Abolition Riot of 1836 facts for kids

The Abolition Riot of 1836 happened in Boston, Massachusetts in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. In August 1836, two enslaved women, Eliza Small and Polly Ann Bates, had run away from Baltimore. They were arrested in Boston and brought before Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw. The judge ordered them to be freed because there was a problem with their arrest paper.

When the agent for the slave owner asked for a new arrest paper, the people watching—mostly African-American women—started a riot in the courtroom. They rescued Eliza Small and Polly Ann Bates.

This event was one of several times people in Boston tried to rescue enslaved people. Later, a disagreement about George Latimer led to the 1843 Liberty Act. This law stopped the arrest of runaway enslaved people in Massachusetts. People who wanted to end slavery also helped Ellen and William Craft in 1850, Shadrach Minkins in 1851, and Anthony Burns in 1854. An attempt to rescue Thomas Sims in 1852 was not successful.

Boston and Freedom Fighters

In 1836, Boston was home to about 1,875 free African Americans. Some of them had escaped from states where slavery was legal. Most of these people strongly believed in ending slavery, a movement called abolitionism. Important activists included William Cooper Nell, Maria Stewart, and David Walker. Some, like Lewis Hayden and John T. Hilton, spent their lives helping enslaved people who had run away.

The Arrival of Eliza and Polly Ann

On Saturday, July 30, Captain Henry Eldridge sailed into Boston Harbor on his ship, the Chickasaw. Two African-American women, Eliza Small and Polly Ann Bates, were passengers. Both women carried papers saying they were free.

Before the ship docked, a man named Matthew Turner boarded it. He was an agent for a rich slave owner from Baltimore named John B. Morris. Turner claimed that Small and Bates were enslaved people who had run away from Morris. Captain Eldridge agreed to keep the women on his ship until Turner returned with an official arrest paper.

A Lawyer Steps In

News of what was happening quickly spread. A large group of black Bostonians gathered at the dock. One of them found a lawyer named Samuel Edmund Sewall. Sewall got a special court order called a habeas corpus from Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw. This order meant the captain had to release the women until a court hearing could decide if he had the right to hold them.

When Deputy Sheriff Huggerford delivered the court order, with Sewall, they found Small and Bates locked in their cabin. The women were very upset. When they understood what was happening, one of the women cried. She said she knew God would not leave her.

Chief Justice Shaw was busy for the rest of the day. So, Justice Wilde delayed the hearing until the next Monday. This was because Shaw had signed the original order. At 9:00 AM on August 1, Chief Justice Shaw began the hearing. The courtroom quickly filled with people watching. Most were black women. A few white abolitionists also joined them, including five women from the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society.

The Court Hearing Begins

The main goal of the hearing was to decide if Captain Eldridge had the right to hold Small and Bates. However, the lawyers on both sides also talked about the bigger issue of slavery itself.

Lawyer A. H. Fiske, who represented Captain Eldridge, read a statement from Turner. It said the women belonged to his employer. Fiske also mentioned the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, a law about runaway enslaved people. He then asked for the hearing to be delayed so he could bring proof from Baltimore that the women were enslaved.

Sewall argued that Eldridge had no right to hold the women. He also said that all people are born free and have a natural right to stay free. When Sewall finished speaking, the audience clapped loudly.

The Judge's Decision

Chief Justice Shaw then stood to give his decision. He said the court's question was simple: "Does the captain of the ship Chickasaw have the right to turn his ship into a prison?"

Shaw decided that Eldridge did not have this right. He said the captain had held the women illegally. He ended by saying that "the prisoners must therefore be discharged from all further detention." This meant they were free to go.

Turner, the slave owner's agent, then stood up. He asked the judge if he would need an arrest paper to arrest the women again under the Fugitive Slave Law. At the same time, a police officer was sent to lock the door that led downstairs. It seemed to the people watching that Turner was about to arrest the women again, even though Judge Shaw had just set them free.

The Riot for Freedom

Before the judge could answer Turner's question, Sewall told the women to leave right away. Someone shouted, "Go! Go!" and the crowd suddenly became very active. People rushed over the seats and down the aisle toward Small and Bates.

Outside, hundreds of others pushed on the doors, trying to get inside. Shaw protested, but the crowd ignored him, shouting, "Don't stop!" The only officer in the room, Deputy Sheriff Huggerford, was grabbed by "an old colored woman, of great size." She put her arms around his neck and stopped him from getting in the way.

The crowd surrounded the two women and moved quickly down a private hallway of the court. They went down the courthouse stairs. Once outside, the women were quickly put into a carriage. The carriage sped out of the city very fast.

Huggerford and others chased the fleeing women, but they were too late. As the carriage crossed over Mill Dam, money was thrown from the carriage to pay the toll.

What Happened After

Boston was a major center for the movement to end slavery. However, not everyone in the city was against slavery or the Fugitive Slave Law. Some local newspapers strongly criticized Huggerford and Sheriff C. P. Sumner for not having more officers at the courthouse. The riot was seen as a shocking challenge to law and order.

Some journalists were especially upset by the "bad behavior" of the women who wanted to end slavery. One even told the women's husbands to scold them. Another accused Sewall of shaming the legal profession. He called for Sewall to be punished for "causing a group of black people to do something that every good person would be shocked by." Even The Liberator, an anti-slavery newspaper started by William Lloyd Garrison, showed some mild disapproval. It called the event "unjustifiable" but "not unpardonable."

Eliza Small and Polly Ann Bates were never caught again. They eventually made it to Canada, where slavery had been ended three years earlier. None of the people who took part in the riot were ever brought to trial.

The editor of the Columbian Centinel newspaper was very angry. He wrote:

The terrible act was done by a crowd of hundreds. After searching for three days, neither the escaped women nor any of the rioters have been arrested. Is there no one who was there who can identify one of the people who broke the law? Could such a scene happen, and the Chief Justice be attacked in broad daylight, in open court, and no one be able to find one person out of a hundred? This event has no equal in the history of crime.

Sewall received many threatening letters. They warned him never to go to Baltimore and hinted at violent punishment. Four weeks after the riot, a U.S. naval officer from Baltimore faced Sewall in his office. After saying he was related to Morris, he insulted Sewall and hit him several times with a horsewhip. But Sewall was not scared. He continued to offer his help in many other cases defending enslaved people who had run away.

Sixteen years later, William Cooper Nell wrote in the Liberator newspaper. He remembered the rescue as proof of "the strength of a few colored women; the memory of which act is deeply cherished and passed down to future generations."