‘Slave market of America’ – 1835-36

This depiction of slavery in the District of Columbia is a large 11’ x 14’ broadside issued by the American Anti-Slavery Society in an attempt to influence Congress to outlaw slavery in the city of Washington, D.C. 1835-36.

[Note: this is a large file in order to make the type readable and the illustrations viewable. I fthe file doesn’t open properly, try the link to a PDF following the description]]

The Library of Congress provides the following description of this broadside:

“A broadside condemning the sale and keeping of slaves in the District of Columbia. The work was issued during the 1835-36 petition campaign, waged by moderate abolitionists led by Theodore Dwight Weld and buttressed by Quaker organizations, to have Congress abolish slavery in the capital.

“The text contains arguments for abolition and an accounting of atrocities of the system. At the top are two contrasting scenes: a view of the reading of the Declaration of Independence, captioned ‘The Land of the Free," with a scene of slaves being led past the capitol by an overseer, entitled "The Home of the Oppressed.’

“Between them is a plan of Washington with insets of a suppliant slave (see ‘Am I Not a Man and a Brother?’ no. 1837- ) and a fleeing slave with the legend ‘$200 Reward’ and implements of slavery. On the next line are views of the jail in Alexandria, the jail in Washington with the ‘sale of a free citizen to pay his jail fees,’ and an interior of the Washington jail with imprisoned slave mother Fanny Jackson and her children.

“On the bottom level are an illustration of slaves in chains emerging from the slave house of J.W. Neal & Co. (left) [Alexandria, VA], a view of the Alexandria waterfront with a ship loading slaves (center), and a view of the slave establishment of Franklin & Armfield in Alexandria.”

Wikipedia writes:

“The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS; 1833–1870) was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, had become a prominent abolitionist and was a key leader of this society, who often spoke at its meetings. William Wells Brown, also a freedman, also often spoke at meetings. By 1838, the society had 1,350 local chapters with around 250,000 members.”

The Library of Congress characterizes the American Anti-Slavery Society as “moderate.” Perhaps in comparison to John Brown it could be labeled moderate. However, the Society used mail to distribute their anti-slavery tracts throughout the south, causing a firestorm of protest from pro-slavery forces and was uncompromising in its anti-slavery stance.

William S. Dorr was an early member of the Anti-Slavery Society who was based in New York City and had his named attached as the printer of this broadside and reports of the Anti-Slavery Society.

The 1835-36 campaign to outlaw slavery in the District of Columbia was ultimately unsuccessful.

According to the description on the D.C. Emancipation Day webpage,

“The US Congress, established in 1789 and consisting solely of white men until 1870, was a focal point for intense debate about the abolition of slavery. Beginning in the late 1820s, abolitionists organized a coordinated campaign to petition Congress to end slavery and the slave trade in the nation’s capital.

The Snow Riot of 1835

“In August 1835, local white-owned newspapers reported that the District had its own “Nat Turner.” They alleged that Arthur Bowen, an 18-year old enslaved African American, attempted to murder Anna Maria Thornton, the wealthy white widow of William Thornton, the Architect of the Capitol. Mrs. Thornton legally owned Bowen, and he and his mother lived in her home in the 1300 block of F Street NW. When Arthur Bowen was arrested and jailed, a white mob of mostly Irish mechanics gathered at the city jail, then located at Judiciary Square, and threatened to hang Bowen.

“The mechanics’ anger was also directed at white abolitionists who worked to get Congress to end the slave trade in the District. Dr. Reuben Crandall, a botanist and doctor with an office in Georgetown and brother of Prudence Crandall, a vocal Connecticut abolitionist, was the primary target. Assumed guilty by association, police searched Dr. Crandall’s office and found antislavery publications. He was arrested and jailed on charges of incitement to rebellion.

“The mob outside the jail sought hanging as a punishment for both Bowen and Crandall and hoped to inflict the punishment themselves. Prevented by the police from gaining access to Bowen and Crandall, they redirected their anger toward Mr. Beverly Snow’s popular Epicurean Eating House, located nearby at the corner of Sixth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. They ransacked the restaurant, destroying furniture and breaking liquor bottles, forcing Snow to flee the District.

“After looting Snow’s restaurant, they continued their rampage by vandalizing other black-owned businesses and institutions, including Rev. John F. Cook, Sr.’s church and school at the corner of 14th and H streets, NW. Fearing that the mob would come after him, Rev. Cook fled to Pennsylvania.

“The impact of the Snow Riot lasted far beyond the few days of violence. As one of a number of clashes in the 1830s and 1840s, it was emblematic of the continued centrality of slavery in the nation’s capital.”

The battle over slavery in the District of Columbia reached a crescendo 1835-36, but the pro-slavery forces in Congress were still dominant.

From the D.C. Emancipation website:

“The effort to send abolitionist petitions to Congress gained strength in the mid-1830s when thousands of petitions flooded the House of Representatives. In response, southern Congressmen instituted the “Gag Rule” in 1836, banning the introduction of petitions or bills pertaining to slavery.”

Slavery wouldn’t be outlawed in Washington, D.C. until 1862.

From the D.C. Emancipation website:

“During the Civil War, Charles Sumner, the senior senator from Massachusetts, and a vocal abolitionist, asked President Lincoln: “Do you know who is at this moment the largest slaveholder in the United States?” Sumner informed Lincoln that he was the largest slaveholder because the President “holds all the slaves of the District of Columbia.” Sumner was referring to the fact that the federal government was empowered in the US Constitution to “exercise exclusive legislation” over the federal district. Though this interpretation of the federal government’s constitutional power continues to be a source of conflict, abolitionists used it as a way to end slavery in the national capital.

“In December 1861, Henry Wilson, the junior Massachusetts senator, introduced a bill in Congress to end slavery in Washington, DC. despite considerable opposition from slaveholding Congressmen, aldermen and residents, the bill passed. The Senate approved the bill on April 3, 1862 and the House of Representatives on April 12, 1862. President Lincoln signed the legislation on April 16, 1862.

“Titled ‘An Act for the release for the release of certain persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia,’ it freed the 3,100 women, men and children who were still enslaved in 1862. The act also allowed for slaveowners to be compensated up to $300 for each individual they had legally owned. In addition, newly-freed African Americans could receive up to $100 if they chose to emigrate to another country.

“Nine months after signing the DC Emancipation Act, and one hundred days after issuing the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation, on January 1, 1863.

“The Emancipation Proclamation was primarily of symbolic importance. No enslaved people were immediately freed by the proclamation because it excluded slave-holding border states—Maryland, Delaware, Missouri and Kentucky—out of fear of sending them into rebellion. Enslaved people living in states controlled by the Confederacy could only be freed if and when the Union Army arrived and liberated them in person. Yet the Emancipation Proclamation clarified that slavery would end in states that did not return to the Union.

“Six months after the last Confederate general surrendered his troops to the Union Army, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, passed by Congress in December 1865, finally outlawed slavery throughout the entire United States, including those areas earlier excluded by the Emancipation Proclamation.”

For a PDF of this 11 x 17 inch, one-sided broadside, see washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1836-3...

For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmR9jBvk

Original held at the Library of Congress. Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1836-23.

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Taken on: January 1, 1835

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Sets appears in: • The fight for rights: 1865-1900 • Fight for freedom: 1861-65

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