Item #3823 [Original Draft of the] Constitution [and Minutes] of the New Bedford Anti Slavery Society, adopted June 26th 1834. James Congdon.
[Original Draft of the] Constitution [and Minutes] of the New Bedford Anti Slavery Society, adopted June 26th 1834.
[Original Draft of the] Constitution [and Minutes] of the New Bedford Anti Slavery Society, adopted June 26th 1834.
[Original Draft of the] Constitution [and Minutes] of the New Bedford Anti Slavery Society, adopted June 26th 1834.
[Original Draft of the] Constitution [and Minutes] of the New Bedford Anti Slavery Society, adopted June 26th 1834.
[Original Draft of the] Constitution [and Minutes] of the New Bedford Anti Slavery Society, adopted June 26th 1834.
[Original Draft of the] Constitution [and Minutes] of the New Bedford Anti Slavery Society, adopted June 26th 1834.

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[Original Draft of the] Constitution [and Minutes] of the New Bedford Anti Slavery Society, adopted June 26th 1834.

New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1834. 8vo, half calf, marbled paper over boards. 23 pp. of manuscript relating to the Anti Slavery Society; also includes 110 unrelated pages devoted to the Police Court & Justice.

A remarkable document illuminating the early days of New Bedford's famed abolitionism, with the signatures of various African American citizens, including Nathan Johnson, who, along with his wife Mary ("Polly"), was an underground railroad activist, prominent abolitionist, and host to Frederick Douglass upon his arrival in New Bedford following his escape from slavery.

In the decades preceding the Civil War, the whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts became one of the most significant sanctuaries for fugitive slaves and an important center of abolitionism. This manuscript, a founding document of the New Bedford Anti-Slavery Society, consists of a preamble, constitution, and minutes spanning just over a year, including a brief account of and two responses to the society’s fraught attempt to clarify their ideology to a wider audience in the town. The constitution comprises 8 articles, and is signed by all of the members present at the meeting—some 123 people—including a substantial number of women and, most notably, African American Nathan Johnson and other African Americans. Although it has been presumed that abolitionist efforts in New Bedford remained, on the whole, racially separate, the signatures of this constitution suggest otherwise.

Although an all black abolitionist society, the New Bedford Union Society, had been formed the year before by the merchant Richard Johnson, Nathan Johnson’s is far from the only signature belonging to a person of color. Indeed, a significant contingent from the New Bedford Union Society were present, several of whom, if not already officers, would soon assume leadership roles in that organization. Among these are Union Society founding president Richard Johnson, as well as: the Reverend Jacob Perry, pastor of the African Christian Church in New Bedford who, in October 1834, would be elected the next president of the Union Society; Lewis Temple, a prominent blacksmith who would become vice president of the Union Society at the same time; William P. Powell, a boarding house keeper and corresponding secretary for the Union Society; and Richard Cummings Johnson, named corresponding secretary also in October, 1834. R.C. Johnson and his brother Ezra Rothschild Johnson (also a signer) would go on to be agents for their father Nathan’s newspaper, the Colored American.

Alongside these signatures of prominent Union Society members is that of David W. Ruggles, thought by some to be related to—and possibly even the younger brother of—the New York black abolitionist, journalist, printer, and bookshop owner of the same name. David W., of New Bedford, was certainly a participating member of abolitionist communities: we know, for example, that he subscribed to The Mirror of Liberty, the first black-owned and black-edited magazine, spearheaded and run by David Ruggles of New York, and that he went on a lecture tour through Maine with William Henry Johnson, probably the most popular speaker after Frederick Douglass himself.

In addition to these prominent black abolitionists are the names of those who, in 1827, participated in a violent attempt to lay hold of a man named John Howard, who was “from New York or farther south [and] whose object it was to get information of run-away slaves” (qtd Grover, p. 112). Only six of the approximately 25 participants’ names are known, including Nathan Johnson, who helped to lead the initiative, and Norris Anderson and Thomas Williams, whose signatures likewise appear in this volume, but the group marched to Howard’s house with clubs, broke his windows with rocks, knocked down his doors, and beat Howard himself. Though this incident pre-dated any official anti-slavery organizing in New Bedford, it was certainly not the only occasion on which the black community closed ranks in order to flush out—or prepared to kill—those suspected of treachery. These violent incidents apparently did nothing to damage Johnson’s success and prominence in New Bedford, however, and he and his wife Mary (“Polly”) continued to prosper, largely through her success as a confectioner.

It was the Johnsons, indeed, who in 1838 took in Frederick Douglass and his wife Anna Murray when they first arrived, penniless, after getting married and hastening from New York to New Bedford with the help of David Ruggles. It was Nathan Johnson, too, who at Frederick's request gave him the surname with which he would become famous (he had initially assumed the name Frederick Johnson). With their generosity, hospitality, intellect, and engagement, Douglass writes in his Narrative, the Johnsons "proved themselves quite worthy of the name of abolitionists." Because of them, Douglass and Anna were at last able "to feel a degree of safety, and to prepare [themselves] for the duties and responsibilities of a life of freedom." Johnson would later be elected president of the 1848 National Convention of Colored People at Troy, N.Y., at which Douglass also played an active role.

The Douglasses arrived in New Bedford four years after the Anti-Slavery Society was founded, and in fact were assisted on their journey thither by one of its founding officers, the oil manufacturer Joseph Ricketson. Ricketson and his Quaker companion, Douglass recalls, "seemed at once to understand our circumstances, and gave us such assurance of their friendliness as put us fully at ease in their presence. It was good indeed to meet with such friends, at such a time." The Anti-Slavery Society of New Bedford united many prominent figures in the town. Among its officers were, besides Ricketson, established whaling merchants William Rotch Jr. and Andrew Robeson, Pastor John O. Choules, and banker Joseph Congdon (James Congdon, the secretary, was Joseph's younger brother), all of whom signed the constitution.

Interestingly, at a time when abolitionism was widely associated with the Quakers, none of these men were Friends (there was at this time a growing rift in the Quaker community, and many of them had in fact been denied membership). Nevertheless, they espoused non-violence:

we look with abhorrence upon every attempt to resort to physical force for the attainment of these ends, and…shall not, either directly or indirectly, countenance the use of any means for the accomplishment of these objects we have in view, but such as are in accordance with obedience to the laws of our country, and the benign principles of the Christian Religion.

"[S]ensible of the tremendous consequences that must at some future day result from a continuance of slavery," the Society determined in its constitution "to procure for our coloured brethren, a recognition, from those who are more fortunately circumstanced, of their just rights as children of the same Heavenly Father and as citizens of a common country" and "to diffuse throughout the community the sentiment that abolition and abolition alone is the remedy that must be applied if we would relieve our beloved country from the curse of slavery."

The minutes, which begin with the Society's first official moments on June 26, 1834, end with the record of an event, apparently not unique, that is telling of abolitionism's controversial nature, even in New Bedford. Hoping to dispel a belief among the townspeople that its members were "fanatics," (an impression that Society-members may have partially blamed on the more energetic activities of the famous Weston sisters, two of whom came to organize and agitate in New Bedford) the Society arranged for a general meeting on July 14, 1835, at which they could explain their true principles. This meeting was apparently sabotaged by the untimely singing of a choir that had agreed to help with music, but whose deliberately premature noise catalyzed a general uproar which made it impossible to continue. The following entry, from August 1835, records the Society's public response to that event:

The committee of the New Bedford Anti Slavery Society feel called upon to address the community in reference to the recent attempt to deprive the members of that society of a precious and inalienable privilege—the right of discussion.

A truly exceptional record of the early days of New Bedford’s famous abolitionist activities, bearing the signatures of Nathan Johnson and other black abolitionists, and vividly representing the community in which Frederick Douglass would gain a foothold in freedom.

CONDITION: Very good.

REFERENCES: Douglass, Frederick, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, pp. 107–112; Grover, Kathryn, The Fugitive's Gibralter : Escaping Slaves and Abolitionism in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Chapters 4, 5, and 6; "Nathan and Mary Johnson Properties," National Park Service; Thompson, Julius E., James L. Conyers Jr., Nancy J. Dawon, The Frederick Douglass Encyclopedia, p. 124.

Item #3823

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