THE OHIO ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION OF 1836
By ROBERT PRICE
The Rev. Jacob Little, pastor of the
Granville Presbyterian
church for over thirty-nine years
beginning in 1827, once re-
corded1 that during the year 1834 the
village of Granville was
beset by seven distinct evils, namely:
(1) embarrassing financial
conditions; (2) a killing frost on May
15; (3) a serious drought
following the frost; (4) a torrential
rain at midnight of July 1
followed by a great flood; (5) an
epidemic of sickness in the
wake of the flood; (6) a regrettable
falling off in religious in-
terests, and (7) the introduction of
anti-slavery agitation. The
anti-slavery disturbance Little probably
placed last for emphasis.
At any rate, the abolition controversy
in Granville and Licking
County, which Little says was introduced
in 1834, was to reach
such a pitch of factional excitement and
violence during the next
two years that for a time it crowded out
all other issues, and it
was to culminate in 1836 in one of the
most extraordinarily ap-
pointed gatherings of historic interest
ever to be held within the
bounds of Ohio. This meeting was the
first annual convention of
the Ohio Anti-slavery Society, which was
held in Ashley A.
Bancroft's barn a half-mile north of
Granville on April 27 and 28,
1836. Just why this notable meeting
should have been held in a
barn and what took place at the
convention itself is a story worth
repeating.
The fires of anti-slavery antagonism
which seem to have been
already smouldering in 1834 were fanned
into action in Licking
County during the early months of 1835
by the visitations in
Granville and neighboring communities of
Theodore Weld. This
vigorous apostle of freedom, who had
been an agent of the Amer-
ican Colonization Society in Alabama and
an inmate of J. G.
1 Henry Bushnell, History of Granville, Licking County, Ohio (Columbus,
Ohio, 1889).
(173)
174
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Birney's family, arrived in Granville on
April 3 to deliver a
lecture. He had just come from
Circleville, and the opposition
at Granville promptly followed the
example of the Circleville
natives by greeting his message with
eggs and stones.2
Undaunted, however, by this hostility
Weld continued his
ministrations in Licking County. There
were many sympathizers
with the abolition movement in Granville
and neighboring com-
munities and by the end of the year
through the efforts of Weld
these groups had become crystallized
into at least five properly
organized anti-slavery societies.
A typical instance of this
crystallization process is recorded
in an early account of the Harrison
Chapel Wesleyan Methodist
Church (St. Albans township, Licking
County) whose organiza-
tion actually originated in one of
Weld's anti-slavery societies.
The writer3 of this account
says:
About that time [1835] a few stray
leaves of Zion's Watchman made
their way into the homes of a few
families in Harrison and St. Albans
Twps. The truths written out so boldly
found a lodgment in the hearts of a
few men and women. A desire to know more
was awakened and Theodore
Weld, then a young man who had a short
time before espoused the cause
of the slave was invited to come and
lecture. He had spoken [at] Granville
where a few gave him their sympathies,
but the majority their cusses, some
even trying the virtue of brickbats
while others disfigured a valuable horse
by shaving his mane and tail. These were
some of the notices that the
Anti-Slavery Society received that their
room was better than their com-
pany. His first lecture was in
Alexandria. A township Anti-Slavery So-
ciety was founded. Papers and books were
circulated and for a time it
seemed that the entire community would
give its sympathy and support to
the Anti-Slavery cause. But reaction
began.
Such happenings in one little country
neighborhood of Lick-
ing County were probably typical of the
manner in which the
abolition seed took root in hundreds of
other northern communi-
ties during the decade. In this
particular narrative they are
significant because they illumine the
setting for the Granville
meeting of 1836 which is the chief
concern of this account.
The Ohio Anti-slavery Society had been
organized at Put-
nam
Muskingum County, in 1835, and had designated Granville
2 See Norman Newell Hill, Jr., History
of Licking County (Newark, Ohio, 1881),
446, and Henry Howe, Historical
Collections of Ohio (Columbus, 1896), II, 80, for a
complete account of the incident.
3 Capt. J. M. Scott, in undated MS.
owned by Mrs. T. A. Carroll, Alexandria,
Ohio.
ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION, 1836
175
for its first convention to be held the
following April. Granville
had been selected probably because of
the town's rapidly growing
educational prestige, its convenient
central location in the State,
and especially, no doubt, because of the
considerable group of
abolition sympathizers in the county.
The citizens of Granville, though, did
not take kindly to the
forthcoming convention. They were not
all hostile to the cause
itself, but they did fear for the quiet
and peace of the village,
because of the disturbances which must
inevitably accompany
such a meeting. Consequently, there
appeared in the Newark
Gazette under date of March 31 a notice signed by all the town
officials and sixty-nine other citizens
forbidding the use of any
room in the village for the purpose of
holding a convention.4
The delegates arrived, nevertheless, by
the appointed day,
Thursday, April 27, and in spite of much
hostility found a meet-
ing place through the generosity of
Bancroft who opened his
home to the abolitionists and by
building a temporary addition
to his barn provided an assembly place
for them. This unusual
convention headquarters was promptly
named "The Hall of
Freedom."
"Although it was the month of May [April],"
wrote Ban-
croft many years later, "yet it was
emphatically a well-filled barn
--yes, the best filled barn I ever saw,
scaffolds and all."5
As the actual hostilities which
accompanied this gathering
both before and afterward have been
fully described by several
reliable historians6 the
story need not be repeated here, chief
concern being with the convention itself
and the business trans-
acted there. For an account of these
proceedings the official
printed report of the society is the
chief source. These reports
were printed and, it seems, distributed
among the local societies
for sale, the proceeds being an
important contribution to the
abolition funds. From one of these
copies is transcribed the
facts that follow.7
4 See Hill, op cit., 446, for complete notice.
5 Ashley A. Bancroft MS., 1872, owned by
Mrs. J. G. Mather, Granville, Ohio.
6 See, Howe, loc, cit., for the standard account of the "Granville riot."
7 Copies of these Minutes are
probably quite rare. That used by the writer
was preserved by W. B. McCrary, a delegate from St. Albans, township,
Licking
County.
176 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The minutes open briefly with the
following statements:
The Ohio Anti-Slavery Society held its
first Anniversary near Gran-
ville, Licking Co., on the 27th and 28th
of April, 1836.
The session commenced in the barn of
Ashley Bancroft, Wednesday, at
half past 10 o'clock, A. M.
The meeting was called to order by James
Stewart, Bloomingburg,
Vice President.
Opened with prayer, by James H. Dickey
of Greenfield.
Abram Brooke of Marlboro, and Archibald
Miles of Brunswick, were
chosen Secretaries.
The roll of delegates seems to have been
taken at this time,
and the complete list, 192 names, is
recorded as follows:8
List of Delegates.
County Locality Delegate
Ashtabula .............. Austinsburg
........... R. M. Walker
Mrs. Walker
Asahel Case
Athens ................ Amesville
............. John Hunt
Belmont ............... Flushing
.............. Wm. Palmer
Brown ................. Georgetown
........... M. L. Brooks
Ripley ................ John Rankin
Sardinia .............. J. L. Pangborn
Clark
................. Green Plain .......... Morris Place
Elizabeth Borton
Clermont ............. Felicity
............... John Mullen
New Richmond ........ W. G. Gage
Francis Donaldson
Clinton ................ Wilmington
.......... W. H. Rogers
Columbiana ........... Columbiana
.......... John Dickson
New Lisbon .......... George Garretson
Jesse Holmes
New Garden ........... Thomas Galbraith
Benjamin Hambleton
Joseph Ingraham
Ruth Galbraith
Elizabeth Pagate
Salem
............... Benj. Stanton
Abner G. Kirk
Cuyahoga .............. Cleveland
............ Hamon Kingsbury
J. H. Foote
Dover ................ S. G. Porter
Joseph H. Payne
Euclid ................ H. H. Coit
Fayette ................ Bloomingburg
......... James Stewart
Wm. Dickey
Hugh C. Stewart
8 In the original list the delegates are
arranged alphabetically by local addresses.
The present writer is responsible for
the rearrangement by counties.
ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION, 1836 177
County Locality Delegate
Alex. M. McCoy
Jos. W. Elliott
David C. Eastman
Alexander Sears
Archibald Stewart
John Vandaman
Wm. A. Ustick
James T. Claypoole
Washington [C. H.]... J. L.
Vandeman
Franklin ............... Columbus
............. H. S. Gillet
Eli Kitts
Geauga ................ Huntsburg
............ Abram Clark, jun.
Madison ............. Philander Raymond
Painesville ............ Uri Seelye
Unionville ............ Edward Wade
Guernsey .............. Antrim ............... James Wallace
Hamilton .............. Cincinnati
............ James G. Birney
Christian Donaldson
John Melendy
Amzi D. Barber
Augustus Wattles
Emeline Bishop
Susan E. Lowe
Phebe Matthews
Delhi ................. Horace Bushnell
Fulton ................ [?] swell
Grosvener
Harrison ............... Cadiz
................. Robert Hanna
Harrisonville .......... David Dutton
Short Creek ........... Isaac Lewis
Wm. E. Lukins
Mrs. Lukins
Elias M. Lewis
Highland .............. Greenfield
............ Samuel Crothers
James H. Dickey
Thomas Rogers
John Morton
Huron ................. Lyme
................. Asa Strong
R. R. Stone
Milan ................. E. Judson
Mrs. Judson
Ruggles ............. B. Sturtevant
Sandusky ............. F. D. Parish
Vermilion ............. E. Barber
Knox ................. Mt. Vernon
........... Wm. Cochran
Wm. Robinson
G. H. Drake
J. L. Sampson
James Trimble
David Rigdon
Isaac Thorn
W. W. Beebe
178
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
County Locality Delegate
Mrs. Beebe
Israel Mattison
B. W. Bigbee
Gavin Blair
Licking ................ Fredonia ......... Harrison Thurston
Laura Nash
Mrs. N. Thurston
Granville ............. W. W. Bancroft
Joseph Lennell
Jared Bancroft
Wm. Wright
Wm. Roberts
E. C. Wright
Joseph L. Langdon
Joseph Weeks
O. M. Thrall
Samuel White
Wm. Whitney
Jersey ................ Isaac Whitehead
E. F. Whitehead
Newark ................ S. Miles
St. Albans ............ Hiram Twining
Helon Rose
W. B. McCrary
Asa Gurney
John Gaffield
Wm. Munsell
Levi Nichols
Allen Barns
Mahlon Holden
Carlton Lockwood
Lewis Barns
Benj. Carpenter
Amos Carpenter
Utica ................. [?]
Knowlton
L. W. Knowlton
Welsh Hills .......... S. White
John White
T. P. Owens
E. Davis
W. R. Griffeth
J. Pittsford
E. White
Logan ................. Bellefontaine
......... J. B. Johnston
Lorain ................. Elyria
............... P. Bliss
Oberlin .............. E. B. Sherwood
C. S. Renshaw
Amos Dresser
Thomas Jones
P. Wells Gray
J. T. Pierce
John W. Barrows
ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION, 1836 179
County Locality Delegate
W. S. Lewis
John L. Lewis
Lucius Mills
John S. Griffin
Henry Cowles
Asa Mahan
Delazon Smith
J. W. Alvord
U. T. Chamberlin
Isaac D. Cornwall
W. Shiffield
W. T. Allen
S. W. Streeter
James A. Thome
Lysander Cowles
Hiram Wilson
Mary Ann Thome
Miss Barker
Miss Ranny
Sheffield .............. George Clark
Madison .............. Midway
.............. Archibald Stewart
Medina ................ Brunswick
............ Archibald Miles
Medina ............... Samuel Lee
Charles Olcott
Muskingum ........... Irville
................ Jay Wheaton
New Concord.......... John Jamison
Putnam .............. A. G. Allen
Henry C. Howells
M. Gillespie
Mrs. Gillespie
Mary Sturges
H. Maria Howells
Ann T. Allen
A. A. Guthrie
Levi Whipple
Lucy Whipple
Horace Nye
Pickaway ............. Circleville
............ Samuel Denny
Portage ............... Akron
................ Lewis Miller
Brimfield .............. H. S. Carter
Hudson ............... W. Daws
Frederick Brown
Tallmadge ............ F. F. Fenn
Lucy Wright
Western Reserve Col... H. C. Taylor
Putnam ................ Kalida
................ Sheldon Guthrie
Richland ............... Mansfield
............. Benj. Gass
Ross ................... Frankfort
............ Robert Stewart
Stark .................. Marlboro
............. James Austin
Abram Brooke
Osnaburg ............. Abram Baer, jun.
180 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
County
Locality Delegate
Trumbull .............. Kinsman .............. John J. Griswold
Vernon ............... Theron Plumb
Washington ............ Lower Salem ......... Daniel G. Stanley
Marietta .............. T. B. Wickham
Samuel Hall
Robert R. Mellwayne
Luther Temple
Indiana ................ South Hanover Col..... Joseph
G. Wilson
Wilson, who closes the list, being from outside the
State,
was invited by resolution to sit at the convention as a
correspond-
ing member.
The remainder of the morning session was occupied with
a
report of the executive committee and the following
resolution
offered and advocated by Birney:
"Resolved, That in order to perpetuate our free
institutions
the subject of slavery ought to be fully discussed by
the non-
slaveholding states."
This resolution passed unanimously and adjournment
ensued
till 2:30 P. M.
The afternoon session began with the treasurer's
report,
which, because its details give an interesting insight
into the first
year of abolition work in Ohio, is printed in full:
Treasurer's Report.
Ohio Anti-Slavery Society in account with Albert G.
Allen
1835 Dr.
June 15 Paid for Secretary and Treasurer's
book............... $1.50
" 19 " " Postage
..................................... .19
" 26 " " Printing proceedings of Convention, and paper
for the same ............................ 200.53
" "
Transportation from New York.............. 15.11
" " Postage cor. sec., per bill
.................... 10.00
----------
$227.33
1835
Cr.
April 24 Cash
collected at Convention ....................... $61.64
" 29 " H. C. Howells
................................ 5.00
" 30 " W
. F. Hunt
.................................. 2.00
May 2 " Robert
Stewart, by Mr. Gillespie.............. 2.00
" 2 " James
Stewart ................................ 3.00
ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION, 1836 181
1835 Cr.
June 13 " Mr. Baer, by A. A.
Guthrie................... 2.00
Nov. 17 " Elyria Anti-Slavery
Society................... 33.00
Dec. 21 " Sales
of Reports
.............................. 24.00
1836
Jan. 1 " Mr.
Rutherford's church, Ross co.............. 2.00
" 1 " Sales of Reports
.............................. 5.20
" 7 " do. do .............................. 18.00
" 21 " do. do ................................. 1.00
" 23 " Circleville
Anti-Slavery Society................ 5.00
Feb. 26 " Sales of Reports.............................. 1.31
March 12 " do. do .............................. 2.00
April 29 " do. do.
H. Nye's account............... 13.13
Balanceto new account ............................. 45.45
---------
$226.53
April 26, 1836, Dr. to balance ................................ $45.45
E. E. PUTNAM, OHIO, April 26, 1886,
ALBERT G. ALLEN, Treasurer.
We certify that we have examined the above account, and
the same
is correct.
A. A. GUTHRIE,
LEVI WHIPPLE, Auditors.
This report being disposed of, the program continued
with
an extensive "Appeal to the Females of Ohio"
read by James A.
Thome of Oberlin, in which he urged the women of the
State to
break away from that "odious sentiment" that
makes woman
merely "a painted puppet or a gilded
butterfly" and to take their
places by the side of men in fighting for the rights of
the op-
pressed. This stirring appeal was eventually included
in full
in the printed report.
A resolution
was presented by H. Cowles of Oberlin and
J. A. Foote of Cleveland, urging Congress to abolish
slavery and
the slave trade in the District of Columbia. This
passed unani-
mously.
Delegates were nominated as follows to attend the anni-
versary of the American Anti-slavery Society in New
York on
May IO: Robert Hanna, J. Walker, Goodsell Buckingham,
Ed-
ward Weed, J. L. Severance, William T. Allan, Edward
Wade,
Isaac Gillet, Samuel Liday, M. Dustin, and Franklin
Payne.
Another resolution, offered and advocated by John
Rankin of
Ripley, and James H. Dickey of Greenfield was passed as
follows:
182
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
"Resolved, That the American slave
trade involves within
itself all the cruelties and horrors of
the African: therefore, we
call on all those who are carrying it
on, at once to cease."
The convention then adjourned till the
next morning at nine.
Friday morning's session opened with
James Stewart again
in the chair and prayer by Samuel
Crothers.
The following officers for the coming
year were elected:
Officers Elected.
President: Leicester King, Trumbull co.
Vice Presidents:
Alexander Campbell, Brown co.
James Gilliland, do.
Charles G. Finney, Oberlin College
Asa Drury, Granville College
Reese E. Price, Hamilton co.
Francis Dunlavy, Warren co.
William Keys, Highland co.
David Long, Cuyahoga co.
Elizur Wright, Portage co.
Nathan Galbreath, Columbiana co.
James Stewart, Fayette co.
Abraham Baer, Stark co.
William R. Hudson, Geauga co.
Samuel Denny, Pickaway co.
Orestes K. Hawley, Ashtabula co.
Levi Whipple, Muskingum co.
J. S. Waugh, Butler co.
William Sloan, Harrison co.
Daniel Miller, Seneca co.
Thomas Campbell, Jefferson co.
Corresponding Secretary: Augustus
Wattles, Cincinnati
Recording Secretary: Gamaliel Bailey,
Cincinnati
Treasurer: William Donaldson, Cincinnati
Managers:
Asa Mahan, Oberlin College
Harmon Kingsbury, Cuyahoga co.
James G. Birney, Cincinnati
Isaac Colby, do.
William Holyoke, do.
Thomas Maylin, do.
John Melindy, do.
Christian Donaldson, do.
Dyer Burgess, Adams co.
John Hunt, Athens co.
Joshua R. Giddings, Ashtabula co.
Jacob Coon, Belmont co.
J. B. Mahan, Brown co.
John Rankin, do.
ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION, 1836
183
Thomas Hibben, Clinton co.
Alexander Campbell, Clermont co.
Manasseh Baer, Carroll co.
James Hambleton, Columbiana co.
M. B. Cushing, Franklin co.
Uri Seeley, Geauga co.
John Walker, Harrison co.
Robert Hanna, do.
Robert Bell, Holmes co.
Overton Judson, Huron co.
William Flanner, Jefferson co.
W. W. Beebe, Knox co.
Joseph Riggs, Lawrence co.
W. W. Bancroft, Licking co.
J. B. Johnson, Logan co.
John Monteith Lorain co.
Archibald Stewart, Madison co.
Timothy Hudson, Medina co.
Charles Dungan, Monroe co.
James H. Shield, Montgomery co.
Horace Nye, Muskingum co.
John Wallace, do.
C. C. Beaman, Pike co.
Asahel Kilbourn, Portage co.
J. B. Finley, Pickaway co.
P. H. Gallady, Preble co.
Sheldon Guthrie Putnam co.
Robert Stewart, Ross co.
Goodsell Buckingham, Richland co.
Samuel McCullock, Shelby co.
Riverius Bidwell, Trumbull co.
In connection with this election the
executive committee
was changed from Muskingum to Hamilton
County.
A resolution was then adopted on
recommendation of Wade,
A. A. Guthrie, Augustus Wattles and
Birney that $5000 be raised
during the year for anti-slavery
purposes. A subscription was
taken immediately and while this was in
progress some one moved
that the resolution be reconsidered and
that $10,000 be substituted.
This change was carried by acclamation
and in the enthusiasm of
the moment $4,500 was subscribed on the
spot.
Bancroft wrote of this subscription:
I well recollect seeing $10's, $20's,
and a few $50's passing up over
the heads of the crowded audience to the stand. When
the amount was
announced, the Rev. Dr. Crothers arose and said:
"The silver and gold
are the Lord's; let us praise Him in a
song!" and struck up the doxology,
"Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow," at
the top of his voice.
I don't know exactly how it was, but
either from the vibration of the
184 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
timbers, or some other cause, "Old
Hundred" sounded about right. I do
not expect to hear it performed again,
in like manner, this side of heaven.
Following this spirited moment came a
long series of reso-
lutions.
Guthrie, seconded by A. G. Alien,
recommended that the
executive committee be instructed to
extend aid to colored
schools in Ohio.
Rankin read a report on the duty of
churches with regard
to slavery and the convention voted to
furnish every minister in
the State with a copy of Rankin's paper.
This sermon was
printed in full in the published report.
Other resolutions were as follows:
By E. Judson of Milan: "That
slavery in its nature tends to
dissolve the Union, corrupt public
morals and destroy that sense
of right and wrong, without which
liberty soon degenerates into
licentiousness."
By Asa Mahan of Oberlin, seconded by
Horace Bushnell of
Delhi: "That the time has now come
when it is the duty of the
church to debar from her privileges all
who persist in the sin of
holding their fellow-men in the bondage
of slavery."
By F. D. Parish of Sandusky, attacking
the unfairness of
existing Ohio laws with reference to
black and mulatto persons.
By Jesse Holmes of New Lisbon,
recommending that all anti-
slavery friends abstain entirely from
using articles produced by
slave labor.
As a closing gesture the assembly voted,
on motion of Parish,
that the thanks of the society "be
respectfully tendered to Ashley
Bancroft for the use of his barn on this
occasion, and that we
heartily forgive the unkindness of that
portion of our fellow-
citizens which rendered it necessary to
hold our meeting in so
unusual a place." Still another
resolution thanked "such of the
citizens of Granville and its vicinity
as have extended to us their
kind and generous hospitalities during
the anniversary."
With these kindly and forgiving
sentiments and a prayer by
R. Stone the meeting adjourned, sine
die.
Exciting moments were still to come,
however, for the pro-
cession of departing abolitionists as
they passed through Gran-
ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION, 1836 185
ville was attacked by an infuriated mob
assembled there and the
oft-narrated "Granville riot"
ensued. The fighting finally came
to a picturesque conclusion when Birney
astride his horse, which
the hoodlums had bobbed ridiculously,
rode slowly and proudly
down through the mob of assailants amid
showers of eggs which
poured in from every side.
Although there are no more available
facts concerning the
1836 convention itself, the secretary's
report which was printed
in full in the published minutes, gives
a few additional state-
ments which are full of significance in
evaluating the Anti-slavery
Society's first year of work in Ohio.
This report, unfortunately,
although quite extended, is for the most
part made up of sounding
generalities. The few specific facts,
however, are valuable and
are quoted in full.
First as to the bitter hostility which
the reformers had met
with in Ohio during 1835, the following is noted:
The spirit of misrule has been
wide-spread: the disgrace rests on no
particular section--Ohio comes in for
her full share. For the purpose of
preventing discussion or dispersing
religious meetings, mobs have been
raised in Circleville, Granville,
Zanesville, Painesville, Marietta, Wil-
lougfiby, St. Albans, Brimfield, New
Lisbon, Mt. Vernon, Middlebury,
Grafton, and Mt. Pleasant.
The mob from Zanesville visited the
neighboring town of Putnam,
some five or six times--dispersing and
disturbing meetings by day and by
night, assaulting houses, destroying
property and ordering persons abiding
there to leave the place. The Willoughby
mob abducted a peaceful citizen
from his lodgings at a late hour of the
night--carried him five or six
miles, and after a vain attempt to exort
a promise not to return, left him.
At Marietta, the object of attack was a
religious meeting; so also at New
Lisbon (on the Sabbath); at Mt. Vernon,
the watchword was "No Dis-
cussion 1"
Concerning the actual progress made by
the abolitionists dur-
ing the year the secretary records:
At the time of our organization, the
committee knew of but four
newspapers in Ohio at all inclined to
advocate the cause. Now there are
two devoted exclusively to its
interests, eight others decidedly favorable,
and others (number unknown) that will
publish "by request."
Although the Seceders, Covenanters, and
Friends had previously taken
right ground on the subject of slavery,
yet, up to the date of our society,
we know of no ecclesiastical body in Ohio, (the
Presbytery of Chillicothe
excepted) which had borne consistent
testimony against slave-holding op-
pression. During the year, two out of
three of Synods of the Presbyterian
church have passed strong anti-slavery
resolutions.
186 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Special acknowledgment is made here for the "valuable serv- ices of Theodore D. Weld, who labored for a year amongst us; and also for those of Messrs. Thome, Allen, Alvord, Streeter, and Wattles, who have been engaged in lecturing in the northern and eastern parts of the state during the winter." And special mention is made of the "sacrifice of labors" of Birney. The "female influence" is also praised, one female society even having employed an agent at their own expense to lecture and organize societies in their county. During the year the number of societies in Ohio had grown from about twenty to 120, the largest group having 942 members. The total enrollment in the State was estimated at 10,000. The specific distribution of this membership is shown in a list of all the societies reported in the State for the year, together with the membership and names of principal officers. With this list, which presents a graphic summary of the Ohio abolitionist organization in April, 1836, the present discussion is brought to a close.9 9 The original list is arranged alphabetically by societies. The present writer is responsible for the rearrangement by counties. The worn condition of the only copy available prevents spelling several of the names in full. |
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ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION, 1836 187 |
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188 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND |
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THE OHIO ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION OF 1836
By ROBERT PRICE
The Rev. Jacob Little, pastor of the
Granville Presbyterian
church for over thirty-nine years
beginning in 1827, once re-
corded1 that during the year 1834 the
village of Granville was
beset by seven distinct evils, namely:
(1) embarrassing financial
conditions; (2) a killing frost on May
15; (3) a serious drought
following the frost; (4) a torrential
rain at midnight of July 1
followed by a great flood; (5) an
epidemic of sickness in the
wake of the flood; (6) a regrettable
falling off in religious in-
terests, and (7) the introduction of
anti-slavery agitation. The
anti-slavery disturbance Little probably
placed last for emphasis.
At any rate, the abolition controversy
in Granville and Licking
County, which Little says was introduced
in 1834, was to reach
such a pitch of factional excitement and
violence during the next
two years that for a time it crowded out
all other issues, and it
was to culminate in 1836 in one of the
most extraordinarily ap-
pointed gatherings of historic interest
ever to be held within the
bounds of Ohio. This meeting was the
first annual convention of
the Ohio Anti-slavery Society, which was
held in Ashley A.
Bancroft's barn a half-mile north of
Granville on April 27 and 28,
1836. Just why this notable meeting
should have been held in a
barn and what took place at the
convention itself is a story worth
repeating.
The fires of anti-slavery antagonism
which seem to have been
already smouldering in 1834 were fanned
into action in Licking
County during the early months of 1835
by the visitations in
Granville and neighboring communities of
Theodore Weld. This
vigorous apostle of freedom, who had
been an agent of the Amer-
ican Colonization Society in Alabama and
an inmate of J. G.
1 Henry Bushnell, History of Granville, Licking County, Ohio (Columbus,
Ohio, 1889).
(173)