August 6: Lincolns signs Confiscation Act

On this date in History .... August 6, 1861:  

Lincoln signs the Confiscation Act, the first legislative act toward emancipation of slaves. 

The Act recognized that slaves doing the work on a plantation were freeing up the white Southerners to have plenty of time to fight in the war.  Slaves were also used for menial tasks in the war, also enabling the war effort.  

The Act stripped slave owners of any claim to slaves and made them “confiscated property” of the United States.  The Act stated that any slave who worked for “disloyal masters in some form of work against the United States” were free. 

The law was not enforced uniformly with some Union officers returning slaves back over Confederate lines.  Union (Democrat) Gen’l McCook was so “obliging” in returning slaves to their owners that he was praised in Confederate newspapers.

June 18: Slave Owner Sues for Property

On this date in History ... June 18, 1825: 

Samuel Todd of Kentucky sued William Bulla and Bulla's father-in-law, Andrew Hoover,  both from Wayne County, Indiana, for $500.00 each for loss of property. Todd accused the men of helping his slave Peter escape. 

Peter fled Kentucky in August of 1821 and came to Indiana. He was found in 1825 just north of Richmond, a town on the Indiana/Ohio state line, and had changed his name to George Stellow. While the slave hunter went to the Justice of the Peace, asking him to approve Peter’s removal back to Kentucky, a group of people broke Peter out of jail with “bodily force and violence”.  

With Peter was gone, Todd had no other recourse and he sued Bulla and Hoover, who he believed to be responsible for the loss of property. The judge ordered both men to pay the plaintiff to recover his own debt and costs, a total of $1,500.00.  The lawsuit was handled in federal court because of "Diversity of Citizenship", that is when a person from one state sued a person in another state, the issues was moved to a federal court so that one's own state wouldn't have a biased ruling.

While the information does not specify exactly where "north of Richmond" might be, we might speculate that it could be a tiny town of Newport (today named "Fountain City"), Indiana.  In 1826, Levi Coffin and his wife Catherine moved to Newport and built their home and business.  Coffin would eventually become known as the Grand Master Conductor of the Underground Railroad.  For Peter to live a number of years in this Quaker, abolitionist area is not surprising.

However, William Hoover is reported to have lived near the "middle fork" of the Whitewater RIver less than two miles north of Richmond.  Today, Richmond's water is supplied by the Middlefork Reservoir.

Source for this article: http://www.in.gov

.

April 14: First Abolitionist Society

On this date in history .... 1775:

The first abolitionist society is formed in Philadelphia with a very long name: The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. France-born founder Anthony Benezet began teaching slave children in his home in 1750, and in 1754 established the first girls school in America. In 1758, he convinced Quakers to take a stance against slavery. When he died in 1784, his funeral was attended by over 400 black Philadelphians. 

In 1787, Benjamin Franklin added prestige to the cause when he served as president of the organization.