Ohio History Journal

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.