Pearl incident
Encyclopedia
The Pearl Incident was the largest recorded escape attempt by slaves
in the United States
. On April 15, 1848, seventy-six slaves attempted to escape Washington D.C. in part by travelling on a riverboat called The Pearl. Paul Jennings
was one of the organizers of this incident. The incident influenced the wording of the Compromise of 1850
and also helped inspire the book Uncle Tom's Cabin
.
Washington was an important market and transit point in the interstate slave-trade. One of the people who despised slavery and was desperate for money was Daniel Drayton. He was offered money to transport slaves to freedom. "He encountered Edward Sayres," the pilot of The Pearl. Once payment was shown, he agreed to participate and prepared to set sail. "In the darkness of the night seventy-six colored men, women, and children found their way to the schooner." On Saturday, April 15, their freedom was at hand thanks to Drayton, Sayres, and English, the cook. The slaves included the Edmonson sisters
.
, the publisher of the anti-slavery newspaper The New Era (which would later be renamed The New National Era under the control of Frederick Douglass), whom the slave owners suspected of aiding in the Pearl incident. A mob of slave owners almost destroyed the newspaper building. Once the mob dissipated, the slave owners debated how to punish their slaves. They sold all seventy-six slaves to Georgia and Louisiana slave traders.
as their main lawyer. Author Richard C. Rohrs and Daniel Drayton successfully explain the court process. The trials commenced the following July, where both Drayton and Sayres were charged. English was released, and after appeals were filed and charges were reduced, Drayton and Sayres were convicted and went to jail due to their inability to pay their fines. After they had been in jail for four years, Senator Charles Sumner
sent a letter to President Fillmore
, asking him to pardon the men. The President agreed to the pardon in 1852.
, "the end of slave traffic, though not of slavery, in the District of Columbia."
The failed attempt was part of the inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe
's Uncle Tom's Cabin
.
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. On April 15, 1848, seventy-six slaves attempted to escape Washington D.C. in part by travelling on a riverboat called The Pearl. Paul Jennings
Paul Jennings (slave)
Paul Jennings was an African-American slave owned by President James Madison, who later purchased his freedom and wrote a short memoir, a first for an occupant of the White House....
was one of the organizers of this incident. The incident influenced the wording of the Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in September 1850, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War...
and also helped inspire the book Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
.
People involved
The federal government allowed slavery to exist in Washington DC, and before the Compromise of 1850Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in September 1850, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War...
Washington was an important market and transit point in the interstate slave-trade. One of the people who despised slavery and was desperate for money was Daniel Drayton. He was offered money to transport slaves to freedom. "He encountered Edward Sayres," the pilot of The Pearl. Once payment was shown, he agreed to participate and prepared to set sail. "In the darkness of the night seventy-six colored men, women, and children found their way to the schooner." On Saturday, April 15, their freedom was at hand thanks to Drayton, Sayres, and English, the cook. The slaves included the Edmonson sisters
Edmonson sisters
Mary Edmonson and Emily Edmonson , "two respectable young women of light complexion", were African-American women who became celebrities in the United States abolitionist movement after gaining their freedom from slavery...
.
Escape attempt and capture
The plan consisted of sailing down the Potomac River, then up Chesapeake Bay to freedom. However, the wind prevented the schooner from going up the bay, so they anchored for the night. Their delay gave the slave owners time to realize their slaves were missing and send out a search party. Daniel Drayton effectively explains the logistics of their capture. "A Mr. Dodge, of Georgetown, a wealthy old gentleman, originally from New England, missed three or four slaves from his family, and a small steamboat, of which he was the proprietor, was readily obtained. Thirty-five men, including a son or two of old Dodge, and several of those whose slaves were missing, volunteered to man her; and they set out about Sunday noon." The boat, the Salem, found The Pearl on Monday morning and took the slaves and capturers back to Washington DC.Traitor
Many questions have arisen as to how the armed men knew to sail down river to find The Pearl. Author John H. Paynter describes the traitor very effectively. “Judson Diggs, one of their own people, a man who in all reason might have been expected to sympathize with their effort, took upon himself the role of Judas."Aftermath
A public outcry erupted, and the mob searched for people to blame. One such man was Dr. Gamaliel BaileyGamaliel Bailey
Gamaliel Bailey was an American journalist and abolitionist.-Biography:Born and raised in Mount Holly Township, New Jersey, Bailey moved with his family to Philadelphia when at the age of nine. He graduated from the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1827...
, the publisher of the anti-slavery newspaper The New Era (which would later be renamed The New National Era under the control of Frederick Douglass), whom the slave owners suspected of aiding in the Pearl incident. A mob of slave owners almost destroyed the newspaper building. Once the mob dissipated, the slave owners debated how to punish their slaves. They sold all seventy-six slaves to Georgia and Louisiana slave traders.
Trial
Drayton, Sayres, and English were put on trial, with Horace MannHorace Mann
Horace Mann was an American education reformer, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1827 to 1833. He served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1834 to 1837. In 1848, after serving as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education since its creation, he was...
as their main lawyer. Author Richard C. Rohrs and Daniel Drayton successfully explain the court process. The trials commenced the following July, where both Drayton and Sayres were charged. English was released, and after appeals were filed and charges were reduced, Drayton and Sayres were convicted and went to jail due to their inability to pay their fines. After they had been in jail for four years, Senator Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
sent a letter to President Fillmore
Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States and the last member of the Whig Party to hold the office of president...
, asking him to pardon the men. The President agreed to the pardon in 1852.
Impact
The event pushed Congress to include, in the Compromise of 1850Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in September 1850, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War...
, "the end of slave traffic, though not of slavery, in the District of Columbia."
The failed attempt was part of the inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
's Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
.
External links
- Drayton, Daniel, Personal Memoir of Daniel Drayton: For Four Years and Four Months, A Prisoner (For Charity’s Sake) in Washington Jail
- Paynter, John H., “The Fugitives of the Pearl (excerpt)”
- Peak, Alexander S., “Notes on the 1848 Platform of the Liberty Party”
- Rohrs, Richard C., "Antislavery politics and the Pearl incident"
- http://www.pearlcoalition.org/
- Simmons, Deborah, "The Pearl incident," The Washington Times, 8 January 2004