FURTHER NOTES ON GRANVILLE'S ANTI-
ABOLITION DISTURBANCES OF 1836
By ROBERT PRICE
The American Colonization Society may
have had as its chief
objective the return of American Negroes
to their native Africa,
but it also afforded a ready means of
organized opposition for the
enemies of abolition. Anyhow, such was
the case in Granville,
Ohio, during the years 1835-36 when the
fires of anti-slavery con-
troversy were burning brightly in that
particular neighborhood.
No doubt Granville's famous
"riot" attending the Ohio Anti-
Slavery Convention held there in 1836
was largely due to the or-
ganized discussion which had been going
on for several months at
"colonization" meetings.
Shortly after the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical
Society published its recent account of
the 1836 convention at
Granville and the hostilities which
ensued,1 Mr. Fitch C. Bryant
of New York City discovered in a
collection of family papers
stored for many years at Deposit, New
York, the original records
of the anti-abolition faction which had
been organized at Gran-
ville during 1835. Bryant's
great-grandfather, General Augus-
tine Munson, had presided at the first
of the "colonization"
meetings. To him, no doubt, is due the
preservation of these in-
teresting records.2
Munson and his Granville associates who
were active in anti-
abolition discussion were by no means
southern "sympathizers."
They were New Englanders, mainly Whigs,
by their very nature
bitter against such an institution as
slavery. But they were even
more concerned about the state of the
Union and were highly
suspicious of any radical group, such as
the abolitionists seemed to
be, whose activities would inevitably
aggravate sectional feeling.
They should be thought of as typical,
better class, thinking con-
1 Robert Price, "The Ohio
Anti-slavery Convention of 1836" in Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society, Quarterly
(Columbus, 1887-), XLV (1986), 178-188.
2 Now in the Granville Historical
Archives, Mrs. Clara S. White, custodian.
(365)
366
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
servatives of the time, and their views
as reflected in the records
of their discussions may be interpreted
as those prevailing gen-
erally among such groups throughout the
North of the period.
"At a meeting of the citizens of
this place," begins the first
of these records dated at Granville,
October, 1835, "held at the
house of Samuel Boardman on Wednesday
evening the 28th inst.
Gen1 A. Munson was called to the chair
and A. P. Prichard was
appointed Secretary."
The object of the meeting was stated and
on motion the fol-
lowing resolution was unanimously
adopted:
Resolved that a general meeting on
Tuesday the 2nd [3rd] of Novr-
next be called of the citizens of this
place and vicinity at 6 of the clock
P. M. to express their disapprobation
of the proceedings of the Abolitionists
and the expediency of reviving and
sustaining the Colonization Society.
The signatories were S----? R? Mower,
Daniel Wildman,
Sylvester Spelman, Knowles Linnel, Levi
Rose, F. Cook, A.
Avery, C. C. Rose, I. Fassett, E.
Fassett, G. W. Case, William
Gavit, A. Munson, G. Case, Walter
Thrall, W. S. Richards, Paul
Eager, Samuel Bancroft, Chancy Humphrey,
A. P. Prichard,
Sabin Hough, Samuel Boardman, Elias
Gilman, E. Crawford,
David ----?, B. F. Mower.
On the back of the yellowed sheet
someone, apparently of the
same period, has inscribed, evidently a
little later, the significant
words:
Animosity Animosity Animosity
Mobs, mobs, mobs
Granville Licking County O.
The following Tuesday, November the
third, the mass meet-
ing of Granville citizens was held in
the Methodist Episcopal
meetinghouse. Dr. Paul Eager was chosen
president, Captain
Sylvester Hayes and E. Gilman, Esq.,
vice presidents, and Walter
Thrall and A. P. Prichard, secretaries.
The following resolutions
were then read, discussed and adopted:
Resolved that the proceedings of the
meeting be Signed by the Prest-
& Secretarys and that a copy be
furnished to the editors of Newark
Gazette & Advocate with a request to
publish the same--
On motion Resolved that a committee of
five be appointed to make
arrangements for a colonization meeting.
The report of the proceedings eventually
drawn up by Eager,
-
GRANVILLE ANTI-ABOLITION
DISTURBANCES 367
Hayes, Gilman, Thrall, and Prichard
proved to be in reality a
detailed statement of the group's credo
couched in the form of
nine resolutions. The report as it
appears in the manuscript rec-
ord is as follows:
We citizens of Granville in the county
of Licking & State of Ohio
Participating in veneration to the Union
in attachment to the constitution
& laws of our country, & in
regard to our brethren of the sister States,
common to all good citizens; And
desirous to promote their safety & tran-
quility, to strengthen the social &
political ties of our great Republic &
to preserve unimpaired in purity &
vigor the constitutional guaranties of
person & property which appear to be
endangered by the proceedings of
the Abolition & Anti-Slavery
socities--And having assembled to express
our disaprobation of the plan &
measures of the Abolitionists, & our own
views on the subject of slavery.
1. Therefore Resolved that while we
would maintain inviolate the
liberty of speech and the freedom of the
press, we consider discussions
which from their nature tend to inflame
the public mind--to introduce
discord & contention into
neighborhoods, Churches, and literary institutions,
& put in jeopardy the lives &
property of our fellow citizens; to be at
varience with all rules of moral duty
& every suggestion of humanity
2. Resolved that we consider the free
States by their assent to, and
adoption of the Constitution of the
United States, as having recognized the
condition of Slavery in the Southern
States as lawful--And however we
may lament the necessity of that
provision & however ardently we might
hail the day when they may be able and
willing to abolish it; till then, &
while this constitution endures, we have
no right to transcend this or any
of its provisions, and as we are fully
bound so are we ever ready to carry
them into full effect.
3. Resolved that while we consider
Slavery as a great & growing
evil in our country, and would rejoice
to see a judicious & constitutional
system of measure for its ultimate
abolition in vigorous and successful
operation; we are of opinion that the
measures of the immediate abolition-
ists--by alarming the fears of the slave
holders & exciting their opposition
to every thing that looks towards
emancipation--are calculated to strengthen
and rivet the chains of the slaves &
perpetuate their bondage.
4. Resolved that when we consider the
condition of our southern
brethren as the inheritors of slavery
which was forced upon them by the
mother country in opposition to the
repeated and ernest remonstrances of
their colonial legislature--as having
their right recognized by the Con-
sitution of the U. S., & that they
have for successive generation been reared
and educated under the influence &
in the habits of the slave system--we
cannot expect that anything but the most
exalted influence of religion &
humanity can ever induce them
voluntarily to change their habits--to make
the apparent sacrifice of property &
relinquish their right of controul over
the persons of their slaves.
5. Resolved that the practise of
denouncing them as man stealers
and publishing aggravated
representations of their depravity selfishness &
cruelty in the treatment of slaves and
assailing them in a spirit of fiery zeal
with the language of reproach &
vituperation, as is too often done by
Abolitionists--is not calculated to
raise that desirable influence--but rather
to destroy whatever of it may already exist among them.
368
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
6. Resolved that if the advocates of
immediate abolition will per-
severe in their attempts to procure the
emancipation of the slaves they ought
to approach the masters in the spirit of
christian kindness and brotherly
love which always adds incalculably to
the influence of religious & moral
suasion.
7. Resolved that we regard the state of
ignorance and moral depres-
sion so commonly exhibited by the black
population of this country as
naturally resulting from their residence
among the whites & standing as a
lower grade in society and while we
acknowledge our obligations to exercise
towards them all the justice sympathy
and charity which their situation call
for, we are persuaded that as long as
those distinctions which have ever
prevailed in civil society continue to
exist, & while black & white remain
distant and opposite in nature the hope
expressed by some abolitionists of
elevating them to an equal rank in
society in this country is utterly vain &
delusive.
8. Resolved that we consider the
unwillingness of the blacks of this
country to emigrate to Africa as one of
the strongest evidences of that
degradation and imbecility which
naturally results from their condition while
resident among the whites--and that we
consider it one of the highest
acts of benevolence and philanthropy to
endeavour to inform their minds,
elevate their views, & inspire them
with that spirit of independance &
enterprise which would lead them to fly
with alacrity to the country of
the black man, where only they even
enjoy the full privaleges of free men
& the dignity of self government.
9. Resolved that we highly approve of the
plan and in general the
measure of the American Colonization
Society & will support it as far as
our influence extends.
Paul Eager
Sylvester Hayes
Elias Gilman
Walter Thrall, Secretary.
Here, then, was the platform of the
Granville Anti-abolition
Party. The enforcement of it was to take
definite and spirited
form in the months that followed, not so
much in the matter of
encouraging the emigration of blacks to
Africa, it must be ad-
mitted, as in that of keeping the State
convention of the anti-
slavery organization out of Granville.
They kept it out--just a
little way out. Ashley Bancroft's
now-famous barn proved not
quite far enough to prevent the clash
which came on April 28, 1836.