Fugitive Slave Law Convention, Cazenovia, New York
Dublin Core
Title
Fugitive Slave Law Convention, Cazenovia, New York
Subject
Slave trade, Fugitive Slave Law
Description
This image documents a convention held in Cazenovia, New York, to protest the Fugitive Slave Act, a bill that was being considered in Congress. An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people attended the meeting, including a number of escaped slaves and the famed orator Frederick Douglass.
Just behind Douglass in the image are Mary and Emily Edmonson. The Edmonsons escaped from slavery in 1848 along with eighty other slaves from the steamboat Pearl from Washington, D.C. They were soon recaptured and sent to New Orleans to be sold, but a yellow fever outbreak forced the traders to send them back to Virginia. The girls' free-born father raised enough money to buy their freedom. They attended college in the North and were active abolitionists.
Just behind Douglass in the image are Mary and Emily Edmonson. The Edmonsons escaped from slavery in 1848 along with eighty other slaves from the steamboat Pearl from Washington, D.C. They were soon recaptured and sent to New Orleans to be sold, but a yellow fever outbreak forced the traders to send them back to Virginia. The girls' free-born father raised enough money to buy their freedom. They attended college in the North and were active abolitionists.
Source
Madison County (NY) Historical Society
Date
1850
Format
jpg
Citation
“Fugitive Slave Law Convention, Cazenovia, New York,” To Be Sold: Virginia and the American Slave Trade, accessed April 23, 2024, https://www.virginiamemory.com/online-exhibitions/items/show/366.