  to  fulfil  treaty 
obligations,  the  President  should  issue  an  order,  directing 
the  marshal  to  deliver  the  vessel  and  cargo  to  such  persons 
as  Calderon  should  designate.  This  Van  Buren  could  not  do, 
as  there  was  no  extradition  treaty  with  Spain,  which  fact 
Grundy  ought  to  have  known.  On  Sept.  17th,  the  United 
States  Circuit  Court  met  in  Hartford,  Judge  Thompson  pre- 
siding, and  on  the  i8th  a  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  was  applied 
for  by  the  two  lawyers  mentioned  and  Roger  S.  Baldwin  of 
New  Haven,  in  behalf  of  the  three  girls,  who  were  only  de- 
tained as  witnesses.  On  the  21st  instant,  the  same  writ  was 
applied  for  in  behalf  of  the  rest  of  the  Africans.  Judge  Thomp- 
son overruled  the  claim  of  Lieut.  Gedney  and  Capt.  Green  for 
salvage,  but  refused  to  grant  habeas  corpus  to  any,  though 
ample  security  were  offered,  on  the  ground  that  the  case 
would  first  come  regularly  before  the  District  Court,  and  the 
District  Court  having  jurisdiction  is  bound  to  provide  neces- 
saries for  the  Africans,  until  their  status  is  detennined.  jMr. 
Staples  claimed  the  case  should  be  tried  in  New  York;  but 
ihe  judge  decided  that,  as  the  ship  was  taken  on  the  high 
seas,  /.  c,  beyond  low  water-mark,  the  suit  should  be  tried 
where  the  vessel  was  first  brought  to  land.  He  also  decided 
the  Africans  should  not  be  held  for  murder  on  the  high  seas.' 
On  Oct.  19th,  the  District  Court  met,  heard  testimony,  and 

'  Full  text  of  decision  in  Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  57.  pp.  73-75. 


431]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  61 

adjourned  to  meet  in  New  Haven,  Jan.  7th,  1840/  On  Nov. 
26th,  1839,  De  Argaiz,  the  new  Spanish  minister,  wrote  to  the 
Secretary  of  State,  denying  the  right  of  the  United  States 
courts  to  take  cognizance  of  the  case,  and  complained  that 
through  their  delay,  public  vengeance  had  not  been  satisfied, 
for  Spain  "  does  not  demand  the  delivery  of  slaves  but  of 
assassins."  From  this  high  moral  tone,  he  descended  in 
another  letter  to  ask  that,  on  the  release  of  the  negroes  by  the 
court,  the  President  should  order  the  transportation  of  the 
negroes  to  Cuba  in  a  government  vessel.  The  assurance  of 
this  request  was  not  resented  by  the  President.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  ordered  such  a  vessel  to  be  ready  to  take  the  negroes, 
if  released,  to  Cuba  and  deliver  them  to  the  Captain  General 
of  the  island.  This  vessel,  the  Grampus,  was  stationed  off 
New  Haven,  three  days  after  the  court  assembled,  ostensibly 
to  give  the  negroes  "  opportunity  to  prove  their  freedom." 
Before  the  court  even  assembled,  Lieuts.  Gedney  and  Meade 
of  the  Washington  were  ordered  to  be  ready  to  go  to  Cuba 
with  the  negroes  at  the  United  Stages'  expense,  "  for  the  pur- 
pose of  affording  their  testimony  in  any  proceedings  that  may 
be  ordered  by  the  authorities  of  Cuba  in  the  matter."  This 
shameful  pre-judgment  of  the  case  and  eager  desire  to  be  sub- 
servient to  the  slavery  interest  is  most  disgraceful  to  Van 
Buren's  administration.  On  Jan.  7th,  1840,  the  District 
Court  met,  and  the  counsel  for  the  Africans  offered  such  con- 
clusive testimony  that  the  negroes  were  native  Africans  and 
not  Spanish  subjects,  that  Judge  Judson  said  the  point  was 
clearly  proved.  Gedney"  claimed  one-third  of  the  vessel  and 
cargo  as  salvage,  which  was  given  him  by  the  Court;  but  his 
claim  for  salvage  on  the  negroes  was  refused  by  the  Court, 
as  the  negroes  could  not  be  sold,  there  being  no  law  to  per- 
mit this  to  be  done.  Green  said  he  did  not  wish  salvage  on 
flesh,  but,  if  the  negroes  were  slaves,  he  wanted  his  share. 

^  Fiill  text  of  proceedings  in  Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  57,  pp.  222.  22.S. 

'  The  Spanisli  owners  imsuecessfully  tried  to  prevent  his  getting 
salvage,  on  the  groimd  that,  as  a  United  States  officer,  what  he  did 
was  in  the  line  of  his  duty  and  should  have  no  pay. 


62  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [432 

The  Court  speedily  dismissed  his  clainx  and  decided  that  only 
Antonio,  the  cabin-boy,  should  be  given  up  to  Spain,  and  that 
the  rest  should  be  transported  to  Africa.  This  decision  was 
made  by  a  strong  Democrat  and  a  man  in  nowise  friendly  to 
negroes,  as  was  shown  in  the  Canterbury  affair,  and  is  so  the 
more  noteworthy/  The  District  Attcmey,  by  order  of  the 
Secretary  of  State,  appealed  the  case  and,  in  his  zeal,  sent  a 
messenger  to  Washington  to  have  a  clerical  mistake  in  the 
President's  warrant  corrected,  that  the  negroes  might  be  held. 
In  returning  the  warrant,  Mr.  Forsyth,  the  Secretary  of  State, 
wrote,  "  I  have  to  state,  by  direction  of  the  President,  that  if 
the  decision  of  the  court  is  such  as  is  anticipated,  the  order 
of  tlie  President  is  to  be  carried  into  execution,  unless  an 
appeal  shall  actually  have  been  interposed.  You  are  not  to 
take  it  for  granted  that  it  will  be  interposed."  That  is,  if  the 
counsel  for  the  Africans  did  not  at  once  appeal,  these  were  to 
be  hurried  on  the  Grampus  and  taken  to  Cuba.  On  the  very 
day''  the  court  assembled.  Van  Buren  sent  directions  to  tlie 
Marshal  for  this  purpose,  and  so  "  flagitious  and  barefaced 
was  deemed  this  order,"  says  Wilson,  that  some  of  Van 
Buren's  friends  said  later  that  it  was  issued  without  his 
knowledge,  by  his  "  sanguine  and  not  over-scrupulous  Sec- 
retary." Justice  Thompson  affirmed  the  decision  of  the 
District  Court  pro  forma,  and  left  the  whole  matter  to  be 
decided  by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  on  an  appeal. 
The  committee  appointed  to  care  for  the  Africans  now  pre- 
pared for  the  last  appeal,  without  stint  of  time  or  money, 
and  to  the  four'  lawyers  already  employed  added  John 
Quincy  Adams,  with  "  his  great  learning  and  forensic  ability, 
his  commanding  position  and  well-earned  reputation."  As 
early  as  Sept.  23d,  1839,  we  read  in  the  diar}--  of  the  "old 
man  eloquent,"  "  Mr.  Francis  Jackson  brought  me  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Ellis  Gray  Loring,  requesting  my  opinion  upon  the 
knotty  questions  involved  in  the  case  of  the  Spanish  ship 

'  Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  57,  pp.  336,  352,  384. 

'April  29,  1840,  at  Now  Haven.    Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  58,  p.  160. 

'  Mr.  Kimberlr^y  made  the  fourth. 


433]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  63 

Amistad 1  desired  Mr.  J.  to  say  that  I  felt  some  deli- 
cacy about  answering  his  letter,  until  Judge  Thompson's 
opinion  shall  be  published  and  until  the  final  decision  of  the 
Government  in  the  whole  case."  Meantime  he  asked  Jack- 
son to  look  up  the  records.  Soon  after,  on  Oct.  ist,  we  read/ 
"  that  which  now  absorbs  a  great  part  of  my  time  and  all  my 
good  feelings  is  tlie  case  of  fifty-three  African  negroes,  taken 
at  sea  off  Montauk  Point  by  Lieut.  Gedney."'  He  gives  a 
summary  of  tlie  case  up  to  that  date  and,  on  the  next  day, 
having  thrown  himself  into  the  case  with  all  his  accustomed 
zeal  and  energy-,  he  writes  that  he  has  examined  all  the 
authorities.  "  Here  is  an  enormous  consumption  of  time, 
only  to  perplex  myself  with  a  multitude  of  questions  upon 
which  I  cannot  yet  make  up  opinions,  for  which  I  am  willing 
to  be  responsible."^  We  hear  no  more  of  the  case  for  some 
time.  On  Feb.  loth,  1840,  he  offered  a  resolution  calling 
upon  the  President^  for  papers  concerning  the  Amistad  and, 
on  May  25th,  oft'ered  a  resolution  denouncing  the  detention 
and  imprisonment  of  the  Africans,  which  was  read  but  not 
received."  His  interest  in  the  case  continued,  and  on  Oct. 
27th,  Ellis  Gi-ay  Loring  and  Lewis  Tappan  called  on  this 
dauntless  advocate  of  the  right  of  petition  and  entreated  him*' 
to  act  as  assistant  counsel  for  the  Africans  at  the  January 
term  of  the  Supreme  Court.  He  writes :  "  I  endeavored  to 
excuse  myself  upon  the  plea  of  my  age  and  inefficiency,  of 
the  excessive  burden  of  my  duties.. .  .But  they  urged  me 
so  much  and  represented  the  case  of  those  unfortunate  men 
as  so  critical,  it  being  a  case  of  life  and  death,  that  I  yielded 
and  told  them  that,  if  by  the  blessing  of  God  my  health  and 
strength  should  permit,  I  would  argue  the  case  before  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  I  implore  the  mercy  of  Almighty  God 
so  to  control  my  temper,  to  enlighten  my  soul,  and  to  give 
me  utterance,  that  I  may  prove  myself  in  every  respect  equal 
to  the  task."' 

^  Diary,  X.,  1.32.      ^Djary,  X.,  133.        -Diaiy,  X.,  135. 

^Diaiy,  X.,  215.  Mies'  Reg.,  Vol.  58,  p.  59. 

5  Diary,  X.,  296.      'Diary,  X.,  35S. 

■Diary,  X.,  360.  NUes'  Keg.,  Vol.  57,  pp.  99,  105,  176. 


64  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [434 

A  month  later,  Nov.  17th,  he  visited  Gov.  Baldwin  in  New- 
Haven  and  saw  the  .prisoners,  tliirty-six  of  whom  were  con- 
fined in  one  chamber,  in  size  about  30  by  20  feet.  All  but 
one  of  the  men  seemed  under  thirty.  Three  of  them  tried  to 
read  to  him  from  the  New  Testament,  and  one  wrote  a  tol- 
erable hand.  The  chiefs,  Cinquez  anS  Grabow,  had  remark- 
able countenances,  he  thought.  The  people  of  New  Haven, 
and  especially  the  students  in  the  Yale  Divinity  School,  did 
not  neglect  the  temporal  or  spiritual  interests  of  the  captives; 
they  fed  and  clothed  them,  studied  their  language,  taught 
them  to  read  and  write,  and  instructed  them  in  the  truths  of 
Christianity. 

During  the  following  months'  Mr.  Adams  busily  prepared 
for  the  case,  being  assisted  by  Mr.  Stephen  Fox,  the  British 
minister.  On  Feb.  22d,  the  Amistad  case  came  up  before 
the  august  tribunal.  On  that  day,  Attorney-General  Henry 
D.  Gilpin  spoke  for  tlie  government  and  Gov.  Baldwin  for 
the  captives,  in  a  "  sound  and  eloquent,  but  exceedingly  mild 
and  moderate  argument,"' which  he  continued  on  the  next 
day. 

On  the  24th,  John  Quincy  Adams  rose^  to  speak  before  an 
audience  that  filled,  but  did  not  crowd,  the  court-room,  and 
in  which  he  remarked  there  were  not  many  ladies.  He  wrote 
in  his  diary:  "I  had  been  deeply  distressed  and  agitated  till 
the  moment  when  I  rose,  and  then  my  spirit  did  not  sink- 
within  me.  With  grateful  heart  for  aid  from  above,  though 
in  humiliation  for  the  weakness  incident  to  the  limits  of  my 
powers,  I  spoke  for  four  hours  and  a  half.  .  .The  stmc- 
ture  of  my  argument. .  .is  perfectly  simple  and  comprelien- 
sive. .  .admitting  the  steady  and  undeviating  pursuit  of 
one  fundamental  principle."  Against  him  "  an  immense 
array  of  power — the  Executive  Administration,  instigated  by 
the  minister  of  a  foreign  nation,  has  been  brought  to  bear  in 

'  Diaiy,  X.,  '^m,  399,  401.  Nilos'  Reg.,  A'ol.  57.  p.  417.  Vol.  5S,  p.  3. 
Calhoun  aniinaclverts  on  Brilisli  interference  on  INIarch  1.3.  1840. 
Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  58,  p.  140. 

'Diary,  X..  420.        s Diary.  X.,  431. 


435]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  65 

this  case  on  tlie  side  of  injustice.. .  .1  did  not,  I  could  not 
answer  public  expectation;  but  I  have  not  yet  utterly  failed. 
God  speed  me  to  the  end."  On  the  25th,  he  spoke  for  four 
and  a  half  hours  more,  and  on  March  ist,  the  Court  having 
meantime  been  in  adjournment  on  account  of  the  sudden 
death  of  Mr.  Justice  Barbour,  he  spoke  four  hours  more  and 
finished  his  argument.  On  the  next  day  Mr.  Gilpin  closed 
the  case  for  the  United  States.  Mr.  Adams,  in  his  argument, 
sternly  condemned  the  National  Government  from  tlie  Presi- 
dent down.'  He  maintained  that  these  Africans  were  torn 
from  home  and  shipped  against  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
and  the  laws  of  nations,  that  their  passage  on  the  Amistad 
was  in  law  and  fact  a  continuance  of  the  original  voyage,  and 
that  sixteen  of  the  number  had  perished  through  the  cruelty 
of  Ruiz  and  Montes,  on  whose  souls  the  ghosts  of  these  slain 
must  sit  heavy  through  the  closing  hours  of  life.  He  anim- 
adverted severely  on  the  conduct  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
saying  that  he  ought  instantly  to  have  answered  the  Spanish 
minister  that  his  demands  were  inadmissible  and  that  the 
President  had  no  power  to  do  what  was  requested.  He 
should  have  said  that  he  could  not  deliver  up  the  ship  to  the 
owner,  for  he  was  dead ;  that  the  question  depended  upon  the 
courts ;  that  a  declaration  to  the  President  that  the  courts  had 
no  power  to  try  the  case  involved  an  offensive  demand,  and 
that  the  delivering  the  negroes  by  the  President  and  sending 
them  beyond  the  seas  for  trial  was  making  the  President  "  a 
constable,  a  catchpole."  The  Secretary  of  State  had  not 
asserted  the  rights  of  the  nation  against  these  extraordinary 
demands.  "  He  has  degraded  the  country  in  the  face  of  the 
civilized  world,  not  only  by  allowing  these  demands  to 
remain  unanswered,  but  by  proceeding,  I  am  obliged  to  say, 
throughout  the  whole  transaction,  as  if  the  Executive  were 
earnestly  desirous  to  comply  with  every  one  of  these 
demands."  He  said  the  Spanish  minister  persisted  in  his 
requests  because  "he  was  not  told  instantly,  without  the 
delay  of  an  hour,  that  this  government  could  never  admit 

1  Diary,  X.,  435. 


66  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [436 

such  claims,  and  would  be  offended  if  they  were  repeated,  or 
any  portion  of  them.  Yet  all  these  claims,  monstrous, 
absurd,  and  inadmissible  as  they  are,  have  been  urged  and 
repeated  for  eighteen  months  on  our  government,  and  an 
American  Secretary  of  State  evades  answering  them — evades 
it  to  such  an  extent  that  the  Spanish  minister  reproaches 
him  for  not  answering  his  arguments."  In  his  scathing  and 
relentless  manner  he  next  proceeded  to  attack  Grundy's 
order,  mentioned  previously,  and  asking  why  it  was  not  acted 
upon,  he  cried  out,  "  Why  did  not  the  President  send  an  order 
at  once  to  the  marshal  to  seize  these  men  and  ship  them 
beyond  the  seas,  or  deliver  them  to  the  Spanish  minister? 
I  am  ashamed — I  am  ashamed  of  my  country,  that  such  an 
opinion  should  have  been  delivered  by  any  public  officer, 
especially  by  the  legal  counsellor  of  the  Executive.  I  am 
ashamed  to  stand  up  before  the  nations  of  the  earth  with 
such  an  opinion  recorded  before  us  as  official,  and  still  more, 
adopted  by  a  Cabinet  which  did  not  dare  to  do  the  deed." 
Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  his  forcible  address. 

A  week  later,  March  9,  Justice  Story  gave  the  opinion  of 
the  court'  that  the  Africans  were  kidnapped  and  unlawfully 
transported  to  Cuba,  purchased  by  Ruiz  and  Montes  with 
knowledge  of  the  fact  that  they  were  free,  and  did  not  become 
pirates  and  robbers  in  taking  the  Amistad  and  trying  to 
regain  their  country;  that  there  was  nothing  in  the  treaty 
with  Spain  which  justified  a  surrender,  and  that  the  United 
States  had  to  respect  the  Africans'  rights  as  much  as  those  of 
the  Spaniards.  "  Our  opinion  is  that  the  decree  of  the 
Circuit  Court  affirming  that  of  the  District  Court  ought  to 
be  affirmed,  except  so  far  as  it  directs  the  negroes  to  be  deliv- 
ered to  the  President  to  be  transported  to  Africa,  in  pursuance 
of  the  Act  of  the  3d  of  March,  1819,  and  as  to  this  it  ought 
to  be  reversed,  and  that  the  said  negroes  be  declared  to  be  free 
and  be  dismissed  from  the  custody  of  the  court  and  go  with- 

'  Text  of  decision  in  Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  60,  p.  40  ff.,  vide  Vol.  60,  p. 
32.  The  influence  of  Great  Britain  was  continuously  thrown  on  the 
side  of  freedom.    Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  59,  p.  402. 


437]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  67 

out  day."  The  battle  was  won.  John  Quincy  Adams^  wrote 
to  Lewis  Tappan,  "The  captives  are  free.  The  part  of  the 
decree  of  the  District  Court  which  placed  them  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  be  sent  to 
Africa,  is  removed.  They  are  to  be  discharged  from  the 
custody  of  the  marshal,  free." 

A  week  later,"  on  March  17,  Mr.  Adams  asked  Webster, 
the  new  Secretary  of  State,  for  a  public  ship  to  take  the 
Africans  home,  as  the  court  had  taken  from  them  "  the  vessel 
found  in  their  possession. .  .and  her  cargo,  their  lawful 
prize  of  war."  Webster,  Adams  writes  in  his  diary,  appeared 
startled  at  the  idea  that  the  Amistad  and  her  cargo  were  the 
property  of  the  Africans,  but  afterwards  said  he  saw  no 
objection  to  furnish  them  with  a  passage  in  a  public  ship  and 
would  speak  of  it  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  He,  how- 
ever, finally  refused  to  grant  the  request.' 

Lewis  Tappan  had  been  largely  instrumental  in  their 
release.  He  left  his  business  and  traveled  for  weeks  in  their 
behalf,  counseling  with  friends,  getting  money,  and  making 
arrangements  to  send  them  to  Africa.  He  exhibited  them 
throughout  the  North  for  an  admission  fee  to  raise  money  for 
their  passage.  After  their  release,*  they  were  sent  to  Farm- 
itigton,  Connecticut,  for  instruction,  and  many  of  them  learned 
to  speak  English  and  became  Christians.  Religious  people 
throughout  the  country  became  interested  in  them,  and  when 
the}^  went  back  to  Africa  on  November  25,  1841,  five  mis- 
sionaries went  with  the  thirty-five  that  survived."  They 
landed  at  Sierra  Leone  on  January  15,  1842,  whence  the 

^  Adams  wrote  on  March  17,  1841,  strenuously  opposing  many  of 
the  incidental  positions  taken  by  the  lower  courts.  Text  in  full  in 
Niles'  Eeg.,  Vol.  60,  p.  116. 

-Diary,  X.,  446.  The  vessel  was  sold  at  New  London  in  October, 
1840.  The  cargo  was  also  sold,  the  whole  bringing  about  $6000. 
Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  59,  pp.  144,  318,  347. 

sNUes'  Reg.,  Vol.  62,  p.  144. 

^Diaiy,  X.,  450.  NUes'  Reg.,  Vol.  60,  p.  64;  Vol.  62,  pp.  17,  128, 
311. 

6 Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  62,  pp.  96,  224. 


68  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [438 

British  Government  assisted  them  home,  and  from  this  band 
of  negroes  in  the  Amistad  sprung  the  Mendi  Mission/ 

In  1844,  C.  J.  Ingersoll/  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Foreign  Affairs  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  reported  a 
bill  to  pay  $70,000  to  the  pretended  owners  of  the  Africans; 
but  the  burning  words  of  Giddings  and  Adams  secured  the 
passage  of  a  motion  to  lay  on  the  table  and  prevented  that 
national  disgrace.  As  late  as  1847,  however,  Polk,  in  his 
message,  recommended  an  appropriation  to  the  Spanish  Gov- 
ernment to  be  distributed  among  the  claimants/ 

Of  the  fiftv'-three  Africans  on  the  Amistad  when  it  left 
Cuba,  nine  died  on  the  way,  eight  at  New  Haven,  and  one  at 
Farrhington,  while  Cinque  and  thirt\^-four  others  lived  to 
return  home/ 

Growth  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Spirit. 

The  coming  of  the  Revolution  caused  men  to  question  the 
rightfulness  of  holding  one's  fellow-man  in  bondage,  and  the 
article  in  the  Norzvicli  Packet  and  the  resolutions  of  the 
Danbury  town  meeting,  already  quoted,  clearly  show  this. 
The  feeling  spread.  In  1778,  the  Wethersfield  town  records 
show  a  slave.  Prince,  manumitted,  on  his  master's  "  being 
convinced'^  of  the  injustice  of  the  general  practice  of  the 
country  in  holding  negro  slaves,  during  life,  without  their 
consent." 

Many  other  such  instances  are  doubtless  hidden  away 
in  the  manuscripts  of  the  Town  Clerks'  offices,  but  the  only 
other  one  I  have  come  across  is  that  of  Abijah  Holbrook, 


^  On  February  27,  1843,  President  Tyler  recommended  Congress, 
by  a  special  message,  to  refimd  the  salvage  on  the  Amistad  to  the 
Spanish  Government.    Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  G4,  p.  66. 

-Adams  issued  an  address  to  liis  constituents  on  this  subject  con- 
cerning this.    The  text  is  in  Nilos'  Reg.,  Vol.  6S,  p.  S5. 

■'Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  73,  Dec.  11,  1S47. 

"Niles'  Reg.,  \o\.  60,  pp.  206.  208,  400.  The  cabin-boy  Antonio 
was  to  have  been  retmned  to  Cuba,  but  escaped.  Niles'  Reg.,  Vol. 
60,  p.  96. 

'Mag.  of  Am.  Hist..  XXT.,  422. 


439]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  69 

who  came  from  Massachusetts  to  Torrington  in  1787,  and 
in  1798  freed  his  slave,  "then  about  28  years  old"  and 
"  desirous  of  being  free, . , .  being  influenced  by  motives  of 
humanity  and  benevolence,  believing  that  all  mankind  by 
nature  are  entitled  to  equal  liberty  and  freedom."  His  ne- 
groes, he  said,  "  have  served  me  with  faithfulness  and  fidelity, 
and  tliey  being  now  in  the  prime  and  vigor  of  life,  and  appear 
to  be  well  qualified,  as  to  understanding  and  economy,  to 
maintain  and  support  themselves  by  their  own  industry,  and 
they  manifesting  a  great  desire  to  be  delivered  from  slavery 
and  bondage,"'  he  grants  their  desire.  Before  that,  however, 
an  organized  anti-slavery  sentiment  had  arisen.  In  Feb- 
ruary, 1789,  the  Rhode  Island'  Anti-Slavery  Society  was 
founded,  witli  Jonathan  Edwards  the  younger,  pastor  of  a 
New  Haven  church,  as  one  of  the  members.  In  Connecticut 
there  were  less  than  3000  slaves,  yet  "  the  strong  pro-slavery 
feeling  and  conservative  interest  which  obtained  there  opened 
a  wide  and  important  field  for  an  Abolition  Society."  So,  in 
1790,  the  Connecticut  Anti-Slavery  Society^  was  formed,  with 
President  Ezra  Stiles,  of  Yale  College,  as  its  president,  and 
Simeon  Baldwin  as  its  secretary. 

The  Society  speedily  showed  great  activity.  On  January 
7,  1 791,  it  issued  a  petition^  to  Congress,  which  was  referred 
to  a  special  committee  and  never  more  heard  of. 

In  the  petition,^  the  Society,  though  "  lately  established," 
claims  it  has  "  become  generally  extensive  through  the  State, 
and  we  fully  believe  embraces  on  this  subject  the  sentiments  of 
a  large  majority  of  the  citizens.  From  a  sober  conviction  of 
the  unrighteousness  of  slavery,  your  petitioners  have  long 
beheld  with  grief  a  considerable  number  of  our  fellow-men 

^  Orcutt's  "  Hist,  of  Torrington,"  p.  212. 

•^  WUson,  "  Rise  and  FaU,"  I.,  p.  26. 

^Poole,  "  Anti-SIaveiy  Opinions  before  1800,"  p.  50. 

^Presented  to  Congress,  Dec.  8,  1791.  Wilson,  "  Rise  and  Fall," 
I.,  p.  67. 

5  Found  in  '  INIemorials  presented  to  Congress  by  Different  So- 
cieties instituted  for  promoting  tbe  Abolition  of  Slavery."  I'liila., 
1792,  pp.  7-11. 


70  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [440 

doomed  to  perpetual  bondage,  in  a  country  which  boasts  of 
her  freedom ...  The  whole  system  of  African  slavery  is 
unjust  in  its  nature,  impolitic  in  its  principles,  and  in  its  con- 
sequences ruinous  to  the  industry  and  enterprise  of  the 
citizens  of  these  States."  They  pray  that  Congress  should, 
by  constitutional  means,  "  prevent,  as  much  as  possible,  the 
horrors  of  the  slave-trade, . . .  prohibit  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  from  carrying  on  the  trade,. .  .prohibit  for- 
eigners from  fitting  out  vessels ...  in  the  United  States  for 
transporting  persons  from  Africa, . . .  and  alleviate  the  suffer- 
ings of  those  who  are  now  in  slavery,  and  check  the  further 
progress  of  this  inhuman  commerce." 

The  same  year^  in  which  this  temperate  appeal  was  written, 
Jonathan  Edwards,  Jr.,  speaking  before  the  Connecticut 
Society,  said,  "  Every  man  who  cannot  show  that  his  negro 
hath  by  his  voluntary  conduct  forfeited  his  liberty,  is  obliged 
immediately  to  manumit  him."  "  To  hold  a  man  in  a  state  of 
slavery  who  has  a  right  to  his  liberty,  is  to  be  every  day 
guilty  of  robbing  him  of  his  liberty,  or  of  man-stealing,  and 
is  a  greater  sin  in  the  sight  of  God  than  concubinage  or  for- 
nication." In  these  trenchant  words,  as  Wilson  truly 
remarks,^  "was  clearly  promulgated  the  duty  of  immediate 
emancipation,  as  distinctly  as  it  has  ever  been  enunciated.  . . 
before  or  since." 

Though  not  so  extreme  as  this,  when  a  proposition  for  a 
duty  on  slaves  was  before  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
at  about  the  same  time,  Roger  Sherman  objected  to  this 
being  included  in  the  general  import  bill,  saying," "  He  could 
not  reconcile  himself  to  the  insertion  of  human  beings  as  a 
subject  of  import,  among  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise." 
On  this  same  subject,  some  years  later,  Roger  Griswold  spoke 

'  "  Injustice  nnd  Impolicy  of  the  Slave  Trade  and  of  tlie  Slavery 
of  tlie  Africans,  illustrated  in  a  sermon  before  the  Connecticut 
Society  for  the  promotion  of  freedom  and  for  the  relief  of  persons 
imlawfully  holden  in.  Bondage,  at  their  annual  meeting."  By  Jon- 
athan Edwards,  D.  D.,  New  Haven,  Sept.  15,  1791. 

•'Wilson,  "Rise  and  Fall."  I.,  27. 

"  Wilson,  ''Rise  and  Fall,"  I.,  p.  56. 


441]  History  of  Slafvery  in  Connecticut.  71 

against  laying-  a  tax  on  imported  slaves,'  though  he  was 
opposed  to  the  slave-trade,  lest  it  should  seem  the  United 
States  raised  money  from  commerce  in  slaves.  The  mass 
of  the  citizens  of  Connecticut  at  this  time  were  evidently  abo- 
litionists of  a  moderate  type,  believing,  as  did  the  Fathers  of 
the  Republic,  that  emancipation  would  come  gradually. 
Tsleantime  the  movement  towards  liberty  was  growing,  and 
vv^hen  the  Anti-Slavery  Societies  became  strong  enough  to 
hold  their  first  Convention  at  Philadelphia,  on  January  i, 
1794,  the  Connecticut  Society  was  represented  by  Uriah 
Tracy.  On  the  8th  of  May  of  the  same  year,'  the  day  of  the 
inauguration  of  the  Governor,  the  Society  was  entertained 
by  an  address  at  the  North  (now  Centre)  Meeting  House, 
delivered  by  Theodore  Dwight,  its  secretary.  His  address 
was  published,  and  it  was  probably  from  having  seen  or 
heard  of  it  that  Bishop  Gregoire  mentioned  Dwight  in  the  list 
of  fifteen  to  whom  he  dedicated  his  "  Literature  of  Negroes." 
In  this  list,  it  may  be  remarked,  were  the  names  of  two  other 
Connecticut  men:  Joel  Barlow  and  Col.  Humphreys. 

At  the  time  of  Dwight's  address,  there  were  Committees  of 
Correspondence  at  Hartford,'  and  in  New  London,  Windham 
and  Tolland  Counties.  When  the  second  Anti-Slavery  Con- 
vention met  at  Philadelphia  in  1795,  Connecticut  was  repre- 
sented by  Jonathan  Edwards,  Uriah  Tracy,  and  Zephaniah 
Swift.  The  first  of  these  was  made  chainiian  of  the  com- 
mittee on  business,  and  prepared  an  address  to  South  Caro- 
lina,* appealing  for  "  a  numerous  class  of  men,  existing  among 

^  In  1804.    WUson,  "  Rise  and  FaU,"  I.,  p.  87. 

2Poole,  "Anti-Slavery  Opinions  before  1800,"  pp.  50,  80.  "  Oi-a- 
tion  Spoken  liefore  the  Conn.  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Free- 
dom and  the  Relief  of  Persons  unlawfully  Held  in  Bondage,  Con- 
vened at  Hartford  on  the  8th  Day  of  INIay,  1794,  by  Theodore 
Dwight."  Hai-tford,  1794,  pp.  24,  Svo.  At  that  time  Ohauncey 
vjoodrich  was  vice-president  and  Ezeldel  Williams  assistant 
secretary. 

=*At  Hartford  the  Committee  consisted  of  Dr.  Lemuel  Hopkins, 
Theodore  Dwight,  Thomas  Y.  Seymour,  and  Ezekiel  WilUams,  Jr. 
Trumbull's  "  Memorial  Hist,  of  Hartford  Co.,"  Vol.  I. 

■» Poole,  "Anti-Slaveiy  Opinions,"  pp.  28,  77. 


72  History  of  Slavery  -in  Connecticut.  [442 

you,  deprived  of  their  natural  rights  and  forcibly  held  in  bond- 
age." He  called  on  the  State  to  improve  their  condition  and 
to  educate  them,  and  stated  that  by  the  slave-trade,  of  neces- 
sity, "  the  minds  of  our  citizens  are  debased  and  their  hearts 
hardened,  by  contemplating  these  people  only  through  the 
medium  of  avarice  or  prejudice." 

The  early  anti-slavery  feeling,'  however,  gradually  died 
away  in  Connecticut,  as  elsewhere,  and  was  succeeded  by  the 
colonization  idea,  as  advanced  by  the  American  Colonization 
Societ}',  of  which  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  wrote,  "  It  is  not  a 
missionary  society,  nor  a  society  for  the  suppression  of  the 
slave-trade,  nor  a  society  for  the  improvement  of  the  blacks, 
nor  a  society  for  the  abolition  of  slavery ;  it  is  simply  a  society 
for  the  establishment  of  a  colony  on  the  coast  of  Africa." 
In  the  same  line  of  thought,  the  New  Haven  Religious  Intel- 
ligencer condemned  measures  calculated  to  bind  the  colored 
people  to  this  country,  by  seeking  to  raise  them  to  a  level  with 
the  whites,  whether  by  founding  colleges  or  in  any  other 
way,  "  because  it  would  divert  attention  and  counteract  and 
thwart  the  whole  plan  of  colonization."  It  was  this  same 
spirit  that  aroused  the  opposition  to  ]Miss  Crandall,  and 
which  opposed  the  attempt  of  a  convention  of  free  colored 
people  in  Philadelphia  in  1831  to  establish  a  collegiate  school 
on  the  manual  labor  plan  at  New  Haven.  The  idea  of  this 
convention  was  to  raise  $20,000  for  this  school,  of  which 
they  stated  $1000  was  already  offered,  provided  the  rest 
should  be  subscribed.  The  reasons  for  their  selecting  New 
Haven  were  these:  the  site  of  the  town  was  healthy  and 
beautiful;  the  inhabitants  friendly,  pious,  generous,  and 
humane;  the  laws  of  Connecticut  salutary  and  protected  all 
without  regard  to  complexion ;  the  boarding  there  was  cheap 
and  the  provisions  good;  the  situation  was  as  central  as  any 
that  could  be  obtained  with  the  same  advantages;  the  exten- 
sive West  India  trade  of  New  Haven  might  induce  many 
wealthv  colored  inhabitants  of  the  West  Indies  to  send  tlieir 


'  Wilson,  "  RLse  and  FiHl,"  I.,  p.  215. 


443]  Eistory  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  73 

sons  there  for  an  education;  and  lastly,  the  literary  and 
scientific  character  of  New  Haven  renders  it  a  desirable  place 
to  locate  their  college/ 

The  plan  was  not  looked  upon  with  any  pleasure  in  New 
Haven,  and  "  created  the  most  profound  excitement  and  called 
forth  the  most  determined  resistance."  The  Mayor  called 
a  public  meeting  "  to  take  into  consideration  a  scheme  said  to 
be  in  progress  for  the  establishment  in  this  city  of  a  college 
for  tlie  education  of  colored  youth."  At  the  meeting  held 
September  8,  1831,  resolutions  were  passed  "that  we  will 
resist  the  establishment  of  the  proposed  college  in  this  place 
by  every  lawful  means,"  and,  in  the  preamble,  the  citizens 
expressed  their  conviction  that  immediate  emancipation  and 
the  founding  of  colleges  for  colored  persons  were  unwar- 
rantable and  dangerous  interference  with  the  internal  con- 
cerns of  the  State,  which  ought  to  be  discouraged.  To  these 
sentiments  only  one  man,  the  Rev.  Simeon  S.  Jocelyn, 
entered  a  protest.  This  opposition  of  the  residents  of  New 
Haven  rendered  any  attempt  to  carry  out  the  convention's 
scheme  futile.  The  party  of  the  staUis  qiio  ante  was  triumph- 
ant throughout  the  State ;  but,  as  often  when  the  hour  is  the 
darkest,  the  daylight  was  at  hand. 

However,  there  had  never  been  lack  of  men  to  protest 
against  human  slaverv%  and  the  halls  of  Congress  had  often 
heard  bold  sentiments  from  Connecticut  men.  In  Novem- 
ber, 1797,  when  the  Pennsylvania  Quakers  complained  to 
Congress  that  slaves  emancipated  by  Friends  in  North  Car- 
olina had  again  been  made  slaves,  Allen  of  Connecticut  said 
he  trusted  the  petition  v/ou'ld  not  be  rejected,  as  that  would 
be  disrespectful  to  a  society  revered  by  every  man  who  sets 
value  on  virtue.  In  December,  1799,  when  the  Southerners 
were  raging  on  account  of  a  petition  from  the  negroes  of 
Philadelphia  for  gradual  emancipation,  Edmond  of  Connec- 
ticut said  they  were  acting  with  "  inattention  that  passion 
alone  could  dictate."     In  the  session  of  1806-7,  when  South- 

•  Williams,  "  Negro  Race, "II.,  pp.  63.  64.  Fowler.  "  Hist.  Status." 
p.  151. 


74  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [444 

erners  sneered  at  the  North's  opposition  to  the  slave-trade, 
Moseley  of  Connecticut  said  if  any  of  his  section  were  con- 
victed of  being-  in  the  slave  trade,  his  constituents  would  thank 
the  South  for  hanging  them.'  In  January,  1818,  when  a  bill 
to  enforce  the  fugitive  slave  law  was  under  debate,  Williams 
of  Connecticut  opposed  a  clause  permitting  freemen  to  be 
dragged  to  another  part  of  the  country,  saying,  "  In  attempt- 
ing to  guard  the  rights  of  property  to  one  class  of  citizens,  it 
was  unjust  that  the  rights  of  another  class  should  be  put  in 
jeopardy." 

In  1833,  however,  the  influence  of  those  in  favor  of  imme- 
diate abolition  of  slavery  began  to  be  felt  in  Connecticut,  con- 
tending with  the  pro-slavery  and  colonization  influences.  In 
that  year,  the  New  Haven  Anti-Slavery  Society  was  founded, 
being  one  of  the  first  societies^  based  on  the  principle  of  imme- 
diate, miconditional  abolition.  It  sent  its  greetings  to  the  old 
Pennsylvania  Abolition  Society,  and  received  from  it  a  cordial 
response.  Among  the  leading  spirits  of  the  Connecticut 
Society  were  two  clergymen,^  Samuel  J.  May  and  Simeon  S. 
Jocelyn,  both  of  whom  were  prominent  at  the  organization  of 
the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  December,  1833. 

The  feeling  of  the  learned  and  powerful  city  of  New  Haven 
was  further  shown  in  the  public  meeting  called  by  the  ]\Iayor 
and  Council  of  the  city  to  consider  the  report  and  resolutions 
of  Charleston,  S.  C,  held  August  10,  1835,  and  sent  to  each 
incorporated  city  and  town  in  the  United  States.  Charles- 
ton's resolves  were  concerning  "  societies  and  individuals  who 
have  circulated  incendiary  publications  through  some  of  the 
vSouthern  States,"  and  were  violently  against  anti-slavery  pub- 
lications. Henr}^  S.  Edwards  acted  as  president  of  the  New 
Haven  meeting,  and  Noah  Webster  and  David  Daggett  as 
vice-presidents.  It  passed  resolutions  condemning  aboli- 
tionist publications,  denouncing  their  being  sent  by   mail. 


'Wilson,  "Rise  and  Fall,"  I.,  pp.  73,  77,  82.  96. 
nVilson,  "  Rise  and  Fall,"  I.,  p.  25. 

■''May  was  Vice-President.    Wilson,  "  Rise  and  Fall,"  I.,  250  and 
260. 


445]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  75 

quoting  a  report  of  a  committee  of  Congress  in  1790  that  that 
body  "  have  no  authority  to  interfere  in  the  emancipation  of 
slaves,  or  in  the  treatment  of  them  in  the  different  States,  it 
remaining  with  the  several  States  alone  to  provide  any  regu- 
lations therein  which  humane  and  true  policy  may  require." 
To  this  utterance  of  non-interference,  they  coupled  anotlier 
quotation  from  a  letter  of  Oliver  Wolcott,  Sr.,  to  his  son  of 
the  same  name.  ''  I  wish  that  Congress  would  prefer  the 
white  people  of  this  country  to  the  black.  After  they  have 
taken  care  of  the  former,  they  may  amuse  themselves  with  the 
other  people."^ 

Hartford  held  a  similar  meeting  on  Sept.  26,  1835,  and, 
v/ith  Isaac  Toucey  as  president  and  Elisha  Phelps  and  Joseph 
Piatt  as  vice-presidents,  affirmed  that  '•  certain  persons  in  the 
Middle  and  Eastern  States  have  formed  associations  for  the 
avowed  purpose  of  effecting  the  abolition  of  slaver}^  in  the 
other  States,  and  in  pursuance  of  said  design,  have  established 
a  press  from  which  they  issued  several  ne^vspapers  and  peri- 
odicals devoted  to  the  aforesaid  objects  and  filled  with  the 
most  inflammatory  matter,  whereby  the  confederacy  is  endan- 
gered." 

In  that  same  year  a  negro  woman,^  who  had  fled  from  her 
master  and  lived  in  Hartford  as  a  servant  for  several  years, 
met  a  nephew  of  her  former  master  on  the  streets  of  the  city. 
He  spoke  kindly  to  her  and  told  her  his  family  had  ceased  to 
count  her  as  their  property,  and  tliat  he  had  only  friendly 
feelings  for  her.  He  continued  that  he  had  some  clothing  for 
her  at  the  hotel  where  he  was  stopping,  which  he  asked  her  to 

^Another  resolution  favored  colonization  in  Africa.  Fowler, 
"  Local  Law,"  pp.  96,  97.  FuU  text  in  Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  49,  p.  73. 
R.  S.  Baldwin  opposed  these  resolutions.  On  the  same  page  in 
NUes'  Reg.  is  a  letter  copied  from  the  Middletown  Advocate,  and 
wiitten  by  Rev.  Wilbur  Fisk,  first  President  of  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity, stating  that  though  he  wished  "  freedom  to  the  slave,"  he 
would  sign  no  petitions  for  abolition  of  slaveiy,  as  "  the  ultra- 
abohtionists,  by  their  imprudent  movements  and  ill-timed  and  ill- 
managed  system  of  agitation  have,  as  I  think,  removed  all  hope  of 
success  in  any  measure  of  this  kind  at  the  present  time." 

^Trumbull's  "  Hartford  County,"  I.,  609. 


76  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [446 

go  with  him  and  get.  She  incautiously  went  to  his  room  on 
the  third  floor,  when  he  locked  the  door  to  hold  her  prisoner. 
She  rushed  to  the  front  window  and  leapt  out,  and,  falling  on 
an  a^^^ling,  escaped  alive.  ^Mr.  Elisha  Colt,  in  whose  family 
she  serv^ed,  raised  a  purse  and  bought  her,  that  he  might  set 
her  free. 

Another  fugitive  slave  in  Hartford  was  Rev.  James  Pen- 
nington, D.D.,  who,  escaping  when  a  boy,  was  educated  abroad 
at  Heidelberg.  He  became  pastor  of  the  Talcott  St.  Church 
in  Hartford,  and  being  fearful  of  capture  after  the  passage  of 
the  fugitive  slave  law  of  1850,  induced  Gen.  Joseph  R.  Haw- 
ley,  then  a  young  lawyer  in  the  office  of  John  Hooker,  Esq., 
to  visit  his  former  owner  and  buy  him  for  Mr.  Hooker.  Mr. 
Hooker  held  the  deed  for  a  day,  to  erjoy  the  sensation  of 
owning  a  doctor  of  divinity,  and  then  emancipated  him. 

In  1836'  the  Connecticut  Society,  urged  on  by  the  Crandall 
case,  started  the  Oiristian  Freeman  at  Hartford,  with  Wm. 
H.  Burleigh  as  editor.  In  1845,  that  paper  was  merged  in 
the  Charter  Oak,  whose  office  was  mobbed  by  a  Democratic 
mob  during  the  Mexican  War,  on  account  of  the  outspoken 
character  of  its  sentiments.  The  Charter  Oak  was  merged  in 
the  Republican  in  later  3'ears,  that  in  the  Evening  Press,  and 
that  in  the  well  known  Hartford  Conrant^ 

Under  the  stimulus  of  the  zeal  of  the  leaders  of  this 
new  movement,  violent  discussion  and  debate  sprang  up 
throughout  the  State.^  Amos  A.  Phelps,  a  brilliant  and  'able 
speaker,  a  native  of  Farmington,  took  the  matter  up  in  that 
town,  and  the  church  in  the  town  was  nearly  rent  in  twain 
from  the  violence  of  the  parties.*  What  nearly  happened  in 
Farmington  came  to  pass  in   Guilford,  where  the  pastor 

'  The  increased  interest  in  the  subject  is  shown  by  the  mimber  of 
pamphlets  Issued  upon  slaverj^  in  Connecticut  about  this  time. 

2TrumbuIl's  "  Hartford  County,"  I.,  p.  609. 

•■'Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  56,  p.  410,  has  a  lonj?  letter  from  Rojrer  M. 
Sherman,  dated  .Time  26, 1838,  written  to  the  National  Anti-Slavery 
Society,  in  which,  in  dignified  language,  he  states  his  opposition 
both  to  slaveiy  and  the  methods  of  the  abolitionists. 

•*  Ti-umbidl's  "Hartford  Cc)untj%"  11.,  p.  102. 


447]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  77 

changed  from  tlie  advocacy  of  colonization  to  that  of  aboli- 
tion, and  caused  such  a  bitter  dissension  that,  though  he 
eventually  resigned  and  left  the  town,  his  followers,  who  con- 
stituted a  minority  in  the  old  church,  left  and  established  an- 
other one,  which  remains  separate  to  this  day.  In  that  town 
the  use  of  the  church  was  refused  the  local  Anti-Slavery 
Society  for  its  meetings,  and  in  Norwich,  which,  on  Oct.  14, 
1800,  had  directed  its  selectmen  to  instruct  the  town's  repre- 
sentatives "to  use  their  influence  in  obtaining  a  resolve. . . 
prohibiting  the  migration  of  negroes . . .  from  other  States 
into  this  State,"  now  the  inhabitants  in  town  meeting 
"  Resolved  that,  as  it  is  the  duty  of  every  good  citizen  to  dis- 
countenance seditious  or  incendiary  doctrines  of  ever}'  sort, 
we  do  deny  entirely  tlie  use  of  the  Town  Hall,  or  of  any  other 
building  belonging  to  the  town,  for  any  purpose  connect)ed 
in  any  way  with  the  abolition  of  slavery.'"'" 

Miss  Abbey  Kelley,'  a  Quakeress,  who  spoke  against 
slavery,  was  denounced  from  the  pulpits  in  Litchfield  County 
as  "  that  woman  Jezebel,  who  calleth  herself  a  prophetess  to 
teach  and  seduce  my  servants  " ;  but  she  and  others  gathered 
so  many  adherents  that  in  January,  1837,  a  meeting  was  held 
at  Wolcottville  to  organize  an  anti-slaver>'  society.  The 
gathering  had  to  be  in  a  barn,  as  churches  and  other  public 
places  were  closed.  Even  there  a  mob  broke  up  the  meeting, 
which  adjourned  to  Torrington  Church,  where  it  continued 
two  days.  The  Litchfield  County  Sociey"  so  formed  soon 
began  holding  monthly  meetings  in  bams,  sheds,  and  groves, 
and  propagating  its  tenets  by  lectures,  tracts,  etc. 

^  Caulkins,  "  Norwich,"  p.  568. 

-Orcutt's  "Tonington,"  pp.  212,  218.  For  tlie  opposition  an 
early  anti-slavery  advocate  received  in  Washington,  Litchfield 
County,  see  "  The  ]Master  of  the  Gunneiy,"  a  memorial  volume  to 
F.  TV.  Gunn. 

'Roger  S.  aiills  of  New  Hailford  was  made  president,  Erastus 
Lyman  of  Goshen  vice-president,  with  Gan.  Daniel  B.  Brinsmade 
of  Washington,  Gen.  Uriel  Tuttle  of  Torringford,  and  Jonathan 
Coe  of  Winsted.  Rev.  R.  M.  Chipman  of  Harwinton  was  made 
secretary,  and  Dr.  E.  D.  Hudson  of  Toningford  treasurer.  Tor- 
rington was  the  birthplace  of  John  Brown  of  Ossawattomie  and 
Harper's  Feiry  fame. 


78  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [448 

From  1840  onward,  the  progress  of  anti-slavery  sentiments 
in  Connecticut  was  gradual/  In  1840  she  cast  174  votes  for 
Birney;  in  1844  she  gave  him  1943;  in  1848  Van  Buren 
received  5005;  in  1852  Hale  obtained  3160.  Then  under  the 
influence  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  the  State  rapidly  moved 
towards  abolitionism.  In  1854  the  Anti-Nebraska  candidate 
for  Governor  polled  19,465  votes;  in  1856  Fremont  carried 
the  State  and  received  42,715  votes,  and  Connecticut  was 
placed  in  the  ranks  of  the  Republican  States  for  many  years. 

Social  Condition  of  Slaves. 

The  slave  showed  the  usual  imitation  of  his  white  masters. 
We  read  of  negro  balls,  negro  governors,  and  negro  training 
days.  In  religious  affairs  they,  for  the  most  part,  were  of  the 
Congregational  faith;  few  became  Baptists  or  Methodists, 
as  at  the  South.  The  annual  election  of  a  negro  Gov- 
ernor' was  a  great  event,  and  one,  as  far  as  I  know,  unique  to 
Connecticut.  It  occurred  as  recently  as  1820,  and  came  off 
generally  on  the  Saturday  after  election  day.  It  was  partici- 
pated in  by  all  the  negroes  in  the  capital,  and  not  only  a 
governor,  but  also  minor  officers  w^re  chosen.  They  bor- 
rowed their  masters'  horses  and  trappings  and  had  a  grand 
parade  after  the  election.  "  Provisions,  decorations,  fruits, 
and  liquors  were  liberally  "  given  them.  "  Great  electioneer- 
ing prevailed,  parties  often  ran  high,  stump  harangues  were 
made,  and  a  vast  deal  of  ceremony  expended  in  counting  the 
votes,  proclaiming  the  result,  and  inducting  the  candidate 
into  office,  the  whole  too  often  terminating  in  a  drunken 
frolic,  if  not  a  free  fight,"  says  one  writer.  Scaeva,  in  his 
"  Sketches   of  Hartford  in  the  Olden  Time,"  adds  other 


^  On  Dec.  26,  1843,  J.  Q.  Adams  notes  in  his  Diary  that  he  pre- 
sented a  petition  from  Connecticut  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  and 
the  slave  trade  in  the  District  of  Colmnbia.  Diary,  XI..  461.  In 
1845  the  Abolition  or  Liberty  nominated  full  State  and  Congres- 
sional ticlcets.  Niles'  Reg.,  Vol.  68,  p.  23.  1841  is  the  earUest  year 
in  which  I  find  an  AboUtion  State  ticket.    Niles,  Reg.,  Vol.  02,  p.  80. 

"Caulkins,  "Norwich,"  pp.  330.    Stiles,  "Windsor,"  I.,  490. 


449]  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  79 

touches.  The  negroes,  "  of  course,  made  their  election  to  a 
large  extent  deputatively,  as  all  could  not  be  present,  but 
uniformly  yielded  to  it  their  assent, . . ,  The  person  they 
selected  for  the  office  was  usually  one  of  much  note  among 
themselves,  of  imposing  presence,  strength,  firmness,  and 
volubility,  who  was  quick  to  decide,  ready  to  command,  and 
able  to  flog.  If  he  was  inclined  to  be  arbitrary,  belonged  to  a 
master  of  distinction,  and  was  ready  to  pay  freely  for  diver- 
sions— these,  were  circumstances  in  his  favor.  Still  it  was 
necessary  he  should  be  an  honest  negro,  and  be,  or  appear  to 
be,  wise  above  his  fellows."  What  his  powers  were  was 
probably  not  well  defined,  but  he  most  likely  "  settled  all  grave 
disputes  in  the  last  resort,  questioned  conduct,  and  imposed 
penalties  and  punishments  sometimes  for  vice  and  miscon- 
duct." Such  an  officer  is  a  remarkable  instance  of  the 
negro's  power  of  mimicry.  In  his  election  parade  "  a  troop 
of  blacks,  sometimes  one  hundred  in  number,  marching 
sometimes  two  and  two  on  foot,  sometimes  mounted  in  true 
military  style  and  dress  on  horseback,  escorted  him  through 
the  streets  with  drums  beating,  colors  flying,  and  fifes,  fiddles, 
clarionets,  and  every  '  sonorous  metal '  that  could  be  found, 
'uttering  martial  sound.'  After  marching  to  their  content, 
they  would  retire  to  some  large  room,  which  they  would 
engage  for  the  purpose  of  refreshments  and  deliberation." 

In  Norwich,"  it  would  seem  there  was  a  special  Governor 
for  the  negroes;  for  the  graveyard  contains  a  stone:  "In 
memory  of  Boston  Trowtrow,  Governor  of  the  African  tribe 
in  this  Town,  who  died  1772."  After  him  ruled  Sam  Hunt- 
ingdon, slave  of  the  Governor  of  the  same  name,  and  he  is 
described  as,  "  after  his  election,  riding  through  the  Town  on 
one  of  his  master's  horses,  adorned  with  painted  gear,  his 
aids  on  each  side, a  /a  mz/i^aire,  himself  puffing  and  swelling 
with  pomposity,  sitting  bolt  upright  and  moving  with  a  slow- 
majestic  pace,  as  if  the  universe  was  looking  on.  When  he 
mounted  or  dismounted  his  aids  flew  to  his  assistance,  hold- 


'  Caulkins,  "  Norwich,"  p.  330.     Vide  Fowler,  "Hist.  Status,"  p. 
81. 


80  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [450 

ing  his  bridle,  putting  his  feet  into  the  stirrup,  and  bowing  to 
the  ground  before  him.  The  Great  Mogul  in  a  triumphal 
procession  never  assumed  an  air  of  more  perfect  self-import- 
ance than  the  negro  Governor." 

Of  negro  trainings,  Stiles  in  his  "  Ancient  Windsor  "  tells 
amusing  tales,  and  doubtless  such  occurred  in  many  other 
towns  w^here  there  Avere  sufficient  blacks. 

The  Connecticut  negroes,  when  freed,  often  left  the  State, 
and  we  have  record  that,  w4ien  Massachusetts  passed  an  act 
on  March  26,  1788,  that  "Africans,  not  subjects  of  Morocco 
or  citizens  of  one  of  the  United  States,  are  to  be  sent  out  of 
the  State,"  there  were  found  nine  negroes  and  twelve  mulat- 
toes  from  Connecticut,  though  apparently  not  citizens  of  that 
State,  as  they  were  ordered  to  leave  Massachusetts  by  a  given 
day.^  We  hear  but  little  of  fugitive  slaves.  Occasionally  we 
come  across  advertisements  in  the  old  Connecticut  papers 
for  runaways,  but  these  are  but  few  and  disappear  as  the 
years  pass  by.'  Generally  slaves  were  "  most  tenderly  cared 
for"  in  the  families  of  their  masters  until  death,  and  were 
sold  but  seldom.''  Emancipations,  beginning  to  be  common 
just  before  the  Revolution,  increased  more  as  time  went  on, 
and  we  frequently  find  applications  on  record  to  the  select- 
men to  free  the  masters  from  responsibility  in  case  of  eman- 
cipating slaves. 

It  is  said  that  at  Torrington,  when  three  men,  joint  owners 
of  a  female  slave,  in  her  old  age  hired  her  out  to  be  cared  for 
by  a  colored  man,  some  indignation  was  raised. 

When  emancipated,  it  is  noticeable  that  the  negroes,  with 
their  gregarious  tendencies,  left  the  country  places  and  con- 
gregated in  the  larger  towns.^  For  example,  in  Suffield, 
where  slaves  were  found  as  early  as  1672,  when  Harn'  and 
Roco,  Major  Pynchon's  negroes,  hel])ed  build  the  first  saw- 


^  Moore,  "  Notes  on  Slavery  in  Mass.,"  pp.  232-235. 
'^Vide  Mas.  of  Am.  Hist.,  XV.,  614. 
3  Mag.  of  Am.  Hist.,  XV.,  G14.    N.  H.  Gazette,  1787. 
•'Maj,'.  of  Am.   Hist..  XXI.,  422.    Caullcins,   "  Normch,"   p.    330. 
Truml)iill's  "  Hartford  Coimty,"  IT.,  p.  199. 


451]  Ulstorij  of  Slaveri/  in  Connecticut.  81 

mill,  and  where  before  1740  there  were  but  few  slaves,  mostly 
owned  by  magistrates,  parsons,  and  tavern-keepers,  the  num- 
ber of  negroes  was  twenty-four  in  1 756 ;  thirty-seven  in  1 774 ; 
fifty-three  in  1782;  twenty-eight  in  1790;  four  in  1800.  The 
last  of  these  was  manumitted  in  181 2,  and  after  a  few  years 
none  were  left  in  the  town.  They  had  been  a  social,  happy 
race,  some  of  whom  had  married  there,  and  all  of  whom  had 
been  well  cared  for  by  their  masters,''  but  when  freed  they  all 
drifted  away  to  the  cities,  where  they  could  have  the  society 
of  others  of  their  race.  In  the  cities,  special  effort  was  made 
for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  negroes.  In  181 5"  the  Second 
Church  of  Nonvich,  under  the  leadership  of  Chas.  F.  Har- 
rington, began  a  Sunday  School  for  blacks,  and  later  the  Yale 
students  in  New  Haven  took  up  the  same  work  in  the  Temple 
Street  and  Dixwell  Avenue  Schools,  the  latter  of  which  is 
still  maintained. 

In  general,  Connecticut  has  little  to  be  ashamed  of  in  her 
treatment  of  the  negroes.  She  treated  them  kindly  as  slaves 
and  freed  them  gradually,  thus  avoiding  any  violent  convul- 
sion. Though  opposed  to  abolitionism  and  interference  with 
slavery  in  another  State,  until  the  aggressive  character  of  the 
slaveholding  power  was  clearly  manifested,  she  then  swung 
into  line  with  the  rest  of  the  Northern  States  to  do  away  with 
it  from  the  soil  of  the  whole  country. 

There  is  a  steady  and  progressive  development  of  the  con- 
duct of  the  State  towards  slavery.  Beginning  with  a  survival 
of  the  idea  that  captives  in  war  were  slaves,  as  shown  in  the 
conduct  towards  the  Pequods,  Connecticut  acquiesced  thor- 
oughly in  the  principles  of  slavery  through  all  the  Colonial 
period.  Her  treatment  of  the  slaves  was  almost  always  kind 
and  generous.  A  master,  in  true  patriarchal  style,  regarded 
them  as  in  truth  a  part  of  his  family.*    With  the  coming  of  the 

'Trumbull's  "Hartford  County,"  II.,  p.  406.  Fowler,  "Hist. 
Status,"  p.  149,  says  in  Durham  in  1774  there  were  44  negroes,  in 
1868  only  3. 

-Caulkins,  "Norwich,"  p.  556.  Fowler,  "Hist.  Status,"  p.  150, 
speaks  of  eight  negro  churches  in  the  State  in  1873. 

3  Fowler,  "Hist.  Status,"  pp.  81-83,  gives  many  interesting  in- 
stances of  this. 


82  History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut.  [452 

Revolution  and  the  struggle  of  the  Colonists  for  freedom,  a 
feeling  arose  that  it  was  not  just  to  hold  other  men  in  bond- 
age, and  as  a  result,  importation  of  slaves  was  forbidden  in 
1774.  Negroes  were  allowed  to  fight  side  by  side  with  the 
whites,  and  gradual  emancipation  was  begun  in  1784.  The 
claims  of  the  masters  were,  however,  respected  by  saving  their 
right  to  those  they  then  held  as  slaves,  and  though  manumis- 
sion was  encouraged,  the  law  put  wise  restrictions  on  the 
cruelty  which  would  employ  a  man's  best  years  in  labor  for 
another  and  leave  him  to  be  supported  by  public  alms  at  last 
The  case  of  Miss  Prudence  Crandall  and  of  the  Amistad 
proved  effective  reinforcements  to  the  arguments  of  the 
Abolitionists,  and  the  case  of  Jackson  versus  Bulloch  showed 
that  the  courts  were  inclined  towards  the  support  of  liberal 
interpretations  of  the  anti-slavery  laws.  So  when  the  formal 
abolition  of  slavery  came  in  1848,  it  found  few  to  be  affected 
by  its  provisions.  The  movement  against  slavery  went  on. 
From  abolishing  slavery  within  its  borders,  the  State  went  on 
to  fort)id  the  seizure  of  a  slave  on  its  soil,  and  then  gladly 
joined  with  the  otlier  Northern  States  in  the  great  struggle 
which  ended  in  the  destruction  of  slavery  throughout  the 
United  States.' 

'  In  1865,  the  question  of  negro  suffrage  was  submitted  to  the 
voters  and  decided  adversely  by  a  vote  of  27,217  to  33,489.  In  May, 
1869,  the  legislature,  by  a  party  vote,  adopted  the  Fifteenth  Amend- 
ment to  the  United  States  Constitution.  The  vote  in  the  Senate 
stood  12  to  5,  in  the  House  126  to  104.     Fowler,  p.  260. 


APPENDIX. 

In  addition  to  the  works  quoted  in  the  body  of  the 
monograph,  the  following  may  be  mentioned  as  a  part  of 
the  bibliography  of  this  subject: 

Bacon,  Leonard.  "  Slavery  discussed  in  Occasional  Essays 
from  1833  to  1846."     New  York,  1846. 

Beedier,  Catharine  E.  "An  Essay  on  Slavery  and  Aboli- 
tionism."    Philadelphia,  1837. 

Bozune,  Rev.  George.  "  Picture  of  Slavery  in  the  United 
States."     Middletown,  1834. 

Dicki7ison,  James  T.  "  Sermon  delivered  in  the  Second 
Congregational  Church,  Norwich,  July  4,  1834,  at  the 
Request  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  of  Norwich  and 
Vicinity."     Norwich,  1834. 

Fisk,  Wilbur.  "  Substance  of  an  Address  delivered  before 
the  Middletown  Colonization  Society  at  the  Annual 
Meeting,  July  4,  1835."     Middletown,  1835. 

Porter,  Jacob,  translator.  "  The  Well-spent  Sou,  or  Bibles 
for  the  Poor  Negro."     New  Haven,  1830. 

Stuart,  Charles.  "  The  West  India  Question,  reprinted  from 
the  English  Quarterly  Magazine  and  Review  of  April, 
1832."     New  Haven,  1833. 

Tyler,  E.  R.  "  Slaveholding  a  Malum  in  Se  or  Incurably 
Sinful."     (2  editions.)     Hartford,  1839. 

"  Fruits   of    Colonization — the    Canterbury    Persecution." 

1833- 

May,  SaimLel  J.  "  The  Right  of  Colored  People  to  Educa- 
tion vindicated — Letters  to  Andrew  T.  Judson,  Esq., 
and  others  in  Canterbury,  relative  to  Miss  Crandall  and 
her  School  for  Colored  Females."     1833. 

Vajt  Buren,  Martin.     Message,  1840  (Amistad). 

Baldwin,  Roger  S.,2ind  Adains,  John  Q.  "Arguments  before 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  in  the  Case  of  the 
African,  Cinquez  or  Jinque." 


84 


History  of  Slavery  in  Connecticut. 


[454 


1680, 

1715, 
1730, 
1756, 
1762, 

1774, 
1782, 
1790, 
1800, 
1810, 
1820, 
1830, 
1840, 
1850, 
i860, 
1870, 
1880, 
1890, 


Slaves  and  Free  Negroes  in  Connecticut. 

Slaves.  Free  Negroes. 

30,  (Answers  to  Board  of  Trade), 
1,500,  (Niles' Register,  vol.  68,  p.  310), 

700,  (Answers  to  Board  of  Trade), 
3,634,  (Fowler,  "  Hist.  Status,"  p.  1 50), 
4,590,  (Stiles  MSS.), 
6,562,  (Fowler,  "  Hist.  Status,"  p.  150), 
6,281, 
2,759,  (U-  S.  Census), 

951- 


310, 
97, 
25, 
17, 


2,801 
5,330 
6,453 
7,844 
8,047 
8,105 

7,693 
8,627 
9,668 

11,547 
12,302 


N.  B.     Negroes  on  the  Amistad  not  counted  in  1840. 


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to  insure  thoroughness  in  this  work,  more  than  sixty  periodical  publications  are  con- 
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A.  L.  FROTHINGHAM,  JR., 

PRINCETON,  N.J. 


American  Economic  Association. 


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The  current  Volume  (VII)  contains : 

No.  1.  The  Silver  Situation  in  tine  United 
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ation. 187  pages.  Price$1.00.  E.  R.  A.  Seligman. 
Ph.  D. 

Nos.  4-5.  Sinking"  Funds.  106  pages.  Price  $1.00. 
E.  A.  Ross,  Ph.D. 

No.  6.  The  Reciprocity  Treaty  of  1  854  with 
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STUDIES  IN  HISTORUCONOMICHNO  PUBUCIAW, 


EDITED  BY 


THE  UNIVERSITY  FACULTY  OF  POLITICAL  SCIENCE 
OF  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE. 


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By  Walter  F.  Willcox,  Ph.D.— Price,  50  cts. 
II.     History  of  Tariff  Administration  in  the  United  States,  from  Colonial 
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By  John  Dean  Goss,  Ph.D. — Price,  50  cts. 

III.  History  of  Municipal  Land  Ownership  on  Manhattan  Island. 

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By  Charles  H.  J.  Douglas,  Ph.D  —Price,  $1.00. 
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By  Isaac  A.  Hourwich,  Ph.D — Price,  $1.00. 
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By  Samuel  W.  Dunscomb,  Jr.,  Ph.D. — Price,  75  cts. 
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By  Victor  Rosewater. — Price,  75  cts. 
Vol.  II.  complete,   price,  $2.00  ;    bound,  $2.50. 

VOLUME  IIL 

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I.     Financial  History  of  Virginia. 

By  W.  Z.  Ripley. 
II.     The  Inheritance  Tax.  By  Max  West. 

Other  numbers  will  be  announced  hereafter. 


For  further  particulars  apply  to 

PROFESSOR  EDWIN  R.  A.  SELIGMAN, 

Columbia  College,  New  York. 


REYUE    HISTORIQUE 

Dirig^e  par  G.  MONOD 

Maltre  de  confSrences  k  I'ficole  normale  superieure,  dlrecteur  adjoint  k  I'^ficole  des 

hautes  etudes. 

DIX-HUITIEME  ANNEE,  1893. 
La  Revue  historique  paralt  tous  les  deux  mois,  par  livraisons  grand  lu-8°  de  15  k\G 
feullles  at  forme  a  la  flu  de  I'annee  trois  beaux  volumes  de  500  pages  chacun. 

CHAQUE  LIVRAISON  CONTIENT: 
I.  Plusieurs  articles  defends,  compreuant  cliacun,  s'il  est  possible,  uu  travail  complet. — 
II.  Des  Milanges  et  VariMs,  composes  de  documents  luedits  d'uue  eteudue  restrelnte  et 
de  courtes  notices  sur  des  points  d'lilstolre  curleux  ou  mal  connus. — III.  Un  Bulletin  histor- 
ique de  la  France  et  de  I'etranger,  fournissaut  des  renseiguements  aussi  complets  que 
possible  sur  tout  ce  qui  touche  aux  etudes  historiquea. — IV.  Une  analyse  des  publications 
pModiques  de  la  France  et  de  I'etranger,  au  point  de  vue  des  etudes  hlstoriques. — V.  Des 
comptes  rendus  critiques  des  livres  d'hlstoire  nouveaux. 

Abonnements  :  Un  an,  Paris,  30  fr. — Departements  et  etranger,  33  fr. 

La  livraison 6  f r. 

Lesannees  ecoulees  se  vendent  s6parement  30  francs,  et  par  fascicules  de  6  francs.    Los 
fascicules  de  la  premifere  annee  se  vendent  9  fr. 


Premiere  table  quinquennale  (1876-1880)  des  matlferes  contenues  dans  la  Revue  historique, 
1  vol.  in-&°,  3  francs. 
DeuxlSme  table  quinquennale  (1881-1885),  1  vol.  ln-8°,  3  francs. 

Le  prlx  de  cliaque  table  est  r6duit  k  I  fr.  50  pour  les  abonnes  de  la  Rtvue. 


La  Revde  historique,  fondee  eu  1870,  a  acquis,  par  la  solidlte  de  ses  travaux,  par 
I'aboudance  de  ses  Informations  et  par  I'impartialite  de  ses  jugements,  une  autorltS  iu- 
contestee  dans  le  moude  savant.  Ind6pendamment  des  memoires  originaux  inseres  dans 
cliaque  livraison,  et  qui  sout  signes  des  noms  les  plus  autorises  de  la  science,  elle  publie 
un  bulletin  historique  oti  sout  resumes  les  travaux  les  plus  importants  relatlfs  k  I'histoire 
de  France  et  k  celle  des  autres  pays.  La  redaction  de  ces  bulletins  est  conflee  k  des 
§crivains  d'une  competence  reconnue. 


REVUE    MENSUELLE 

DE 

L'Ecole  d'Antliropologie  de  Paris 

Piibliee  par  les  Prolesseurs. 

association  pour  l'enseignement  des  sciences  anthropologk^ues 

(reconnue  d'dtilite  publique). 

TROISIEME  ANNEE,  1893. 
La  Revue  mensuelle  de  I'Ecole  d'AjitliropoIogle  cle   Paris    paralt  le  15  de 
xhaque  mois.    Chaque  livraison  forme  uu  cahier  de  deux  feuilles  iu-8°  raisin   (32  pages) 
renferm6  sous  une  couverture  imprimee  et  contenant : 
1°  Une  lefnn  d'un  des  professeurs  de  I'ficole.    Cette  le§on,  qui  forme  un  tout  par  elle- 

meme,  est  accompagnee  de  gravures,  s'il  y  a  lieu  ; 
2°   Des  analuses  et  camples  rendus  des  falts,  de.s  livres  et  des  revues  periodiques,  concer- 
nant  I'anthropologie,  de  fa^ou  il  tenir  les  lecteurs  au  couraut  des  travaux  des  SoclS- 
tes  d'authropologie  trangaises  et  etrangSres,  aiiisi  que  des  publications  nouvelles: 
3°  Sous  le  titre  :    Variiles  sout  rassembles  des  notes  et   des   documents  pouvant  Stre 
utiles  aux  persouuesqui  s'luteressent  aux  sciences  anthropologiques. 
PRIX  D'ABONNEMENT  : 

Un  an  (a  partir  du  15  Janvier)  pour  tous  pays 10  fr. 

La  livraison:  1  fr. 

ON  S'ABONNE  SANS  FRAIS  ; 
Cliez  FEIilX   AliCAN,  editeur,  108,  boulevard   Saint-Germain,  a 
Paris  ;  cbez  tous  les  libraires  de  la  France  et  de  I'etranger,  et  dans  tous 
les  bureaux  de  poste  de  France  et  de  I'Union  postale. 


ANNALES  DE  L'ECOLE  LIBRE 

DES 

SCIENCES  POLITIQUES 

Recueil  Trimestriel 

PDBLIE  AVEC  LA  COLLABORATION  DES  PROFESSEURS  ET  DES  ANCIESS  ELEVES  DE  L'ECOLE 

HUITIEME  ANNEE,  1893. 


COMITE  DE  REDACTION : 

M.  EuiileBoiituiy?derinstitut,  Directeurdel'Ecole  ^M.IieonSay, 
de  I'Academie  frangaise.  Depute, ancien  Ministre  des  Finances  ;  M.  Alf. 
de  Foville,  Chef  du  bureau  de  statistique  au  Ministere  des  Finances. 
Professeur  au  Conservatoire  des  Arts  et  Metiers  ;  M.  K.  Stoiiriu,  ancien 
Inspecteur  des  Finances  et  Admiuistrateur  des  Contributions  indirectes  ; 
M.  Aiiguste  Arsumne;  M.  Alexandre  Ribot,  Depute,  Ministre 
des  Affaires  etrangeres  ;  M.  Oabriel  Alix  ;  M.  1j.  Benault,  Profes- 
seur a  la  Faculte  de  droit  de  Paris  ;  M.  AjKlr6  Liebon,  Chef  du  Cabinet 
du  President  du  Seuat;  M.  Albert  Sorel,  de  llnstitut ;  M.  Pigeon- 
ueau,  Professeur  a  la  Faculte  des  lettres  de  Paris  :  M.  A.  Taiidal ; 
Directeurs  des  groupes  de  travail,  professeurs  a  I'Ecole. 

Abonnements,  UN  AN :  Paris 18  fr. 

Departements  et  etranger 11)  fr. 

La  li vraison 5  f r. 

Depuis  la  4"  annee,  cliaque  livraison  est  augmeuteede  32  pages.  Lesti'ois 
premieres  annees  se  vendent  separement  16  fr. ;  les  4'-  et  5^  annees,  18  fr. 
chacuue  ;  les  livraisons  des  annees  ecoulees,  5  fr. 


Les  Aiiiiales  de  I'Ecole  llbre  <les  sciences  poliiiques  pub- 
lieut  des  articles  et  des  memoires  originaux  emanant  des  professeurs  et  des 
anciens  eleves  de  I'Ecole  reunis  par  groupes  de  travail.  Les  travaux  les 
plus  interessants  des  groupes  de  finances,  de  legislation,  d'histoire  diplo- 
matique et  de  geographie  y  sont  inseres. 

Les  sujets  traites  embrassent  tout  le  champ  convert  par  le  programme 
des  travaux  de  ces  groupes  :  Economic  jJoUtique,  finances,  statistique, 
histoire  constitutionelle,  droit  international  public  et  privi,  droit  administra- 
tif,  legislations  civile  et  commereiale  comjKirees,  liistoire  Ugislative  et  parle- 
mentaire,  liistoire  diplomatique,  geographie  economique,  ethnographic,  etc. 

Les  Annales  contienueut  en  outre  des  notices  bibliographiques  et  des 
correspondances  de  I'etranger,  une  revue  des  Revues. 

Un  comite  compose  de  directeurs  de  groupes  et  de  professeurs  est  charge 
de  controler  la  redaction.  II  pourvoit  a  ce  qu'aucuue  des  questions  de  sa 
competence,  qui  presentent  en  France  ou  a  I'etranger  un  interet  pratique 
et  actuel,  ne  soit  passee  sous  silence. 

Cette  publication  presente  done  un  interet  considerable  pour  toutes  les 
personnes  qui  s'adonnent  a  Tetude  des  sciences  politiques.  La  place  en  est 
marquee  dans  toutes  les  Bibliotheques  des  Facultes,  des  Universit6s  etdes 
grands  Corps  delib6rauts. 

ON  S'ABONNE  SANS  FRAIS : 
Chez   FEIilX  AECAIV,   editeur,   108,   boulevard   Saint-Germain,  a 
Paris;  chez  tous  les  libraires  de  la  France  etde  Tetranger,  et  dans  tons  les 
bureaux  de  poste  de  France  et  de  I'Uniou  postale. 


NOTES  SUPPLEMENTARY  TO  THE  STUDIES. 

The  publication  of  a  series  of  Notes  was  begun  in  January,  1889.  The 
following  have  thus  far  been  issued  : 

MUNICIPAL,  GOVERNBIENT  IN  ENGLAND.  By  Dr.  ALBERT  SHAW,  of  Minne- 
apolis, Reader  ou  Municipal  Government,  J.  H.  U. 

SOCIAL  WORK  IN  AUSTRALIA  AND  LONDON.  By  WILLIAM  GKEY,  of  the 
Denison  Club,  London. 

ENCOUKAGEMKNT   OF   HIGHER   EDUCATION.     By  Professor  Herbert  B. 

ADAMS. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  CITY  GOVERNMENT.  By  Hon.  Seth  Low,  President  of 
Columbia  College. 

THE  LIBRARIES  OF  BALTIMORE.  By  Mr.  P.  R.  UHLER,  of  the  Peabody  In- 
stitute. 

WORK  AMONG  THE  WORKINGWOMEN  IN  BALTIMORE.  By  Professor 
H.  B.  ADAMS. 

CHARITIES:  THE  RELATION  OF  THE  STATE,  THE  CITY,  AND  THE 
INDIVIDUAL  TO  MODERN  PHILANTHROPIC  W^ORK.  By  A.  G.  WARNER, 
Ph.  D.,  sometime  General  Secretary  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society  of  Baltimore,  now 
Associate  Professor  in  the  University  of  Nebraska. 

LAW  AND  HISTORY.  By  Walter  B.  Scaife,  LL.  B.,  Ph.  D.  (Vienna),  Reader  on 
Historical  Geography  In  the  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

THE  NEEDS  OF  SELF-SUPPORTING  WOMEN.  By  Miss  CLARE  DE  Graf- 
FENREID,  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  Washington,  D.  C. 

THE  ENOCH  PKATT  FREE  LIBRARY.    By  LEWIS  H.  STEINER,  Lltt.  D. 

EARLY  PKESBYTEKIANISM  IN  MARYLAND.     ByKev.  J.  W.  MClLVAIN. 

THE  EDUCATIONAL  ASPECT  OF  THE  U.  S.  NATIONAL  MUSEUM.  By 
Professor  O.  T.  MASON. 

UNIVERSITY  EXTENSION  AND  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  THE  FUTURE. 
By  Richard  G.  moulton. 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION.  By  WILLIAM  T.  HARRIS,  LL.  D.,  U.  S. 
Commissioner  of  Education.  

ANNUAL  SERIES,  1883-1892. 

Ten  Series  of  the  University  Studies  are  now  complete  and  will  be 
sold,  bound  in  cloth,  as  follows  : 

SERIES  I.— LOCAL  INSTITUTIONS.    i79pp.     $4.00. 

SERIES  II.— INSTITUTIONS  AND  ECONOMICS.    629  pp.     $4.00. 

SERIES  III.— MARYLAND,  VIRGINIA  .  AND  WASHINGTON.     595  pp.    $4.00. 

SERIES  IV.— MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  AND  LAND  TENURE.  600  pp.  $3.50. 

SERIES  v.— MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT,  HISTORY  AND  POLITICS.  559 
pp.     $3.50. 

SERIES  VI.— THE  HISTORY  OF  CO-OPERATION  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES.     540  pp.     $3.50. 

SERIES  VII.— SOCIAL  SCIENCE,  MUNICIPAL  AND  FEDERAL  GOVERN- 
MENT.    628  pp.     $3.50. 

SERIES  VIII.— HISTORY.  POLITICS,  AND  EDUCATION.     625  pp.     $3.50. 

SERIES  IX.— EDUCATION,  POLITICS  AND  SOCIAL  SCIENCE.  640  pp. 
$3.50. 

SERIES  X.— CHURCH  AND  STATE,  COLUMBUS  AND  AMERICA.  630  pp. 
$3.50. 

T}ie  set  of  ten  series  is  now  offered,  uniformly  bound  in  cloth,  for  library  use,  for  $30.00.  The 
ten  series,  loith  twelve  extra  volumes,  twenty-two  volumes  in  cloth,  for  $48.00. 


All  business  communications  should  be  addressed  to  The  Johns  Hop- 
kins Press,  Baltimore,  Maryland.  Subscriptions  will  also  be  received, 
or  single  copies  furnished  by  any  of  the  following 

American  Agents: 

NeAV  York.— G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  Cincinnati. —Robert  Clarke  &  Co. 

Ne^v  Haven.— E.  P.  Judd.  Indianapolis.— Bowen-MerrlU  Co. 

Boston.— Damrell  &  Upham ;  W.  B.  Clarke  Cliicago.— A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co. 

&  Co.  Louisville.— Flesner  Brothers. 

Providence.— Preston  &  Rounds.  San  Francisco.— Bancroft  Company. 

Pliiladelplila.— Porter   &   Coates  ;    J.  B.  Ne-*v  Orleans.— George  F.  Wharton. 

Lippincott  Co.  Toronto.— Carswell  Co.  (Limited). 

Wasliington.— W.  H.  Lowdermllk  &  Co.;  Montreal.— William  Foster  Brown  &  Co. 

Brentano's. 

European  Agents  : 

Paris.— A.  Hermann  ;   Em.  Terquem.  London.— Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  Trtlbner 

Strassbnrg.— Karl  J.  Trlibner.  &  Co.;  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 

Berlin. —  Puttkammer     &     Miihlbrecht  ;  Frankfort.- -Joseph  Baer  &  Co. 

Mayer  &  MUUer.  Tiirin,  Florence,  and  Rome.— E.  Loe- 

Leipzig.— F.  A.  Brockhaus.  scher. 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF   NEW  HAVEN 

A  HISTORY  OF  MUNICIPAL  EVOLUTION. 

Br  CHARLES  H.  LEVERMORE,  Ph.  D. 

{Extra  Volume  One  of  Studies  in  History  and  Politics.) 

343  pages.     8vo.     Cloth.    $2.00. 


PHILADELPHIA,   1681-1887: 

A  HISTORY  OF  MUNICIPAL  DEVELOPMENT. 

By  EDWARD  P.  ALLINSON,  A.  M.,  and  BOIES  PENROSE,  A.  B. 

{Extra  Volume  Tivo  of  Studies  in  History  and  Politics.) 

444  pages.     8vo.    Cloth.    $3.00. 


Baltimore  and  tlie  Nineteentli  of  April,  1861. 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  WAR. 

By  GEORGE  WILLIAM  BROWN, 

Chief  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Bench  of  BalUmore,  and  Mayor  of  the  City  in  1861. 

{Extra  Volume  Three  of  Studies  in  History  and  Politics.) 

176  pages.    8vo.     Cloth.     $1.00. 


L( 


tutifliial  iistorj  of  tlie  lliiited  Slates. 


By  GEORGE  E.  HOWARD, 

Professor  of  History  in  the  University  of  Nebraska. 
(Extra  Volumes  Four  and  Five  of  Studies  in  History  and  Politics.) 

Volume    I. — Development   of  the    Township,    Hundred   and   Shire.      Now 

ready.     542  pp.     8vo.     Cloth.     $3.00. 
Volume  II. — Development  of  the  City  and  Local  Magistracies.     In  prepa- 
ration. 


THE  NEGRO  IN  MARYLAND. 

A  STUDY  OF  THE  INSTITUTION  OF  SLAVERY. 

By  JEFFREY  R.  BRACKETT,  Ph.D. 

{Extra  Volume  Six  of  Studies  in  History  and  Politics.) 

370  pages.    8to.    Cloth.    SS.OO. 


The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

Its  History  and  Influence  in  our  (onstilntlonal  System. 

By  W.  W.  WILLOUGHBY,  Ph.D. 
{Extra  Vol.  Seven  of  the  Studies  in  History  and  Politics.) 

134  pn^cs.     Svo.     Cloth.     »1.^5. 


The  Intercourse  between  the  U.S.  and  Japan, 

By  INAZO  (OTA)  NITOBE,  Ph.D., 

Associate  Professor,  Sapporo,  Japan. 
{Extra  Vol.  Eight  of  the  Studies  in  History  and  Politics.) 

19S  pages.     8vo.    Clotli.    $1.^3. 


State  and  Federal  Government  in  Switzerland. 

By  JOHN  MARTIN  VINCENT,  Ph.D., 

Librarian  and  Instructor  in  the  Department  of  History  and  Politics,  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

{Extra  Vol.  Nine  of  the  Studies  in  History  and  Politics.) 

225  pages.    8vo.    Cloth.    SI. 50. 


Spanish  Institutions  of  the  Southwest. 

By  FRANK  W.  BLACKMAR,  Ph.  D  , 

Professor  of  History  and  Sociology  in  the  Kansas  State  University. 

{Extra  Vol.  Ten  of  the  Studies  in  History  and  Politics.) 

380  pages.    Svo.    Clotli.      $^.00. 

With  Thirty-one   Historical    Illustrations  of  old   Spanish    Missions,   etc.,   and   a  map 
showing  the  extent  of  Spanish  Possessions  in  North  America  in  1783. 


An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Constitution, 

By  MORRIS  M.  COHN, 

Attorney-at-Law. 
{Extra  Vol.  Eleven  of  the  Studies  in  History  and  Politics.) 

350  pages.     Svo.     Cloth.     Sil.50. 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH  MANOR 

By  C.  M.  ANDREWS,  Ph.D., 

Associate  in  History,  Bryn  Maivr  College. 
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