Ohio History Journal

ANTI-SLAYERY MOVEMENT IN COLUMBIANA

COUNTY.

 

BY C. B. GALBREATH

 

A study of the early anti-slavery movement in Ohio

at this late day occasions many surprises. It seems that

the first participants came from the South, a number

arriving before the state was admitted into the Union.

The famous Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery in

the Northwest Territory. The states carved out of it

were thus from the beginning dedicated to freedom.

While the Ordinance contained a provision for the re-

turn of slaves to their masters in other states, this did

not prevent the free soil north of the Ohio River from

becoming a haven and a refuge for slaves seeking free-

dom from bondage or masters convicted by conscience.

As early as 1796, William Dunlop left Fayette

County, Kentucky, and settled in Brown County, Ohio

(then in the Northwest Territory). He brought a large

number of slaves with him, set them free and "estab-

lished them on land about Ripley." Many others did

likewise. Among the number was Dr. Alexander

Campbell, who came from Kentucky in 1803, liberated

his slaves, advocated immediate abolition, served in the

Legislature of Ohio, represented the state in the United

State Senate and in 1835 stood at the head of the list

of vice-presidents of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society.

Thomas Morris, member of the Legislature, Judge and

United States Senator, came from Virginia to what is

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now Ohio in 1795 and resided in Clermont County from

1800 till his death in 1857. Though not a slaveholder,

like many other men from the southern states, he came

to free territory in order that he might entertain and

freely express his opposition to slavery.  Thomas

Kirker, member of the Legislature and afterward acting

governor of Ohio, came to the state from Kentucky

because of his opposition to slavery. A comparatively

large number of ministers of the gospel, chiefly of the

Presbyterian and Baptist faith, came early from the

slave states to counties on the southern border of Ohio

in order that they might freely bear testimony against

the "peculiar system" of the South.

Pre-eminent among the anti-slavery advocates from

the South was James G. Birney, born in Kentucky,

February 4, 1792, a graduate of Princeton, a scholar

and an eminent lawyer, who manumitted his slaves,

became a candidate of the Liberty Party for President

in 1840 and again in 1844. His son, General William

Birney, in his biography of his father, James G. Birney

and His Times, dwells upon the contribution of the

South to anti-slavery leadership and gives illuminating

information upon the early movement in Ohio. His

purpose, as he freely admits, is to show that undue

credit has been given to William Lloyd Garrison for

the overthrow of the slave power in the United States.

This lays his book open to the charge of ex parte testi-

mony, but for all that it reveals the fact that much of

the early opposition to slavery on Ohio soil was of south-

ern origin, transported across the Ohio River from the

land of bondage.

The Quaker testimony against the institution of

slavery is too well known to call for extended notice

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Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County     357

here. The "Society of Friends" were among the earliest

settlers of Ohio and wherever they made their homes

their anti-slavery views found expression. They came

in large numbers to eastern Ohio early in the last cen-

tury and settled in the counties of Belmont, Jefferson

and Columbiana. On September 12, 1817, Charles

Osborn, a Quaker preacher from Tennessee, published

the first issue of the Philanthropist at Mt. Pleasant,

Ohio, the first anti-slavery paper published in America.

The second issue of this paper, bearing date, "ninth

month 19th 1817" has recently come into the possession

of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.

This is the earliest issue now known to be in existence.

In 1815, Benjamin Lundy, a pioneer Quaker anti-

slavery advocate, organized at St. Clairsville, Belmont

County, "The Union Humane Society," which soon

acquired a membership of "nearly five hundred." On

the establishment of the Philanthropist, Lundy became

a local agent and active supporter. Later he left Ohio

and was for some time in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1821,

he returned to Mt. Pleasant and established the Genius

of Universal Emancipation. This was afterward pub-

lished at Jonesboro, Tennessee and Baltimore, Mary-

land. At this time mob violence and the suppression of

free speech had not made their advent in the South.

The seeds sown in eastern Ohio continued to bear

fruit. Lundy's paper was generally read among the

Quakers and the anti-slavery societies that they inaugu-

 

* Some confusion has resulted from the claim by Oliver P. Temple,

in his East Tennessee and the Civil War, that the first "out-and-out"

emancipation paper was published at Jonesborough in East Tennessee in

the year 1819. The name of this paper was Manumission Intelligence. It

may be true that the paper published there was more radical than the

early issues of the Philanthropist, but it in no way disproves the claim that

the latter was the first anti-slavery newspaper published in America.

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358      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

The above is a facsimile of the head of the editorial column of the second issue (Vol. I, No. 2, September 19, 1817). The original is in the library of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. Benjamin Lundy was the pioneer anti-slavery leader in America; Benjamin Hanna was the grandfather of Senator Marcus A. Hanna.

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Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County  359

rated continued to grow in numbers and membership.

On December 12, 1826, New Lisbon, now Lisbon, held

the first recorded meeting in the interest of the anti-

slavery cause in Columbiana County. The Columbiana

Abolition Society was organized January 6, 1827, at

New Lisbon. It announced as its guiding principle,

"abolition, without condition or qualification." In a

short time it had a membership of more than five hun-

dred. Colonization was then put forward as the most

practical way of abolishing the evils of the slave system.

A committee of five was appointed to prepare an address

to the people. This was later published in the Ohio

Patriot and contained the announcement that "the two

millions then held as slaves would become ten millions

in the succeeding half century." In the following year

Benjamin Lundy delivered an address at the court house

in New Lisbon. He had great influence, especially with

the membership of the Society of Friends, with whom

he was a frequent visitor and in whose homes his paper

circulated freely.

On March 15, 1832, John Frost published the first

issue of the Aurora in New Lisbon. In his salulatory*

he announced that the paper would be non-partisan and

opposed to Masonry. He said nothing about slavery or

temperance. It was a four-page, twenty-column sheet,

of which about nineteen columns were made up of clip-

pings from other papers. One of these extracts dwelt

upon the evils resulting from the use of intoxicating

liquors. Later this paper became a temperance organ

and a vigorous opponent of slavery. It published pro-

ceedings of anti-slavery meetings, addresses and com-

 

* In order that this salutatory may be preserved it is published in

full on page 393. Only one copy of this issue is known to exist.

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360     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

munications that otherwise would not have reached the

people and become matters of permanent record. The

descendents of Mr. Frost still have volumes of the files

of his paper, but only a few of the earlier issues are

known to exist.

The Aurora, as indicated in the files from 1838 to

the suspension of publication, was eminently a news-

paper on the three reforms advocated and its columns

were more and more devoted to the anti-slavery cause.

It gives a view of the progress of that cause in different

parts of the country in extracts from numerous papers

and records in extended detail for that early day the

proceedings of local meetings, communications from

correspondents and whatever might be sought by those

interested in the movement. It must have been, when

published, a distinct influence for the promotion of the

chief reform that it advocated. As a record of the

progress of the anti-slavery movement in Columbiana

County and eastern Ohio the remaining files of the

paper have historic value and it is a source of regret

that nearly all of the issues of the earlier years have

disappeared.

The year 1835 is an important one in the anti-slavery

calendar of Ohio. Early in the year previous occurred

the anti-slavery upheaval in Lane Theological Semi-

nary at Cincinnati. A colonization society had been

organized there with the sanction of the faculty and the

evident approval of the patrons of the seminary. The

organization of the American Anti-Slavery Society and

the progress of sentiment favorable to immediate eman-

cipation influenced the young candidates for the min-

istry to form an abolition society. All were drawn into

the movement including sons of slaveholders and others

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from the South who had been reared under pro-slavery

influences. Dr. Lyman Beecher, the eminent divine,

father of Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher

Stowe, was at that time president of the institution. In

his absence the trustees passed resolutions suppressing

the colonization society and the abolition society in the

seminary. The young divinity students refused to sub-

mit. They were soon afterward presented the alterna-

tive of giving up the society or leaving the institution.

About seventy of the one hundred and ten students

withdrew. They pursued their studies for a time in

another building under different professors and later

were admitted to the newly organized department of

theology in Oberlin College.*

Among the students who left Lane Theological Sem-

inary was Marius R. Robinson, destined to become a

leader in the anti-slavery movement of Columbiana

County.

In April, 1835, the first state anti-slavery convention

in Ohio was held at Putnam, a suburb of Zanesville. Its

sessions began at 2 o'clock in the afternoon of Wednes-

day, April 22, and continued till noon the following

Friday. The printed official proceedings are now rare.

The copy owned by one of the most active members,

Theodore D. Weld, with his autograph and a few mar-

ginal corrections, is still preserved. It bears the names

of many of the leaders in the cause. Among them were

James G. Birney of Dansville, Kentucky, and James A.

Thome of Augusta, Kentucky, who by vote of the con-

vention were made "corresponding members" and ac-

corded the privilege of participation in the proceedings.

 

* See "Oberlin's Part in the Anti-slavery Conflict," Quarterly, V. 22,

pp. 270-275.

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Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County            363

Colonel Robert Stewart, of Ross County, was chosen

president of the convention; Elizur Wright, of Portage

County, was first vice-president. At the head of the list

of vice-presidents of the newly formed society was

Alexander Campbell, of Brown County, although he does

not appear to have been in attendance. Theodore D.

Weld, the great orator of the movement at that time,

was a very active member from Hamilton County, as

were also the eminent divine, Horace Bushnell, Au-

gustus Wattles* and Henry B. Stanton, afterward the

husband of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. One of the two

members from Brown County was Rev. John Rankin+

who figured in the rescue of Eliza, the heroine of Uncle

Tom's Cabin.

The members from Columbiana County were Joseph

Bailey, Nathan Galbreath and James Hambleton. Gal-

breath was made a vice-president of the Ohio Anti-

slavery Society and Hambleton one of its managers.

The name of Marius R. Robinson is attached to a report

on the "condition of the colored people of Cincinnati,"

but he was not present at the convention.

 

*Augustus Wattles was born in Goshen, Connecticut, August 25,

1807. He moved to Ohio in 1833, locating in Cincinnati where he at

once became active in the anti-slavery cause. In the spring of 1855 he

went to Kansas, settled near Lawrence and for a time was editor of the

Herald of Freedom. In 1857 he moved to a farm in Linn County, Kan-

sas, on which he lived until his death, December 19, 1876. He was an

intimate friend of John Brown in Kansas and became so obnoxious to

the pro-slavery party that a reward of $1,000 is said to have been offered

for his head. In company with Thomas Wentworth Higginson and

Colonel Montgomery he was active in planning for the liberation of John

Brown from the jail at Charlestown. For particulars of this plan see

Kansas Historical Collections, Vol. 8, p. 213.

+Rev. John Rankin was born in Jefferson County, Tennessee, Feb-

ruary 4, 1793. As early as 1814 he was actively engaged in organizing

against slavery. About the year 1821 he came to Ripley, Ohio. Through

the succeeding years of his long and eventful life he was a consistent

opponent of slavery. Eight of his sons and one grandson fought for the

North in the Civil War. He died in Ironton, Ohio, March 18, 1886.

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364      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Mr. Robinson was ordained to the ministry at James-

town, New York, in the spring of 1836. Soon after-

ward he returned to Cincinnati where he addressed con-

gregations and public meetings on the subject of slavery.

In August of that year he was appointed lecturer of the

American Anti-slavery Society for middle and northern

Ohio. This took him into Columbiana County where an

active interest in the cause he was advocating had

already developed. On June 1, 1837, he went to Berlin

Center, Mahoning County (then Trumbull County) to

deliver an address. Churches and the school buildings

were closed to him. His statement of his effort to be

heard and the indignities that he suffered at the hands

of a mob indicates the spirit of the times in northeastern

Ohio. His account was published in the Aurora of

June 15, 1837, and it is here reproduced as found in

A Souvenir History of Ye Old Town of Salem, 1806-

1906. His communication, written at the Quaker vil-

lage of Gillford, Columbiana County, was addressed to

the editor of the Aurora as follows:

"MR. FROST: At the request of a number of my fellow-

citizens, I send you some of the particulars of a recent gross

violation of my rights, in common with those of my fellow-

citizens. * * * I shall give a simple narrative of facts, for

some of the indignities offered me were of too gross and brutal

a character to be thus publicly detailed. In giving this nar-

rative I am actuated by no spirit of resentment, but of un-

feigned sorrow for the deep-rooted and widely extended in-

fluence of the spirit of slavery among my countrymen, and a

strong desire that all may see their danger, and, rising in the

vigor of Christian manhood, may remove the cause, by the

unceasing proclamation of the great doctrines of universal love.

"On Thursday, the 1st of the present month, I visited Berlin,

in Trumbull county (now a part of Mahoning county), for

the purpose of discussing the subject of American slavery.

Notice was circulated that on the following day there would

be a lecture. Application was made to Joseph Holt, Esq., a

trustee of the school district, and one of the oldest and most

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Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County      365

influential citizens of the place, for the use of the schoolhouse.

This was refused. Jesse Garretson, a highly respectable mer-

chant of Berlin, at whose house I was welcomed with the warm-

est of cordiality, opened his dwelling for the lecture. Esq.

Holt informed him that if the meeting was held the inevitable

result would be a mob. The meeting, however, passed off

without a verification of the prediction, and another meeting

was appointed to be held on the following day of the week,

when I purposed to vindicate the Bible from the charge of

supporting slavery. On Saturday there were some buzzings of

disapprobation, because we had presumed to have a meeting

in opposition to the well-known wishes of the nobility of Berlin.

But they were not such as to create in my mind any appre-

hension of violence. But the result showed that Esq. Holt could

penetrate the future with more certainty than myself. About

10 o'clock at night Mordecai B. Hughes entered the store of

Garretson & Hoover, where I was sitting in conversation with

J. F. Powers, Jesse Garretson and his wife, and having seized

me by the arm proceeded to drag me toward the door, at the

same time saying, 'You have got to leave town tonight. You

have disturbed the peace of our citizens long enough.' Mrs.

Garretson interfered, saying: 'If you take him, you must take

me too'; and about the same time a second ruffian, who entered

just after Hughes, seized me by the other arm for the purpose

of dragging me out, while Mrs. Garretson made an effort to

close the door and shut out the remainder of the gang. But

this was prevented by those without, who now joined in the

effort for my abduction; but for several minutes these were

rendered unavailing, by the vigor and firmness of my friends,

Mr. and Mrs. Garretson.    During the struggle Hughes de-

manded of Mr. Garretson that he should dismiss me from his

house. This was refused. They then pressed on with new

vigor. They were requested to stop and reason the matter.

'No reason here' was the reply; and so, indeed, we found it.

Brute force was the order of the day, and it was exercised

without respect of persons upon all who opposed, as was strik-

ingly manifested in the treatment these chivalrous advocates of

slavery were pleased to deal out to Mrs. Garretson in their zeal

for the peace of the neighborhood. Hughes, who seemed to

be dictator for the occasion, ordered her to desist; assured her

that she was 'acting very imprudently'; that he 'would remem-

ber her for this; and once pushed her with some violence. Mrs.

Garretson also received two blows, one on her arm, which

sprained her wrist, and another on her breast which has since

occasioned considerable pain and soreness. But notwithstand-

ing their commands, threats and blows, she continued unremit-

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366      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

tingly her efforts, until they had secured their prey by dragging

me into the street. The spirit with which the attack was made

may be learned by the following fact: A citizen from Berlin,

in conversation with two of the rioters, asked them how they

would have felt had there been a corpse found in the store the

next morning. One of them, William Ripley, Jr., a merchant

of the place, replied, 'We went prepared to take him, let the

consequences be what they would.'

"After getting me into the street, they hurried me along

with violence and rapidity, a mile or perhaps more--cursing,

taunting, threatening as they went. I was dragged along by

three men, one holding me by each wrist, another holding me

by the collar. This last, who seemed to be more of a savage

than the rest, frequently jerked me with violence towards him,

and would then thrust his fist violently against my breast; and

once he struck me on the head. Hughes remonstrated against

their hurting me, and they desisted from this species of violence.

One started for a rail, but this measure was decided against.

But in the infliction of tar and feathers they seemed to coincide.

After the delay of some half hour or more for the purpose of

procuring the means, they carried their measure into execution.

After this outrage, one of their number went for a wagon, for

the purpose of transporting me far from Berlin, that I should

not be able to return in time for the meeting next day. During

this interval, while being held fast by two men, I was made

the subject of multiplied jeers and insults. I made several

efforts to enter into conversation, and in one or two instances

met with partial success. But Hughes, who was most surpris-

ingly afraid of 'reason,' uniformly interfered and thwarted my

purpose.

"When the wagon arrived, I was placed in it with three

men, one to drive and two to prevent my escape. After ascer-

taining by search of my pockets that I had neither dirk nor

pistols, they concluded to relinquish their hold on my person

and permit me to ride in the most comfortable method I could.

I was carried by them about ten miles, and left about an hour

before day, near the center of Canfield. I was here an entire

stranger, not knowing even the name of a single inhabitant of

the township, and in a situation as may well be imagined any-

thing but agreeable. But that God, whose I am and whom I

humbly endeavor to serve, guided my steps to the house of Mr.

Wetmore, where all my wants were most amply supplied. From

his son, Mr. William Wetmore, I received the most marked

sympathy and kindness. Of him I borrowed a suit of clothes,

my own having been entirely spoiled, attended meeting through

the day, and although laboring under considerable pain and

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Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County      367

fever from the abuse of the previous night, I was permitted

at 5 o'clock p. m. to open my mouth once more, for the dumb,

and to search out the cause of those who, by the avarice and

prejudice of the Nation, are appointed unto death.

 

"I will only add that I have since visited Berlin for the

purpose of addressing a number of respectable citizens who

were desirous of learning what this strange doctrine (abolition)

was.  But tar and feathers having proven ineffectual, other

means were resorted to. I was now, together with my audience,

subjected to other outrages, under the professed authority and

sanction of law. The particulars of this transaction are worthy

of record, and I will endeavor to furnish them next week.

Yours,

MARIUS R. ROBINSON.

"GILLFORD, June 13, 1837."

 

From a manuscript sketch of the life of Marius R.

Robinson, written by his niece, Mrs. Homer C. Boyle,

who knew him well and got from him direct the account

of his experience at Berlin Center we quote the fol-

lowing:

"He went by invitation to Berlin Center, a village a few

miles north of Salem to speak. He was the guest of Jesse

Garretson, a Quaker merchant. * * * He spoke in Mr.

Garretson's dwelling on Friday, June 2. Another meeting was

arranged for the following Sunday when he proposed to vin-

dicate the Bible from the charge of supporting slavery. This

was more than the piety and patriotism of Berlin Center could

endure. At eleven o'clock on Saturday evening Mr. Robinson

was sitting in the store of his Quaker friend, Jesse Garretson,

engaged in conversation with one or two friends. The leader

of the already formed mob, Dr. Hughes, burst into the room

saying, 'You have got to leave town tonight; you have disturbed

the peace of our citizens long enough.' Mr. Robinson in spite

of the vigorous efforts of his friends to protect him, was dragged

into the street. * * * The hot tar burned his flesh. From

one of his arms a piece of flesh an inch square was torn. In

dragging him over a rack of scythes in the store another place

was cut in his hip quite deep * * *. He was placed in a

rough wagon, driven a distance of ten miles and thrown into

a field near the village of Canfield, where he was an entire

stranger, not knowing so much as the name of a single inhabi-

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368      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

tant. The household to which he first presented himself was

frightened by his appearance, and declined helping him, but

he found a Good Samaritan in a Mr. Wetmore, by whom all

his wants were supplied. He attended public worship twice

on that Sunday and at five o'clock in the afternoon delivered

an anti-slavery address, but he never recovered from the injuries

then received. * * * He never manifested any other feeling

toward his persecutors than that expressed by Jesus when in

his agony upon the cross, he exclaimed, 'Father forgive them;

they know not what they do.'"

Those who perpetrated this outrage were all well

known. There was no attempt to conceal their identity;

neither was there any effort to bring them to justice for

this lawless act. On the other hand, Mr. Robinson was

himself arrested on the charge of "inciting a mob." He

was successfully defended in court by R. W. Tayler,

later auditor of state and father of R. W. Tayler, con-

gressman and U. S. district judge. There was plenty

of law, but it was seldom invoked at this time in behalf

of abolitionists.

In 1839, Mr. Robinson was delivering anti-slavery

lectures in Licking County. At Granville he was con-

fined to his room for some time by a severe illness.

Taking advantage of this his opponents resorted to a

novel device to rid the community of his presence. The

overseers of the poor were influenced to use their au-

thority in behalf of the local pro-slavery sympathizers.

They sent by a constable the following order which was

served on Mr. Robinson when he was unable to leave

his bed:

"LICKING COUNTY, GRANVILLE TOWNSHIP, SS.

"To H. C. MEAD, Constable of Said Township, Greeting:

"WHEREAS, We, the undersigned, overseers of the poor

of Granville township, have received information that there has

lately come into said township, a certain poor man, named

Robinson, who is not a legal resident thereof, and will likely

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Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County  369

become a township charge, you are therefore hereby commanded

to warn the said Robinson, with his family, to depart out of

said township. And of this warrant make service and return.

Given under our hands this first day of March, 1839.

"CHARLES GILMAN,

"S. BANCROFT,

"Overseers of the Poor."

Although he was ill, Robinson was not fright-

ened at this order and stood his ground until he was able

and ready to leave.

In 1840 and 1844 James G. Birney was the candi-

date of the Liberal Party for president of the United

States. He ran on a platform pledged to the abolition

of slavery and abolitionists of all shades of opinion

supported him. The radical wing of the party, the fol-

lowers of William Lloyd Garrison, grew restive under

the leadership of those who sought to liberate the slave

and at the same time to preserve the union. The aboli-

tion of slavery in the District of Columbia and in the

territory of the United States they considered good so

far as it went but not sufficient to justify continued

union with the South where slavery existed under the

sanction of the Constitution of the United States.

Rather than live under such a government, they would

rend the union asunder. They adopted as their battle

cry "No Union with Slaveholders."   In other words,

they were disunion abolitionists.

Naturally there were many who opposed slavery but

were not prepared to go to this extreme. The division

in the anti-slavery ranks, which had been growing for

some time, reached a crisis in the annual meeting of the

Western Anti-slavery Society which assembled in the

Disciple Church at New Lisbon, Ohio, June 5, 1845.

Abby Kelley, the aggressive and eloquent Quakeress and

Vol. XXX-24

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370     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

radical abolitionist, assailed the citadel of conservatism

in this convention and ultimately carried everything by

storm. She declared that "Washington and Jefferson

were slave holding thieves, living by the unpaid labor of

robbed women and children." At this outburst a dele-

gate stepped on the platform and declared, "This is a

slander upon Jefferson who said in his warning against

slavery 'I tremble for my country when I remember that

God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever'."

Almost pushing the speaker from the stand Abby

Kelley shouted:

"Ah, devils fear and tremble when the Almighty is thunder-

ing out his wrath upon them,-but are they the less devils?"

In the midst of the excitement a prominent citizen

arose and said, "She is proving it all, but it will lead to

war and bloodshed." At this point, oil was poured on

the troubled waters by someone who led the great audi-

ence in singing these lines from Whittier:

"We have a weapon firmer set

And better than the bayonet;

A weapon that comes down as still

As snow-flakes fall upon the sod,

But executes a freeman's will

As lightning does the will of God."

The abolitionists of the Garrisonian school, now

having complete control in this stronghold of anti-

slavery sentiment in the West, took prompt steps to es-

tablish a newspaper for the promulgation of their views.

This was to be to this section in a measure what the

Liberator was to the East and the entire country. It

was not to supersede but to supplement Garrison's great

organ, and to give due prominence to the anti-slavery

movement in Ohio and the northwest.

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Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County  371

On June 29, 1845, the Anti-Slavery Bugle was

launched. The first issue was published at New Lisbon,

Ohio, and bore at its masthead, "No Union with Slave

Holders." After the sixth issue it was moved to Salem,

Ohio, where it was published until Abraham Lincoln

issued his emancipation proclamation.

At first the Bugle carried the name of no editor, but

it did not lack bold and vigorous editorial expression.*

Some of the ablest writers of the abolition school in

the United States were on the ground ready and eager

to pen their fervidthoughts for publication. The sev-

enth issue was published in Salem, September 5, 1845.

In this appear the names of the following publishing

committee: Samuel Brook, George Garretson, James

Barnaby, Jr., David L. Galbreath and Lot Holmes.

Barnaby was also general agent for the paper and the

names of the editors were Benjamin S. Jones and J.

Elizabeth Hitchcock. The editors were later married.

In the issue of October 23, 1846, the name of George

Garretson appears for the last time on the publishing

committee. The names of the other members of this

committee appear without change until the issue of

October 8, 1847. At this time the members of the

publishing committee were transferred to the executive

committee of the Western Anti-slavery Society. In the

issue of June 15, 1849, appears the valedictory of Ben-

jamin S. Jones and J. Elizabeth Jones, the joint editors.

Two weeks later "Words of Introduction," present

Oliver Johnson, the famous anti-slavery advocate, as

the new editor. He came expecting to remain only one

year until a permanent editor could be found, but the

 

* The earliest editorials are said to have been written by Milo

Townsend.

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372      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

work was so congenial to him that he consented to re-

main almost two years.    His "Parting Words" are

found in the issue of April 26, 1851. Marius R. Rob-

inson was then persuaded to undertake the editorial

work. His salutatory in the issue of May 24, 1851,

shows that he did this reluctantly and with misgivings

as to his qualifications for the new position. He re-

mained editor, however, until the cause for which the

Bugle was established had been accomplished and pub-

lication ceased.

The Bugle was a four page, six column paper, that

increased its size by increasing the width of its columns.

Its space was given up almost entirely to the anti-slavery

cause. There were few advertisements. The speeches

of friends of the cause in Congress and on the platform

were frequently reproduced in their entirety or extended

quotations. There were letters of generous length from

speakers in the field. Anti-slavery meetings and con-

ventions were ably reported and local clashes with pro-

slavery sympathizers were given considerable promi-

nence. In short, this was an organ of agitation and

propaganda. An editorial in the first issue sets forth

pretty clearly the purpose of the publication. It reads

as follows:

OUR PAPER

In extending to our readers our first greeting, we by no

means intend to disparage ourselves that they may exalt us.

Though you may consider our garb rather home-spun, and

our style somewhat homely, yet we come before you with no

humble pretensions. Our mission is a great and glorious one.

It is to "Preach deliverance to the captive, and the opening of

the prison door to them that are bound," to hasten in the day

when "Liberty shall be proclaimed throughout all the land, unto

all the inhabitants thereof." Though in view of the magnitude

of this enterprise, we feel that the intellect and power of an

• 18
 

Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County     373

 

angel would be but as a drop in the ocean of Truth, by which

the vilest system of oppression the sun ever shone upon is to

be swept away, yet knowing as we do that our influence is cast

with justice and Humanity, with Truth and the God of Truth,

our pretensions are far from humble, though our talents may

be justly so considered.

He who professes to plead for man degraded and imbruted,

and to strive for the elevation of the crushed millions of his

race; he who professes to labor for the restoration of manhood

to man, and for the recognition of his divine nature, makes no

humble pretensions.

It is true our Bugle blast may not fall upon your ears with

all the sweetness and softness which so well becomes the orchestra

of an Italian or French opera company, but we intend that it

shall give no uncertain sound, and God aiding us, we will blow

a blast that shall be clear and startling as a hunting horn or

battle charge, and we trust that its peals shall play around the

hill-tops, and shall roll over the plains and down the valleys of

our State, until from the waters of the Ohio to those of the

mighty lakes, from Pennsylvania on the East to Indiana on the

West, the land shall echo and re-echo to the soul-stirring cry of

"NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS."

The Bugle was not devoted entirely to the anti-

slavery cause. Incidentally it favored temperance, the

abolition of capital punishment and woman suffrage.

The first call for an Ohio woman suffrage convention

appeared in this paper, April 13, 1850. This convention

was held in Salem on the 19th day of April of that year.

It may therefore be truthfully said that the Bugle was

potent in starting this reform which only recently has

been fully accomplished not only in this state but in the

United States.

The promoters of the Bugle seemed to have been

inspired with a high degree of state patriotism. They

make the appeal for the paper not only in the name of

its cause but in the name of Ohio. In the second issue

appears a lengthy editorial from which we quote as

follows:

• 19
 

374      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

"Unpopular then as may be the doctrine of 'No union with

Slaveholders,' yet believing it to be true, the Committee have

inscribed it upon their sheet. No other paper west of the moun-

tains bears that motto. The Abolitionists of Eastern Pennsyl-

vania, of New York, and of New England have unfurled their

banners and written it upon the folds. Yonder, upon the soil

of Bunker's Height, beneath the very shadow of time-honored

and venerated Faneuil Hall, the "Liberator" has long since been

given to the breeze; and towering above the crowded metro-

polis of New York, where the hurry of commerce, the din of

business, and the conflict of selfish interests have almost drowned

the voice of truth, floats the National 'Standard' of American

Abolitionists. In the Quaker city of Pennsylvania, whose name

once synonomous with Brotherly Love, has lost its beautiful

signification, there are enough to sustain that banner which is

the glory of the true 'Freeman'; and from the hills of New

England--from the White mountains of New Hampshire is

heard the voice of a 'Herald of Freedom' cheering the handful

who have rallied around the mountain standard, and success-

fully defended it from the attacks of open foes and professed

friends.

"'Westward the star of Empire takes its way!' Ohio has

heard the call and responded to it. Her flag has been unfurled -

the echo of Freedom's song has fallen upon her ear, she has

caught up the notes and her Bugle is even now sounding through-

out the land. Shall it be said that the Buckeye State is content

to remain behind her older sisters in this glorious enterprise?

God forbid! Let those of us who profess to love the cause of

freedom, show at this time that our love for it is not an empty

name."

The non-resistant attitude of Garrison was pleasing

to the anti-slavery forces in Columbiana County, which

for the most part were reared under Quaker influences.

Their agitation often provoked blows and mob violence

of which they were the victims. In remarkably few in-

stances did they defend themselves against insult and

personal violence. Their meekness and persistence, as

one of their foes once expressed it, "were infernally ex-

asperating." They serenely refused to get angry or

excited. Their only weapon was argument, and it is

• 20
 

Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County  375

not recorded that they ever ran out of ammunition in

the war of words. The industry with which they spread

their propaganda and devoted themselves to the over-

throw of the slave power was truly wonderful. At

night they traveled far to help fugitive slaves along the

Underground Railroad toward the goal of freedom; in

daytime they went long distances to hear their speakers,

and they gave freely of their time and meager means to

a cause that could bring them neither wealth nor fame,

- a cause that was to them an educating influence, an

inspiration to unselfish endeavor and, in some instances,

the master passion of their lives. They found a genuine

enjoyment in this work and were ever cheered by an

unwavering faith that it would ultimately triumph. By

the standards of their time they were narrow-minded

and fanatical, but they saw in straight and prophetic

lines and the "visionary" and "impractical" reforms that

they advocated in their day became the triumphant

realities of a succeeding generation.

The anti-slavery speakers whose itineraries radiated

from Salem, very frequently had difficulty in finding

rooms in which to conduct their meetings. Public build-

ings and churches were usually closed against them.

Even the Quakers who freely bore testimony against

slavery sometimes hesitated to open their meeting

houses to the anti-slavery agents. Oliver Johnson, then

editor of the Anti-Slavery Bugle, in the issue of that

paper June 22, 1850, gives an account of a meeting that

he addressed in Columbiana on the Sunday preceding,

which is here reproduced in part:

"The afternoon meeting was appointed at our request, made

at the close of the regular meeting held in the morning--no one

objecting. On going to the meeting at three P. M., however,

• 21
 

(376)

• 22
 

Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County        377

Friends found the gate secured by strong padlocks, and the

doors and windows made fast. We have reason to believe that

this outrage against many respectable members of the Society

was committed with the full knowledge and approbation of the

two preachers who usually attend that meeting.

"Friends feeling that their right to the use of the house

under the circumstances was unquestioned, did not hesitate to

scale the fences and enter it by the readiest means in their

power. To accomplish the object nothing more was necessary

than to remove a protruding nail from a sash by pressing against

it another nail, and then to open a window, through which a

boy found ready ingress. The bar that held one of the doors

being removed, the audience found shelter from the rain, and

enjoyed the opportunity they had sought for the promotion of

the cause of Christian Reform.

"Whatever of responsibility is involved in the removal of

the nail, we cheerfully take upon ourselves for the act was

performed by our hands; and we must also plead guilty to a

subsequent effort to drive a fresh nail in the coffin of pro-

slavery Quakerism."

There were, however, some halls and churches that

were always open to anti-slavery speakers. Among the

latter was the church* near Cool Spring, or Unionville,

as the village was later called. This was a favorite

meeting place not only because the use of the church

was freely granted but because it was located midway

between a number of villages and conveniently acces-

sible to many people in northern Columbiana County.

On Sunday, July 14, 1850, a meeting of unusual interest

was held there. Following is the full account as it

appeared in the Bugle of July 20, 1850:

* The trustees of this church, which was located about one-fourth of a

mile east of Cool Spring, were Samuel Nye, David Galbreath and Samuel

Heaton, in whom and their successors the title of the property was vested

"to be free to all the sons and daughters of Adam" for public worship.

The father and two uncles of David Galbreath, all Quakers, had estab-

lished a similar church near the village of New Garden, Columbiana

County, in 1806. Three of his children he named after anti-slavery

leaders--Charles C. Burleigh, Abby Kelley and Parker Pillsbury. All

three of the trustees were in sympathy with the anti-slavery movement.

The church was torn down some time ago and the village of Cool Spring,

or Unionville as it is still called, has for years been slowly declining, due

to the growth of Leetonia, a railway town less than two miles distant.

• 23
 

378      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

"As we anticipated, the meeting at Cool Spring on Sunday

last was attended by a large concourse of people from the sur-

rounding country, most of them doubtless attracted by the pros-

pect of listening to the fervid eloquence of Abby Kelley Foster.

The meeting house being too small to accommodate even one-

half the throng, the windows on the north side were removed,

and the speaker taking her place at one of the apertures was

heard with great ease as well by those on the outside as by those

within the walls.

"Mrs. Foster's subject in the forenoon was the popular

religion of the land - the spuriousness of its worship and forms,

contrasted with the pure and undefiled Christianity of the New

Testament. She spoke with great power, and with an unction

proceeding from the heart and from a deep sympathy with

struggling humanity. The large audience listened as if spell-

bound for upwards of two hours, and we are confident that a

deep and abiding impression was made on many minds. At

the conclusion of her address, several questions were put by Dr.

Evans and De Lorma Brooks, Esq. of New Lisbon, which, for

want of time before adjournment, were not fully answered.

After a few remarks by Henry C. Wright, the meeting adjourned

until 2 o'clock P. M.

"The friends of the cause having reason to believe that a

concerted effort would be made to throw the meeting into con-

fusion, determined to organize at the commencement of the

afternoon session by the appointment of a chairman to keep

order. Five or ten minutes, however, before the hour appointed

for the opening of the meeting, a vagrant buffoon and rowdy,

calling himself Dr. O. C. Evans, took his place near the stand

and commenced a characteristic speech. When the hour of 2

o'clock had arrived, Samuel Myers mildly requested him to

desist, but he refused to do so in the most insulting manner,

and proceeded with his harangue, being encouraged in that out-

rageous course by a few rowdies as vulgar as himself. Of course

he had no more right to speak at that time, in defiance of all

order and of the wishes of those who had called the meeting,

than he had to pick the pockets of those assembled; but all

appeals to his sense of justice and his regard for decency were

alike vain; he had come to the meeting resolved that his voice

should be heard, not in a peaceable and orderly manner, but in

such a way to produce all possible confusion. He was told that,

if he would suffer the meeting to become organized, he should

have the floor at once; but it was of no use.

"Seing that remonstrance was vain, the anti-slavery friends

appointed their chairman, quietly removed their speakers' stand

to the south side of the house, and left the brawler and his

• 24
 

Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County     379

congenial spirits to themselves. The creature then played the

buffoon for an hour or more for the amusement of his cronies,

who enveloped in the smoke of burning tobacco doubtless thought

they had achieved a victory over the Abolitionists and saved the

Union and the Church from destruction!  That the noise of

the rowdy doctor - for he roared like a 'bull of Bashan' - and

the loud jeers of his boon companions, did not annoy the friends

of order, it would be too much to say; but the disturbance was

not such as to interrupt the progress of the meeting. Able ad-

dresses were made by H. C. Wright and A. K. Foster. William

D. Ewing of New Lisbon, a sort of amateur Free-soiler, came

forward in a manly way to vindicate the Constitution and the

Union, but we cannot honestly say that he helped the cause he

sought to defend.  De Lorma Brooks, an out-and-out Whig,

who believes that the 'self-evident truths' of the Declaration of

Independence are a transparent lie - whose highest rule of

morality is that 'Power gives Right,' and wouldn't mind holding

slaves and raising them for market if the law only allowed it

- controverted alike the views of the Abolitionists and of Mr.

Ewing. He admitted, however, that the former were consistent

in opposing the Union and Constitution believing as they did

that slavery was a sin and that it was a crime to aid in upholding

it. They were both pretty effectually 'used up' by A. K. F.

"The meeting on the whole was a grand one, and we believe

that the good seed so freely sown will produce an abundant har-

vest.

"We have understood, and see many reasons for believing,

that Dr. Evans was hired by certain persons in Salem and taken

to Cool Spring for the very purpose of creating a disturbance.

Among those who were guilty of this meanness we have heard

mentioned the names of some persons who would like to be

thought respectable, and who in fact have hitherto borne such

a reputation.  Perhaps they contemplated no more than an

amusing conflict between their rowdy champion and the anti-

slavery speakers, but even this was wholly unjustifiable. They

knew well enough that he was a mere brawler, as incapable of

discussing the question raised by Abolitionists as he was of

comprehending what belonged to a gentlemanly propriety and

decency. To encourage such a person to make his appearance

on the platform, and, under the guise of free discussion to create

disturbance, was an insult to the meeting and disgraceful to all

concerned in it.  Our opponents very well know that we are

ever ready to meet them in fair argument-that our platform

is not more free to ourselves than to them. Is it generous, or

manly in them, in return for this liberality, to seek to make

our meeting scenes of confusion and vulgar rowdyism?"

• 25
 

380      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

The New Lisbon Palladium, the Whig organ of the

county, handled these meetings in the following sum-

mary fashion:

"Abby Kelley Foster is again upon the stump ministering to

the depraved appetites of her fanatical followers. She spoke

in this place Saturday last and at Cool Spring, about seven miles

north of here, on Sunday. The people of New Lisbon showed

their good sense by staying from the meeting, letting her rave

her blasphemies in the ears of those who have just wit enough

to believe in the doctrine that 'the bible's a farce and Jesus

Christ's an impostor.' We sincerely trust that even to those

poor witless fools who are blinded by her eloquence to the dan-

gerous tendencies of her doctrines the poison may be of so

malignant a nature as to carry with it its own antidote."

The town of Salem was well chosen as the western

citadel of the anti-slavery forces.  It was settled by

Quakers, and traditions of hostility to the slave power

extended back to the earliest settlement there in 1806.

The Bugle was safe in this stronghold. James G. Bir-

ney's Philanthropist might be mobbed and his press and

type thrown into the river at Cincinnati, but there was

no time when it would have been safe for a party of

lawless and desperate men to make an attack on the

office of the Bugle in Salem. There had grown up in

the town a sturdy generation of young men who, in such

a contingency, would have forgotten their "non-

resistant" creed. Their long war of words was prepar-

atory to action, as we shall presently see.

On Monday, August 28, 1854, occurred the rescue of

a slave girl in Salem, Ohio, under circumstances that

entitle it to a place in this record.  The story of this

episode has been briefly related in print with varied and

conflicting details.  Fortunately it is now possible to

tell it from the testimony of eye witnesses, written at

the time and worthy of all confidence.  The newspapers

• 26
 

Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County  381

are at last at hand which give in very satisfactory form

the contemporaneous accounts.

On the above mentioned date the Western Anti-

slavery Society was holding in Salem the concluding

session of its annual convention. This was the after-

noon of the third day. The previous sessions were held

in a large tent not far from the railroad station. The

final session, it seems, was held in the Hicksite Quaker

Church, still standing on Ellsworth Street. Such is the

testimony of a few persons still living who were present

at this memorable session. A contributor to the Liber-

ator, who was present and sent an account to that paper,

states that the meeting was in progress "about a quarter

of a mile from the railroad station," and that accords

with the location of the church.

At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon a telegram was

received in Salem stating that a train bearing a slave-

holder, his wife and a girl slave, had left Pittsburgh for

the west and would pass through the town at 6 o'clock

that afternoon. This telegram was taken to the con-

vention, the speaker on the floor was interrupted and

the message was read. This stirred the audience. The

speaker asked if they believed their professed principles

and were ready to march to the station to rescue the

slave. With one impulse the assembly rose to their feet

and were soon on their way to meet the incoming train.

In the meantime the news had spread through the

town and many citizens joined the convention delegates.

They reached the station before the train was due, im-

provised a speaker's stand and were addressed by

Charles C. Burleigh of Massachusetts, Reverend Griffing

of Connecticut and others.

• 27
 

(382)

• 28
 

Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County  383

A committee was appointed to board the train when

it arrived. On this committee were Henry B. Blackwell,

of Cincinnati, and a colored man of Salem. The latter

was chosen because it was assumed that the slave girl

would be frightened and that she would have confidence

in one of her own color.

The crowd at the depot had been growing and ex-

citement had reached a high pitch when the 6 o'clock

train pulled in. Some of the citizens engaged the con-

ductor in conversation while the committee entered the

coach and soon located the slave. She was a child, evi-

dently about twelve years of age. In answer to a direct

question from a member of the committee, "Do you

desire to be free?" the child answered, "Yes."

The girl's master and mistress objected to any inter-

ference with their property, insisting that she belonged

to them and was on her way to Tennessee. Thereupon

Mr. Blackwell informed them that the child was legally

free, lifted her bodily from the seat, carried her out of

the car and joined the crowd which sent up a great

cheer. The girl was soon taken to a place of safety.

She was much frightened at the large crowd and strange

surroundings. As they were taking her from the train

she said:

"Oh, don't put me to jail."

"No, no,^" said one of the rescuers, "we will not put

you to jail, we have no jails here."

"What, have you no jails?" she said.

"No," was the answer, "but why do you ask?"

"Because," said she, "they take us to the jail when

we are sold. And have you no watch-house either?"

"Oh, no, why should we have a watch-house ?"

• 29
 

384     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

"Why, they take us to the watch-house to be

whipped."

The westbound train that brought the slave girl was

delayed at Salem half an hour to pass the eastbound

train which was late. The crowd did not leave the depot

but used a large store box as a speaker's platform from

which Charles C. Burleigh regaled them with one of his

most eloquent addresses. When finally the train bear-

ing the slaveholder and his wife started westward, a

great meeting in the town hall for that evening was

announced and with another triumphant cheer the res-

cuers left the railroad station. That evening there was

a great ringing of bells, calling the people to the meeting

in town hall, "Liberty Hall," "the Faneuil Hall of the

West" as it has been called, and the people came in

numbers that exceeded the capacity of the hall.

The slave girl was brought to the rostrum. An eye

witness stated to the writer that she was led forth by

a white girl about her own age. There was cheering

and someone in the audience called out, "Which is the

slave?" and then there was more applause and an appro-

priate song. The meeting was addressed by Henry B.

Blackwell of Cincinnati, Reverend Griffing of Connec-

ticut, Charles C. Burleigh of Massachusetts and Marius

Robinson and Henry Ambler of Salem. Burleigh, as

usual, spoke in his scholarly, serious and eloquent vein.

Ambler swayed the audience with alternate sallies of

humor and stirring appeals. The meeting reached its

appropriate climax when the little girl was again

brought forward and named "Abby Kelley Salem," after

the famous Quaker woman whose oratory had done so

much to advance the anti-slavery cause in the West

• 30
 

Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County  385

and the town which organized and successfully carried

out the rescue.

The following resolution was unanimously adopted:

"RESOLVED, That in tendering our thanks to those our friends

who were actively engaged in this day's rescue of a living soul

from the fate of a chattel, Salem sends greeting to her elder

cities, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Boston, inviting them 'to go

and do likewise.' "

The meeting then "adjourned to meet again at the

depot or elsewhere when a similar occasion might call

them together."

This incident illustrates the spirit of Salem in the

interesting decade before the Civil War. The citizens

there and in many communities in northeastern Ohio

found genuine enjoyment in the advocacy of their fa-

vorite reform. The anti-slavery meetings and conven-

tions were fountains of enthusiasm from which they

freely drank. The anathemas and showers of eggs with

which they were assailed in earlier years no longer

marred their gatherings. The tide of popular favor

was at last turning strongly in their direction. They

rejoiced in the controversy and the prospect of the

fruition of their labors.

The rescue of the slave girl had its aftermath. The

Cleveland Herald, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the

Cincinnati Enquirer denounced it as the work       of

"fanatics, fools and knaves," and announced that the

slave girl had been taken against her will. On the other

hand the Cleveland Leader stoutly defended the action

of the people of Salem on the following grounds:

"1. The child was free by the laws of Ohio the moment

the train of cars crossed the Columbiana County line.

Vol. XXX-25

• 31
 

386      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

"2. The 'master and mistress' were kidnappers every

minute they held her as a chattel in their custody while on the

soil of Ohio.

"3. Any man had a legal right to rescue the little girl from

the grasp of these kidnappers.

"4. The child, when acked whether she desired to be free,

distinctly replies, 'Yes'.

"5. It is said by the dough-faces that it was wrong and

cruel to prevent the little girl from returning to her mother.

Bah! The girl says that her mother was taken from her long

ago, that she has not seen or heard from her for years-just

as tens of thousands of slave mothers before her have been

forcibly torn from their children. The child has been placed

in the hands of a wealthy, humane Quaker family that will

educate her and raise her rightly, and when she is of age she

can return 'to her mother' and resume her chains if she chooses."

Henry B. Blackwell, of Cincinnati, published a

defense in the papers of his city, of his connection with

the rescue. It concludes as follows:

"The only assault committed was that of Mr. Samuel B.

Keyes upon myself, an offense which I cheerfully forgive, be-

cause he appeared to labor under unusual and unnecessary ex-

citement.

"After the child was placed in safety, I returned to the

cars, not to apologize for any rudeness to the lady, for I had

been guilty of none, but to explain to her our motives for re-

moving the child. No one who knows me will for a moment

believe me capable of insulting or offering disrespect to a woman.

"Is there any southern city where abolitionists caught in

the act of removing a slave child into freedom, would enjoy as

much forbearance as did these slaveholders who were taking a

free child into slavery?

"In conclusion, I will merely say that the deed was done in

open daylight, before many witnesses, by men of character and

responsibility.  If any injustice has been done to Mr. Robinson

or to his lady I hold myself amenable to the laws of my state

and to public opinion. I invite the fullest investigation. In

strict accordance with justice and the laws I have assisted to

prevent a free child in Ohio from being kidnapped. To have

done otherwise would have forfeited my self respect and proved

myself unworthy the position of an American citizen.

"Nobody is hurt. The little chattel of Tennessee will now

grow up into a free and intelligent woman of Ohio. She is in

• 32
 

Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County     387

 

the hands of kind and conscientious friends who will provide for

her interests."

The Anti-Slavery Bugle approved the rescue in a

strong editorial, concluding as follows on the legal

aspect of the case:

"The Supreme Court of Ohio has decided that the course

pursued by the Salem rescuers was entirely legal. Some years

since, a similar rescue was happily effected by our friends,

Abram and Edward Brooke and others. Then, as now, a hue

and cry was raised against those engaged in the heroic under-

taking, for it required more heroism to do it then than now.

They were hunted by the mob and persecuted by appeals to law,

at the instance of pro-slavery Ohioans. The Court of Common

Pleas decided against the rescuers as guilty of offense against

law. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, and Judge

Lane decided the act to be lawful and constitutional and that

the rescuers had the right to use so much force as was needful

to effect the deliverance of the slaves."

The rescued slave girl lived many years in Salem, at

first in the family of Joel McMillan. She attended the

public schools and grew up with many of the advantages

of white children. In disposition, however, she did not

exhibit the traits that some enthusiastic anti-slavery

workers were wont to ascribe rather indiscriminately to

the colored people. Mrs. McMillan late in life said that

some of the characteristics of Mrs. Stowe's Topsy were

manifest in Abby Kelley Salem.

Very early in the history of Columbiana County aid

was freely given the slaves escaping from their masters.

The Underground Railroad had a number of active

agents in New Lisbon, Salem and the surrounding

country. The list of their names is a long one and

incomplete. The secrecy that this work enjoined pre-

vented for the most part written or printed records,

and its history is necessarily somewhat traditional.

• 33
 

388      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

In the late fifties the anti-slavery cause drew to it

rapidly increasing numbers of supporters. While the

"disunion abolitionists", as the followers of Garrison

were called, still adhered to their slogan, "No union with

slave-holders," there was a gradual "getting together"

of all the anti-slavery forces, and a mighty undercurrent

was bearing the people toward "the constitutionalizing

of the Declaration of Independence."

NOTES.

MARIUS R. ROBINSON.

Marius R. Robinson, son of Benjamin and Naamah Robin-

son, was born in Dalton, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, July

29, 1806. He died in Salem, Ohio, December 8, 1878. He was

the eldest of a large family of boys and girls. Limited means

and the Puritan code enforced economy, temperate habits and

moral rigidity. When he was ten years old he moved with his

parents to Dansville, New York. Soon afterward he went to

Utica in that state where he learned the trade of printer. In

1827 he went south and taught school in the Creekpath mission

of the Cherokee Nation. While teaching in this Indian school

he studied theology, reciting to private teachers. In 1830 he

entered the Nashville University in the third or junior year of

the four years course and two years later was graduated from

this institution with high honors. His diploma, which is still

in the possession of a relative, bears the name of President

Andrew Jackson. After graduation he entered Lane Seminary

in Cincinnati under the administration of Rev. Lyman Beecher,

father of Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Here he remained two years until the controversy between the

trustees, faculty and students of that institution over the ques-

tion of slavery. For some time a colonization society had been

conducted by the students with the approval of the trustees,

but finally the students organized an abolition society. To this

the trustees and patrons from the South at once objected and

both societies were forbidden. The students, however, from the

North and many from the South insisted upon continuing the

abolition society and severed their connection with the seminary

rather than submit to the regulation of the trustees and faculty.

They continued their studies through the winter in a room that

they hired and under privately employed teachers.

In the spring of 1836 Mr. Robinson was employed on the

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Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County     389

Philanthropist published by James G. Birney. While engaged

in this work the printing office was mobbed but the presses and

type were saved. In June of this year he was ordained to the

ministry in Jamestown, New York. In August he was appointed

by the American Anti-Slavery Society as lecturer for middle

and northern Ohio. His work brought him to Salem which

later became his permanent home.

While in Cincinnati he became acquainted with Miss Emily

Rakestraw, of New Garden, Ohio, who had gone to that city

to teach in the colored schools. For this she was practically

ostracized by the white people of Cincinnati and by not a few

of her friends in her home village. She afterwards became the

wife of Mr. Robinson and as the village of New Garden was

near Salem the two had family ties that made their new field of

labor doubly attractive. In 1851 Mr. Robinson became editor

of the Anti-Slavery Bugle and continued in that position until

1863. Promptly on the conclusion of his editorial labors he

became president of the Ohio Mutual Fire Insurance Company

with offices at Salem and continued in this position up to the

date of his death.

Oliver Johnson, whom he succeeded as editor of the Bugle.

gives this summary of his estimate of his friend and co-worker:

"Mr. Robinson was a man of great sweetness and purity

of life, and an earnest and eloquent champion of every prin-

ciple and measure which he thought beneficial to his fellow-men.

He combined great courage with great discretion, winning the

respect and confidence even of those whose views differed most

widely from his own. Of pure and undefiled religion, as de-

fined by the apostle James, he was at once a defender and an

exemplar. As a speaker he was full of what is usually called

magnetic power, by which he was able to command the attention

and sway the sympathies of his hearers. For many years he

was editor of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Bugle, the files of which

are a memorial of his power as a writer as well as of his un-

swerving devotion to the cause of freedom."

 

CHARLES C. BURLEIGH.

Charles Calistus Burleigh was born in Plainfield, Connec-

ticut, November 10, 181O. He died in Florence, Massachusetts,

June 14, 1878. He was the son of Rinaldo Burleigh, a graduate

of Yale, and of Lydia Bradford, a lineal descendent of Governor

Bradford who came to America in the Mayflower. He studied

law and was admitted to the bar of Windham County, Con-

necticut, but he early became interested in the anti-slavery cause

and soon devoted his entire time to it. He was editor of The

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390      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Unionist, an abolition paper published in his state. In 1835

he assisted in protecting William Lloyd Garrison from the mob

in Boston. He was a speaker in Pennsylvania Hall, Philadel-

phia, in 1838 when the building was attacked and burned by a

mob. For several years he preached for the Free Congrega-

tional Society of Florence, Massachusetts, and at one time served

in a similar capacity in Bloomington, Illinois. He is described

as a remarkably eloquent speaker. He had vowed that he would

not cut his hair until the slaves were emancipated. His long,

abundant hair and his heavy beard marked him as an eccentric

personality and the impression that he made on first appearance

was for this reason against him. Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard,

the daughter of William Lloyd Garrison, recalls a meeting at

which her father and Burleigh were the principal speakers. Her

father was bald from the age of twenty-one. The contrast be-

tween the appearance of the two speakers led some lusty lunged

fellow in the audience to bawl out, "Someone shave that black

Christ and make a wig of his beard for Garrison."

Mr. Burleigh's eloquence, however, soon led his audience

to forget his beard and long flowing locks. The following quota-

tion from a letter dated May 10, 1852, from a person not in

sympathy with his views who heard him speak in Cincinnati,

gives some idea of the impression that he made as a lecturer:

"A few evenings ago I went to hear a lecture at the Me-

chanics' Institute, from C. C. Burleigh, the celebrated abolition

orator from New England. * * * The orator presently made

his appearance and a most unfavorable one it was--the first

characteristic being an intense amount of beard, covering his

face and breast, so that you could see little more than his nose

and eyes above the top vest-button. I must do him the justice

to say, however, that his language was beautifully chaste, his

imagery superb, and the whole manner of his oratory fascinating

to a very high degree. His reasoning was of that kind which

to the superficial seems absolutely conclusive and unanswer-

able; and I could easily perceive how an ardent and unreflecting

temperament might be led by it into the belief that the institution

of slavery was 'the sum of all villainies,' and the obligation to

suppress it the highest of Christian duties. It is no vanity, in

me, however, to say that I saw in the whole argument, a trans-

parent sophistry, founded upon utter ignorance or wilful mis-

representation of the real condition of the slave in every south-

ern state. * * * With a few such impressive speakers as

this man Burleigh speaking in populous communities, with the

countenance of such auditors as have been flocking to hear

him in this place, there will be thousands of the unwary, the

inexperienced and the ardent of temperament led into uniting

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Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County      391

 

their forces with the unscrupulous and treacherous to the effect-

ing of most injurious, not to say disastrous results."

Burleigh was an advocate of woman's rights, temperance

and the abolition of capital punishment.  In 1845 he wrote

"Thoughts on the Death Penalty" which is still sometimes quoted

by the opponents of capital punishment. One in sympathy with

his work has described him as "tall, with a noble countenance,

with long sandy beard and hair and dressed unconventionally."

He spoke frequently in eastern Ohio where he became a

great favorite among friends of the anti-slavery movement.

 

ABBY KELLEY.

Abby Kelley was born in Pelham, Massachusetts, January

15, 1811 and died in Worcester, Massachusetts, January 14,

1887. Her ancestors were Irish Quakers. She was educated

at the Friends School, Providence, Rhode Island, taught school

for a number of years and resigned her position in the Friends

School at Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1835 to enter the anti-slavery

lecture field. She lectured in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and

Ohio and it is to her influence largely that the Anti-Slavery Bugle

was founded. She also had much to do with the swaying of

the Ohio Anti-slavery Society to the support of the Garrisonian

abolitionists whose motto was "no union with slave holders."

They were frequently called dis-union abolitionists. In 1839

the name of this society was changed to Western Anti-Slavery

Society and it became an auxiliary of the national society. In

1845 she married Steven S. Foster and accompanied by her

husband she continued in the lecture field. The poet Lowell

thus describes her:

"A Judith there, turned Quakeress,

Sits Abby in her modest dress.

No nobler gift of heart or brain,

No life more white from spot or stain,

Was e'er on freedom's altar laid,

Than her's - the simple Quaker maid."

After the triumph of the anti-slavery cause she and her

husband settled on a farm in Massachusetts. They were both

ardent advocates of woman suffrage. She aided in the campaign

for the adoption of the fifteenth amendment in doubtful states.

This appears to have been her last service in the lecture field.

She is said to have been an amiable and pleasing personality

but the severity of her arraignments on the platform at times

led her hearers, especially those who did not agree with her, to

reach a different conclusion. When she came to Salem, Ohio,

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392      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

it is said that she went to the home of Jacob Heaton, a prominent

anti-slavery advocate of that town, who was also a firm supporter

of the Liberty Party. When she came to his home, before

entering she said to him: "I do not know that thee will wish me

to enter thy home. I have come to kill the Liberty Party." To

this Mr. Heaton answered with a smile, "Come in, Abby, and

we will kill thee with kindness."

 

OLIVER JOHNSON.

Oliver Johnson was born at Peacham, Vermont, December

27, 1809. He died December 8, 1889. He was an apprentice

printer in the office of the Watchman published at Montpelier,

Vermont. He was afterwards engaged in a number of news-

paper enterprises and interested himself in benevolent movements

and the anti-slavery cause. He aided in organizing the New

England Anti-slavery Society in 1832, assisted William Lloyd

Garrison in the publication of the Liberator, went to Ohio and

there lectured for the Western Anti-Slavery Society and edited

the Anti-Slavery Bugle for almost two years. He afterward

returned to the east and in 1865 became managing editor of the

Independent. In 1870 he became editor of the New York Weekly

Tribune and two weeks later accepted the editorship of the

Christian Union.  He wrote a book entitled William  Lloyd

Garrison and his Times; or sketches of the anti-slavery move-

ment in America.

JOHN FROST.

John Frost was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, July

18, 1806 and died January 1, 1885. He came with his parents

to Hanover Township, Columbiana County, in 1811. He re-

ceived his education in the pioneer public schools and the print-

ing office. He was a born reformer and early became identified

with the anti-slavery movement-"itself a great educator."

In 1827 he entered the office of the American, published in New

Lisbon, Ohio, where he learned the printer's trade. In 1832

he established the Aurora, the first issue of which bears the

date of March 15 of that year. This paper he continued to

publish until 1856. Its character is set forth on preceding pages

and in the excerpt following this sketch. It was published at

first in an office "over the store of Potter and Quinby two

doors west of Mr. Daily's hotel," and later from an office on

Walnut Street, constructed in circular form, so built as the

editor expressed it, that "the devil could not corner him."

After the Aurora ceased publication, Mr. Frost went to

Ravenna, Ohio, where for a time he was one of the editors of

the Reformer, a radical anti-slavery paper. From  1859-1862

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Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County             393

 

he followed the printer's trade in eastern cities principally Phila-

delphia. In 1863 he returned to Ohio and with Peter Walker

of Massillon commenced in that city the publication of the In-

dependent, which he continued successfully for ten years. In

1873 he returned to New Lisbon, where he was employed until

within a few weeks of his death in general newspaper work, much

of his time in his later years being spent in the office of the

Buckeye State.    He was a reformer and actively interested in

promoting the moral and educational welfare of the communities

in which he lived. Firmly grounded in his faith, he was tolerant

of those sincerely holding opposite views and, through the stormy

controversial times in which he lived, he ever preserved a genial

and gentle personality.

THE AURORA.

Volume 1, Number 1, March 15, 1832

The introductory note at the head of the first column is

brief and is here quoted in full:

 

"THE AURORA

will be published weekly, at two dollars per annum if paid within the

year, or two dollars and fifty cents if payment be extended beyond that

period. No discontinuance until all arrearages are paid--Office over

the store of Potter & Quinby two doors west of Mr. Daily's hotel.

"Advertisements not exceeding a square, one dollar for the three

first insertions, anw twenty-five cents for each subsequent insertion.

Longer ones in proportion."

The editor's salutatory, which appears at the head of the

third page, is as follows:

"In the early part of November, we issued a prospectus, for pub-

lishing, in the town of New Lisbon, a newspaper called 'The Aurora.'

At that time, we intended to commence its publication on the first of

January last, and with a view thereto we sent to Cincinnati for the press

and materials, which, in consequence of the obstruction of the navigation

of the Ohio River by ice, we have not been able to obtain until a few

weeks past.

"In presenting to the public the first number of our paper, some

apology for the matter it contains we deem necessary: Unfavored with

the advantages of an exchange, we were obliged to gather the best we

could from the few papers in our possession. Hereafter, we are in

hopes that these disadvantages will be removed; and that we shall be

able, by a judicious selection, from the best periodicals and newspapers

printed in the United States, to make our future numbers more interesting

than the present.

"Since the issuing of our prospectus for this publication, much

speculation has been afloat as to the course that would be taken in its

direction. Many things have been in circulation, calculated to prejudice

and forestall public opinion; and to produce a withholding of that sup-

port, which we otherwise might have expected. To correct the public

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394        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

upon this subject, we have thought it advisable to notice two of the most

prominent objections that have been urged against the establishment of

this press. It is stated that this county cannot support three presses;

and that in case ours succeeds, it must be at the expense of others. This

statement, in our opinion, is incorrect-we cannot as yet, believe that

the rich county of Columbiana, with a population of thirty-six thousand,

is incapable of supporting three presses. It must be borne in mind that

improvement is on the march-that general information is becoming

every day more widely infused, and the advantages of newspapers more

properly appreciated. We deem the time not far distant when almost

every family in our county will consider a newspaper an indispensable

requisite to its interests and amusement.

"It has also been stated, and pretty generally circulated, that this

press has been established for the express purpose of rearing up a polit-

ical antimasonic party-to proscribe those who belong to the masonic

institution; and to lift into office a few political aspirants, who have no

other way of getting in. We unequivocally pronounce this to be incor-

rect. We are opposed to political antimasonry unless it should be needed

to counteract the effects of political masonry; we are opposed to pro-

scribing any man, because he belongs to this society, or that; and, we

are also opposed to that class of men that espouse any party for the

purpose of office.

"In principle, we are antimasonic. We look upon the masonic insti-

tution as entirely useless, and calculated, if for nothing more, to create

suspicion and mistrust. And in the direction of this paper, we shall

occasionally endeavor to show why, & wherein, it is useless, & the reasons

why it ought to be abolished. In doing which, we shall not travel out

of the path of truth, or o'erstep the bounds of candor and propriety.

Our columns also will be open for a fair discussion of its principles.

And if they are, as its friends represent them to be, correct and useful,

they have nothing to fear from investigation, if not, the public ought to

be made acquainted with them.

"By some, it is contended that the press has nothing to do with the

subject of masonry; that it steps aside from its duty when it meddles

with it. We think differently-we consider no society privileged, how-

ever ancient it may be, or whatever may be its tenets or principles. If

they be useful, the world ought to be made acquainted with it, if not,

justice requires an exposure; and the press, in our opinion, is the proper

vehicle to make that exposure. Whatever concerns the public, the press

ought not to withhold. Like a faithful sentinel, its duty is to watch

over the welfare of the country; and to sound the alarm when danger

either stalks abroad at noonday, or skulks about under the cover of the

night. Such are our views of masonry, and such are our views of the

duties of the public press.

"In politics this press will be governed by principles rather than

men-only adhering to such men as are governed by correct motives,

and whose abilities and integrity entitle them to public confidence. Be-

lieving that the American system embraces the true policy of our country

-a policy calculated to make us independent in time of war, and happy

in time of peace, we shall give it our undivided support.

"As to the two political parties that now agitate this country, we

shall not espouse either; but endeavor to pursue an independent course,

and to publish such matter on both sides as may be interesting to the

public. Experience has fully shown that, in the rage of political excite-

ment, truth is frequently sacrificed to party purposes, and the public most

egregiously imposed upon-such things ought not to be-truth ought

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Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County           395

 

to be published, whether the same makes against this party or that;

that the people may be correctly informed, and be prepared to act in the

exercise of their elective franchise.

"Believing that the greatest portion of our readers will be among

those, who belong to the agricultural and manufacturing occupations,

we shall take great pains to make this paper valuable to them; for that

purpose, we shall, as soon as possible, devote a part of this paper ex-

clusively to such subjects as more particularly interest them.-In short

it will be our aim to make our columns interesting to all classes of

community."

 

 

ILLUSTRATIONS.

The portraits of Abby Kelley, Oliver Johnson and Charles

C. Burleigh are reproduced from William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-

1879, The Story of His Life Told by His Children. These were

made from daguerreotypes taken prior to 1860. The portrait of

John Frost is from a photograph loaned by his niece, Mrs. T. B.

Marquis. The picture of his office is from a photograph loaned

by his grand-daughter, Mrs. C. C. Helman.

RESCUE OF "ABBY KELLEY SALEM."

The facts upon which the account of this rescue is based

were gleaned chiefly from the files of the Village Register pub-

lished in Salem, Ohio. Confirmatory and supplemental informa-

tion was gathered from files of the Liberator.

• 41