During the 1820s and 1830s, northern antislavery groups that demanded the immediate abolition of slavery began to emerge. Led by abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, Arthur Tappan, and Theodore Weld, they instituted an aggressive print campaign against slavery. Abolitionist societies published newspapers and pamphlets that bitterly condemned slavery and called for its extinction. Needless to say, abolitionist literature was not well-received in slaveholding states, including Virginia.

In 1835, a Frederick County, Virginia, grand jury issued a criminal presentment against the Abolition Society of New York. In a lengthy and strongly worded indictment, the grand jury referred to the antislavery organization as an “evil of great magnitude” and accused it of disturbing the peace of the commonwealth and threatening the lives of its citizens by inciting slaves to rebel. The grand jury encouraged local law enforcement agencies throughout Virginia to adopt “increasing vigilance … in the detection of all fanatical emissaries, and in the suppression of their nefarious schemes and publications.” Furthermore, it called on the General Assembly to enforce present laws and enact stricter legislation against written or printed material that encouraged slave insurrection. The presentment also named Arthur Tappan, whom the grand jury considered to be the “prime mover” in the society. Tappan helped found the Abolition Society of New York in 1831, which two years later evolved into the American Anti-Slavery Society.

No criminal trial was held. It was more of a symbolic response, a release of pent-up anger and fear by the citizens of Frederick County. They were angry at these “outsiders” interfering with their institutions. They were fearful that the abolitionist publications would incite more slave revolts similar to the one led by Nat Turner in Southampton County only a few years earlier.  

In response to the threat posed by the abolitionist societies, the General Assembly enacted stricter legislation in 1836 to suppress the circulation of abolitionist publications. Anyone speaking, writing, printing, and/or circulating “incendiary doctrines” that denied the right of people to own slaves or encouraged slaves to rebel would be fined and imprisoned. Postmasters were required to give notice to local authorities if they received abolitionist publications. The local authorities were to burn the publications immediately and arrest the individual who was to receive them.

Recently, I discovered two Grayson County criminal cases in which local pro-slavery citizens attempted to use the 1836 act to silence an antislavery minister named Jarvis C. Bacon. A Wesleyan Methodist minister who moved to Grayson County in 1848 to start a church, Reverend Bacon regularly found himself in hot water with the local citizenry because of his opposition to slavery. In 1849, a grand jury issued indictments against Reverend Bacon for circulating two abolitionist publications: Frederick Douglass’ autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, and an antislavery sermon delivered at the Sixth Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, Ohio. Both trials were held in September. A jury quickly found him not guilty regarding the Douglass autobiography, but the other jury had a more difficult time reaching an agreement of not guilty regarding the sermon pamphlet. Reverend Bacon’s abolitionist reputation made it difficult for him to remain in Grayson County. He left the county and the commonwealth in 1851.

Commonwealth of Virginia versus Abolition Society of New York, 1835 and Commonwealth of Virginia versus Jarvis C. Bacon, 1849 are open for research and available at the Library of Virginia.

See the Abolitionist Map of America for a digital exploration of the anti-slavery movement in America.  For more on the Library of Virginia’s involvement with the Abolitionist Map and HistoryPin, see these earlier blog posts.

-Greg Crawford, Local Records Coordinator

-Roger Christman, Senior State Records Archivist

“Remember Americans, that we must and shall be free and enlightened as you are,
will you wait until we shall, under God, obtain our liberty by the crushing arm of power?
Will it not be dreadful for you? I speak Americans for your good. We must and shall be free
I say, in spite of you. You may do your best to keep us in wretchedness and misery,
to enrich you and your children; but God will deliver us from under you.
And wo, wo, will be to you if we have to obtain our freedom by fighting.”

David Walker, Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World

David Walker, a free black man from Boston, wrote to Thomas Lewis in Richmond on 8 December 1829 enclosing thirty copies of the first edition of his pamphlet An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. Walker instructed Lewis to sell the pamphlet for twelve cents among the Richmond’s African-American population or to provide them free of charge. Walker used Old Testament theology and the natural rights philosophy of the Declaration of Independence to describe the plight of African-Americans, both slave and free, in four articles: “Our wretchedness in consequence of slavery,” “Our wretchedness in consequence of ignorance,” “Our wretchedness in consequence of the preachers of the religion of Jesus Christ,” and “Our wretchedness in consequence of the colonizing plan.” Walker’s Appeal advocated rebellions throughout the South and caused many southern states, including Virginia, to pass laws against slave literacy and the dissemination of anti-slavery literature. Criticized by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison as too radical, Walker’s publication of the Appeal is considered by some historians as the beginning of the Abolitionist Movement. This pamphlet along with the letter to Thomas Lewis is part of the Office of the Speaker’s Executive Communications collection.

David Walker was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, to a slave father and a free mother around 1796. He relocated to Boston in 1826 where he owned a used clothing shop on Brattle Street. Greatly influenced by his experiences with slavery in the South, Walker served as a member of the Massachusetts General Colored Association and as Boston’s principal agent to the Freedom’s Journal, America’s first African-American newspaper. Walker authored the first edition of Appeal in 1829, along with two further editions by 1830. He distributed his pamphlet throughout the South by sewing copies into the lining of sailors’ clothing. The wide distribution of the pamphlet caused a stir amongst the whites of the South, especially in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. As a result of the discovery of the pamphlets, black sailors were quarantined in Georgia ports, a white mariner was arrested in South Carolina, and a black carpenter was killed in North Carolina.

In Virginia, Walker’s letter to Thomas Lewis was discovered by Joseph Mayo, Commonwealth’s Attorney for the Hustings Court of the City of Richmond, and promptly delivered to Governor William B. Giles. Mayo informed the Governor that Walker’s letter never reached the intended recipient on account of the death of Lewis. Instead, the letter made it to the hands of another freedman who began to circulate the literature. The Mayor of Richmond managed to reacquire twenty of the thirty copies of Walker’s pamphlet. Governor Giles presented Walker’s letter and one of these pamphlets to the Executive Council who advised him to transmit the literature to the Legislature to obtain a law to prevent the further circulation of insurrectionary materials. The Governor’s communication to Linn Banks, Speaker of the House of Delegates, was labeled “confidential” and no mention is made of it in the House Journals, however, the communication’s endorsement indicates that it was laid on the table on 7 January 1830. As a result of Walker’s Appeal, the General Assembly passed an act at their next session to amend the act concerning slaves, free negroes, and mulattoes which prohibited meetings for teaching free negroes or mulattoes and fined any white person for teaching slaves to read or write.

Walker died on 6 August 1830 of consumption, shortly after the publication of the 3rd edition of his pamphlet. Walker never saw his vision of an immediate abolition of slavery, but the impact of the Appeal was far-reaching. In August 1831, Nat Turner led a rebellion against the white slave owners in Southampton County. Although there is no evidence that Turner had knowledge of Walker’s Appeal, the historical significance of the pamphlet is undeniable. Equally important is the letter from Walker to Lewis which remains the only extant document written in the hand of David Walker.

-Craig S. Moore, State Records Appraisal Archivist