Book recommendations

[L Verge]

I mentioned last week that I was reading a new book by Jefferson Morley entitled Snow-Storm in August, concerning a little-known race riot in our nation's capital in 1835. I found it very enjoyable, but also very educational on one of the early instances of abolitionists vs. slave holders contentions right at the steps of our Capitol.

While very small in the big picture of race riots, this one involved a free black, Beverly Snow, who entered the Washington social scene as a top restauranteur whose establishment attracted legislators as well as socialites - until the moment that a drunken slave boy of Mrs. William Thornton appeared to have threatened her life. That boy and the free blacks of the city became embroiled in one of the big news items of the day - during the Jackson administration to boot.

How many of you know anything about Francis Scott Key other than he was a lawyer and wrote The Star Spangled Banner? In 1835, he was the District Attorney for Washington, D.C. and charged with prosecuting a white abolitionist who happened to come to the city at an inopportune time as well as the slave boy. It was not a hard task for Key since he believed in slavery and supported the colonization movement. On the defense side (which won), we saw the rising star of Joseph Bradley, a name that would later be in the news with the trial of John H. Surratt, Jr.

By 1836, the slavery issue was very evident in the nation's capital. Something that had been infrequently mentioned in the halls of Congress now became contentious. The gag rule of May 1836 began a struggle led by former president John Quincy Adams and a small anti-slavery bloc to force the pro-slavery members to accept petitions for the abolition of slavery in the city. From 1838-39, the Twenty-Fifth Congress received over 1500 petitions signed by over 100,000 petitioners with 80% supporting abolition in the capital.

Among those who supported the rights of the petitioners to be heard was a first-term Congressman from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. The pro-slavery movement won at that time, but it became obvious that the next several decades would continue to see the tension increase between the South and the North and West.

BTW: Free black, Beverly Snow, escaped the riot, but attempted to return to D.C. and start over again. He failed because of white backlash (the "mechanics," as they were known then) and moved to safe haven in Canada, where he established a number of prosperous businesses in Toronto. If forum member Kieran McAuliffe of Toronto reads this posting, he might want to find Snow's grave and that of his wife in Toronto's Necropolis.