STORIES OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVES.
III.
SIMS.
By Nina Moore Tiffany.
DO you want a cook
aboard?"
The speaker was a
negro, who had come
alongside the brig M.
& J. C. Gilmore, as
it lay at a Savannah
wharf; a young fellow
about twenty-two years old, quite dark.
John Ball, a sailor on the brig, looked
up as he heard the question, and observed
the man. The vessel was not in need of a
cook; the negro was answered and
forgotten. All hands were busy getting in
the cargo, and no one gave him a second
thought. Five or six days after that, the
M. & J. C. Gilmore sailed for the North,
and in due time came to anchor inside of
Boston light. The mate, Cephas Ames,
went down into the forecastle with a
lantern, to see how much chain was out.
"Have we got up?" said a voice at his
ear.
Startled enough, the mate exclaimed,
"Who are you?"
There was no answer, but a dark figure
sank back among the shadows. Flashing
his light in that direction, the mate was
able to trace the dim outline of a man,
who lay outstretched, feigning to be asleep.
"Come out!" shouted Ames, seizing
him. "I've found a prize," he boasted
exultingly, as he dragged the stowaway
down into the cabin. Ball, upon going
down into the cabin to inspect the "prize,"
discovered the negro who had accosted
him at the Savannah wharf. The man
was no other than Thomas Sims.
Sims was the slave of Mr. James Potter,
whose home was about ten miles from the
city of Savannah. Ten dollars a month
Sims had earned for his master, by working
in the city; he had not lived on the
plantation for some years. The thought
of freedom had long been present with
him. Bent upon getting to the North, he
had stowed himself in the forecastle of the
brig, and lay thus until discovered by
Cephas Ames.
Ames anticipated a liberal reward for
his discovery. He locked Sims into the
cabin for safe-keeping, intending to hand
him over to the proper authorities when
he found the opportunity. By the next
morning, however, Sims was gone. During
the night he unscrewed the hinges of
the cabin door, — so he said, — stole on
deck, lowered a boat, and pulled for the
South Boston shore. A stranger, and
friendless, he made his way into the city.
Seeking work, perhaps, or perhaps looking
for a chance to escape still further north,
he had the misfortune to stray upon Long
Wharf. The sailors of the M. & J. C.
Gilmore had by this time come ashore.
They saw him on the wharf, and by the
captain's orders fell upon him and forced
him back to the brig. Having put him
into the run of the vessel, they drew off
from land.
It was February, — that same February
that witnessed the arrest of Shadrach, —
and the night was extremely cold. Sims
almost perished, but prudence, or some
spark of humanity, saved him from actually
dying. "We did not like to see him
frozen," says John Ball, in his testimony,
so we put him into the cabin."1
1
For this, and other details, see Slave Law
Cases, a collection of pamphlets in the Boston
Public Library.
|
Thence, for the second time, Sims made
his escape. That he was able to do so
awakens the suspicion that he had aid
from some one on board the brig. His
first question to Cephas Ames, "Have we
got up?" also indicates his expecting to
see some one who was friendly to him;
but of this there is no proof.
For more than a month Sims, keeping
out of harm's way, led the life of a quiet,
hard-working citizen of Boston. But on
the night of Thursday, April 3, as he
stood talking with another fugitive, in
Richmond Street, not far from his Ann
Street lodgings, he was suddenly set upon
by two men who had orders to arrest him.
Both fugitives made fight, but Sims's com-
rade, after getting a hard
blow, fled, and
Sims was left to struggle as best he might
alone. With a long knife that he carried
about him he dealt one of his assailants a
thrust in the thigh; but the knife broke,
and he had no other weapon. He then
tried to wrench himself away from his
captors, and had nearly succeeded in writhing
out of his clothing, when a posse of
watchmen arrived and he was overcome.
A prisoner, he was hustled through the
streets to the court-house, where he was
confined in a room upon the third floor.
W. F. Channing, who afterward visited
him there, says: "I found the door firmly
fastened on the inside by iron bars, and
guarded by fifteen or twenty officers with
police badges on. Sims was handcuffed."2
2
Boston Commonwealth, April 12, 1851.
|
Sims's one petition, now, was that he
might be allowed to put an end to his life.
He would far rather die, he said, than be
made a slave again. Efforts were made
for his release. The Vigilance Committee,
who had secret means of knowing when
warrants were to be served, were aware of
the arrest, and tried to save him. Samuel
E. Sewall, who had heard a rumor that
the trial was to take place that night, and
wished to act as counsel for Sims, met
Marshal Riley in Court Square just after
Sims had been carried into the court-house,
and asked when the examination
was to begin. Marshal Riley did not
answer. Mr. Sewall repeated the question
with some vehemence, whereupon Riley
had Mr. Sewall arrested and taken to the
watch-house. The captain of the watch
had the good sense to release Mr. Sewall
without delay; but the fact that Riley
dared to order the arrest shows what
public feeling then was toward those who
shouldered the cause of the fugitives.
The next morning saw the court-house
surrounded by chains. A picture of the
building, in one of the papers of the time,
shows it girt by its chain defences and
paced about by guards. Sixty men were
on duty there by day, twenty-five at
night. The Abolitionists, who held
indignation meetings in Faneuil Hall, said that
chains were a fit decoration for a building
wherein a man could be condemned to
slavery. With the greater part of the
people, however, the cry ran, "The law
must be maintained." They were not yet
willing to pay the awful price finally to be
wrung from them, and still regarded the
work of the Abolitionists as a rushing upon
the sword.
The throng pressing to secure seats in
the court-room was so great that the
entire force of police and a number of men
from the watch department had been called
out to maintain order. Members of the
bar and men connected with the press
were admitted, and a few others known to
the guard were allowed to pass, but
unknown persons were ruled out. The Shadrach
affair was to find no repetition here.
An eye-witness reports that an acquaintance
of his, being denied admittance, confidentially
let it be understood that he came
from Virginia, and gained entrance at once.
At about nine o'clock Sims was taken
from the "prison-room" in the court-house — the United States authorities having
provided one by this time — to the
United States court-room, in the same
building. Mr. Bacon, who acted for
Sims's master, was there with his counsel,
Seth J. Thomas. Robert Rantoul, Jr.,
Charles G. Loring, and Samuel E. Sewall
were counsel for Sims.
At twenty minutes past nine the
commissioner, George T. Curtis, took his seat.
Sims's counsel asked for a delay, and a
delay of twenty-four hours was granted. The
trial, which began on Saturday, April 5,
was a hard-fought battle, lasting for nearly
a week. The length and earnestness of
Mr. Rantoul's appeal in behalf of Sims
and against the Fugitive Slave Law were
equalled only by the close attention given
him by the commissioner.
Meantime, outside of the court-room,
there was much skirmishing with legal
devices and counter-devices. Bacon and
De Lyon, Bacon's companion, were
arrested as kidnappers, but released on bail.
Richard H. Dana and Robert Rantoul
applied on April 8 for a writ of habeas corpus,
"setting forth," says the Commonwealth
of that date, "that Sims was illegally and
unconstitutionally held in custody";
strong effort was being made to get the
Fugitive Slave Law declared unconstitutional.
The application was, however,
refused, and Judge Shaw published in the
Advertiser of April 14 his opinion on the
subject.
In the Advertiser for April 9 is this
item:—
"The friends of Thomas Sims . . . have . . .
made complaint against him for the assault upon
Officer Butman at the time he was arrested. This
is done in order to detain Sims here as amenable
to Massachusetts law. . . . We learn, however,
that Marshal Devens has made a similar complaint
in the United States Court, has obtained a writ,
and has served it upon Sims, so that the state and
United States courts having concurrent jurisdiction
in this case, and the United States officer being
first in the field, the writ from the state court will
not avail for its object."
It was on Friday, the 11th of April, that
the commissioner gave his decision. He
decided that Sims must be given up to
the men who claimed him. Sims was
carried back into the barred room; the
crowd dispersed; nothing remained to
prevent a prompt removal. The removal
was planned with all secrecy; it was to
take place at daybreak on Saturday morning. But the Vigilance Committee kept
men on the watch for any movement at
the court-house; and when dawn came, a
little knot of sorrowful and sympathizing
spectators had gathered in Court Square
to see the last of Sims. Theodore Parker
was there.3 W. F. Channing was there.
Says Channing:—
3
See his MS. in the scrap-book in the Boston
Public Library.
|
"I went to the court-house about quarter past
four, where there was a body of about one hundred
men armed with swords, marching and
counter-marching; there were one hundred and fifty men
— half, or more, watchmen — near Court Street,
armed with their hooks. A large number of the
first-named had police badges on their hats. The
other persons, with the watchmen, were armed with
sticks. There was a third body of twenty, armed
with swords. At about five, the armed body came
to the east door of the court-house, and stopped
before it. In a few minutes the door was thrown
open. Some fifteen persons descended, among
whom was Sims. Marshal Tukey, as I supposed,
came out at the head. I was on the opposite side
of the street, and it was not quite light. . . . The
body of watchmen had previously marched to the
outside of the hollow square of officers. There
were from one hundred and fifty to two hundred
spectators present. The body of men marched
into Court Street and down to Long Wharf.
There were a few hisses and a few exclamations
of 'Shame!' but no attempt at disorder. When
they reached the head of Long Wharf, Sims, with
a body of men, went on board the Acorn, which
was lying at the wharf. Within three minutes,
the vessel began to move down the harbor. The
officers returned in a body. Immediately, as the
vessel left, by a spontaneous movement, the
Reverend Mr. Foster, of Concord, offered a prayer, in
which the members of the Vigilance Committee
and others joined. Some remarks followed; and
a hymn was sung, 'Be thou, O God, exalted
high,' as the spectators made their way up the
wharf."
An easily recognized pen wrote for the
Commonwealth of April 14, under the
heading of "The Stain":—
"At last the fair fame of Massachusetts is
blackened. She is fallen. In the dark days of
her own slavery she held slaves, but she nobly
burst her own chains, and still more nobly struck
off those of her bondmen. And till now she has
been true to her word of liberty. . . . She has
never till this day been guilty of betraying the
fugitive. . . . She sits in the dust, the slave of
unutterable meanness, trying in vain to solace her
self-respect with the lie that she has performed a
constitutional duty. . . Men of Massachusetts,
— we speak not to the dogs, — men of Massachusetts,
let us bury every hatchet of domestic discord
and fan into a fervor of patriotic detestation
of slavery every smallest spark of manhood in this
continent. There must be hearts, even in Georgia,
which will turn with loathing from the brig Acorn
and the sacrifice to despotism with which she is
freighted...."
Sims made one brief comment, as the
brig carried him away: "And this is
Massachusetts liberty!" On arriving at
Savannah, he was severely flogged and was
thrown into prison, where for two months
he lay in a wretched cell. Then he was
taken out and sent to a slave-pen in
Charleston, but there must have been
difficulty in selling him, for he was removed
again and sent to New Orleans. In New
Orleans he was purchased by a brick
mason and taken to Vicksburg, where, as
we are told in Austin's Life of Wendell
Phillips, he escaped, in 1863, to the
besieging army. General Grant, it is said,
gave him transportation to the North.
The Liberator for September 5, 1851,
quoting the Commonwealth, says:—
"We learn that Sims had received one flogging
of thirty-nine stripes, the extent allowed by the
law, and was about to receive another, for the
crime of running away from Mr. Potter. He was
promised that the last flogging should be remitted
if he would ask Mr. Potter's forgiveness for the
offence, but he refused."
It reminds one of Socrates' declaration
that "neither in war, nor yet in law, may
a man use every means of escaping
death!"
