1 00:00:01,040 --> 00:00:04,800 Speaker 1: You are listening to History on Trial, a production of 2 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:17,040 Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts. Listener discretion advised. In August eighteen thirty one, 3 00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:23,160 Speaker 1: rebellion broke out in Southampton County, Virginia. Like the American 4 00:00:23,239 --> 00:00:28,360 Speaker 1: Revolution only fifty years before, the revolt in Southampton was 5 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:33,280 Speaker 1: motivated by a desire for freedom, but the stakes here 6 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: were much graver than taxation without representation. The rebels in 7 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:43,800 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty one were enslaved and free black people, led 8 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:47,640 Speaker 1: by a charismatic enslaved man named Nat Turner, and they 9 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:51,639 Speaker 1: were fighting for their freedom. Over the course of two 10 00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:55,640 Speaker 1: nights in late August, Nat Turner and his followers rode 11 00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:59,880 Speaker 1: from plantation to plantation, freeing enslaved people and killing their 12 00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 1: masters before they were stopped by white authorities on the 13 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,560 Speaker 1: morning of August twenty third. By that time, more than 14 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:13,240 Speaker 1: fifty white Virginians were dead. Nat Turner's rebellion sent shockwaves 15 00:01:13,319 --> 00:01:17,600 Speaker 1: through the United States. Slave uprisings were not uncommon. The 16 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:21,520 Speaker 1: historian Herbert Aptecker identified at least two hundred and fifty 17 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:25,720 Speaker 1: revolts and conspiracies throughout the history of American slavery, but 18 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:30,360 Speaker 1: the scale and violence of Turner's rebellion was unprecedented. The 19 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:34,280 Speaker 1: violent retribution against Southampton's black community in the wake of 20 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: the rebellion was even deadlier than Turner's rebellion itself. Mobs 21 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:42,839 Speaker 1: and militiamen killed dozens of free and enslaved black people, 22 00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:47,480 Speaker 1: many of whom had no affiliation with Turner. Still, all 23 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:50,480 Speaker 1: that slave owners could think about was that they might 24 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:56,760 Speaker 1: be next. One such worried slave owner was Francis Scott Key. Yes, 25 00:01:57,080 --> 00:02:00,560 Speaker 1: that Francis Scott Key, author of Our National Anthem, which 26 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:04,920 Speaker 1: features lyrics extolling the Land of the Free. Though Key 27 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:08,440 Speaker 1: publicly criticized the cruelty of the slave trade, he owned 28 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:12,040 Speaker 1: slaves himself, most of whom worked on his Maryland estate 29 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:15,760 Speaker 1: and at his Washington, d c. Home. It was only 30 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: a matter of time Key fretted before a rebellion like 31 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:22,800 Speaker 1: nat Turner's broke out in his neighborhood. Four years later, 32 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:29,200 Speaker 1: on August fourth, eighteen thirty five, Key's fears appeared to 33 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:33,320 Speaker 1: come true. In the middle of the night, Anna Thornton, 34 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:37,800 Speaker 1: a prominent Washington socialite whose late husband had designed the 35 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:44,320 Speaker 1: US capital, awoke to a terrifying sight, standing silhouetted in 36 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,440 Speaker 1: the door frame of her bedroom was a figure clutching 37 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:53,320 Speaker 1: an axe. She recognized the man. It was Arthur Bowen, 38 00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:59,840 Speaker 1: an enslaved teenager who Thornton owned. Thornton also owned Bowen's mother, Maria, 39 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:03,680 Speaker 1: who was asleep in the same room that night. Terrified, 40 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: Thornton raced out of the house and on to the street, 41 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:10,520 Speaker 1: screaming for help. In the meantime, Maria managed to get 42 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:13,880 Speaker 1: her son out of the house and Arthur Bowen disappeared 43 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:19,040 Speaker 1: into the darkness. Bowen had been drunk, Maria realized, so 44 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 1: drunk that he might not have even known what he 45 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: was doing. But to Anna Thornton's neighbors, Bowen's drunkenness was 46 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:30,640 Speaker 1: no excuse. He had appeared in a white woman's bedroom 47 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:34,000 Speaker 1: with an axe, and then he had fled with the 48 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:38,160 Speaker 1: axe still in his hand. This was not Turner all 49 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:43,040 Speaker 1: over again. It had to be. Newspapers leapt hungrily on 50 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: the story, embellishing as they went. Bowen was a maniac, 51 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 1: they said, driven to murder by the shocking language of 52 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:54,720 Speaker 1: abolitionist pamphlets that had recently begun popping up across Washington. 53 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:58,880 Speaker 1: When Bowen turned himself in at his mother's urging three 54 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:04,640 Speaker 1: days later, Washingtonians bade for his blood. Francis Scott Key, 55 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: now the District Attorney for the District of Columbia, was 56 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: responsible for seeing that justice was done. To Key's credit, 57 00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:16,560 Speaker 1: he was an interested in mob justice. When an unruly 58 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: crowd gathered outside the jail and called for Bowen to 59 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:23,520 Speaker 1: be lynched, he talked them down. But he also wasn't 60 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:28,640 Speaker 1: interested in granting clemency to Bowen, despite the protestations of 61 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:33,880 Speaker 1: Bowen's owner and alleged intended victim, Anna Thornton, who had 62 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:36,960 Speaker 1: now come to believe that Bowen had simply been drunk 63 00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:40,680 Speaker 1: and never meant to hurt her. Key wasn't really that 64 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:44,400 Speaker 1: interested in Bowen at all. Truth be told, he cared 65 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 1: more about what he believed had motivated Bowen, the abolitionist 66 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:53,520 Speaker 1: pamphlets that had inundated the city's mailboxes that summer. These 67 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:57,479 Speaker 1: pamphlets Key thought were more dangerous than one man with 68 00:04:57,560 --> 00:05:01,640 Speaker 1: an axe would. Their graphic depictions of the horrors of 69 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:06,920 Speaker 1: slavery and their frank appeals for immediate emancipation, these pamphlets 70 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:10,960 Speaker 1: might very well inspire a whole army of men with axes. 71 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:15,040 Speaker 1: In Keys view, the pamphlets had to be shut down, 72 00:05:15,839 --> 00:05:20,039 Speaker 1: and Key thought he knew the pamphlet's source, an unassuming 73 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:24,440 Speaker 1: recent transplant from the North named Reuben Crandall, whose neighbors 74 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:29,040 Speaker 1: claimed he kept abolitionist pamphlets in his office. Quickly, Key 75 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:32,039 Speaker 1: convened a grand jury, who granted him a warrant to 76 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:36,280 Speaker 1: search Crandall's home and office. This search would set off 77 00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: a chain of events more shocking and destructive than anything 78 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:43,560 Speaker 1: Arthur Bowen had ever done, and lead to a trial 79 00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:47,599 Speaker 1: that questioned the very nature of the right to free speech. 80 00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:53,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to history on trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward. 81 00:05:53,839 --> 00:06:04,360 Speaker 1: This week the United States the Ruben Crandall. By the 82 00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:08,440 Speaker 1: time of Reuben Crandall's trial in eighteen thirty six, it 83 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:11,479 Speaker 1: had been more than two decades since the act. Francis 84 00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:15,200 Speaker 1: Scott Key is best known for today writing the lyrics 85 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:18,839 Speaker 1: to the Star Spangled Banner. Key had written the lyrics 86 00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:23,240 Speaker 1: originally a poem called Defense of Fort McHenry in eighteen fourteen, 87 00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:27,360 Speaker 1: inspired by events he witnessed during the War of eighteen twelve. 88 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:31,000 Speaker 1: Key composed the poem to fit the meter of a 89 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:35,440 Speaker 1: popular British song. After the poem was printed, it quickly 90 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:38,839 Speaker 1: caught on appearing in newspapers across the country with a 91 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:42,240 Speaker 1: note about the tune it could be sung to. The 92 00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:46,040 Speaker 1: resulting song, which became known as the Star Spangled Banner, 93 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:50,560 Speaker 1: was a mainstay of patriotic performances throughout the nineteenth century, 94 00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:54,599 Speaker 1: though it wouldn't become the official national anthem until nineteen 95 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:57,640 Speaker 1: thirty one. Key was well known in his day for 96 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:01,480 Speaker 1: his work on the poem and song. Key was only 97 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:06,320 Speaker 1: an amateur poet. His true profession was lawyering. He worked 98 00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:09,400 Speaker 1: in private practice for more than three decades before a 99 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:13,200 Speaker 1: close political relationship with President Andrew Jackson led to his 100 00:07:13,320 --> 00:07:16,920 Speaker 1: nomination as District Attorney for the District of Columbia in 101 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:21,040 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty three. In his early career, Key had been 102 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:24,480 Speaker 1: an idealist and had defended black people in court often 103 00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:28,280 Speaker 1: enough to be known by some as the Black's lawyer. 104 00:07:29,040 --> 00:07:32,200 Speaker 1: Jefferson Morley, in his book about the events surrounding the 105 00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:37,119 Speaker 1: Crandall trial, titled Snowstorm in August, describes the young Key 106 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:42,560 Speaker 1: as a pious dreamer, a sensitive poet, a tranquil philanthropist. 107 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:49,560 Speaker 1: But after becoming close with President Jackson, Key changed. Morley 108 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:54,320 Speaker 1: calls this new Key a militant warrior of galvanized conviction, 109 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:59,560 Speaker 1: Key became a political operator determined to defend the status 110 00:07:59,640 --> 00:08:03,679 Speaker 1: quo as defined by the president. Part of that status 111 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:08,600 Speaker 1: quo was slavery. As district attorney, Key controlled a group 112 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:13,040 Speaker 1: of constables ostensibly charged with enforcing the law. What his 113 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:17,240 Speaker 1: constables mainly did, however, was harassed people of color for 114 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:21,600 Speaker 1: fun and for profit. When an editor named Ben Lundy 115 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:25,840 Speaker 1: wrote in his newspaper that quote, there is neither mercy 116 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:29,800 Speaker 1: nor justice for colored people in this district, Key was 117 00:08:30,040 --> 00:08:35,800 Speaker 1: furious and filed charges against Lundy. Despite Key's role in 118 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:40,440 Speaker 1: prosecuting runaway slaves and anti slavery activists, he still liked 119 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:44,000 Speaker 1: to think of himself as a humanitarian. Key was a 120 00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:48,480 Speaker 1: founding member of the American Colonization Society, a group which 121 00:08:48,559 --> 00:08:53,200 Speaker 1: advocated for the resettlement of freeborn black Americans and emancipated 122 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:58,320 Speaker 1: slaves in Africa. Colonization proponents argued that their cause was 123 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:01,439 Speaker 1: in the best interest of black Americas and that they 124 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:04,480 Speaker 1: only wanted to provide Black Americans with their own country. 125 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:08,559 Speaker 1: But the truth was that many of the Colonization Society's 126 00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:12,920 Speaker 1: members were racist and believed that a racially integrated society 127 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:17,680 Speaker 1: was impossible. By the eighteen thirties, a portion of anti 128 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:22,800 Speaker 1: slavery advocates had begun to reject colonization and supported immediate 129 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:29,760 Speaker 1: emancipation instead. To ardent colonization believers like Key, immediate emancipation 130 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:35,000 Speaker 1: was a horrifying idea. As district attorney, he was determined 131 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:38,280 Speaker 1: to keep Washington, d c. Free of even a whiff 132 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:43,960 Speaker 1: of abolition, and in Key's mind, Ruben Crandall practically wreeked 133 00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:52,880 Speaker 1: of the stuff. First of all, Reuben Crandell was from 134 00:09:53,160 --> 00:09:57,000 Speaker 1: the North New York to be exact home to the 135 00:09:57,040 --> 00:10:01,400 Speaker 1: American Anti Slavery Society, the abolition group founded in eighteen 136 00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:05,640 Speaker 1: thirty three. Several of Crandall's friends from Yale, where he 137 00:10:05,679 --> 00:10:08,640 Speaker 1: had earned a medical degree in eighteen twenty eight, were 138 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:12,880 Speaker 1: high ranking members of the American Anti Slavery Society, and 139 00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:17,280 Speaker 1: Crandall had an even closer tie to advocates of racial integration. 140 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:22,160 Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty two, his school teacher, sister Prudence, had 141 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:27,560 Speaker 1: become notorious nationwide for welcoming a black woman into her classroom. 142 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:32,080 Speaker 1: When Prudence's white students quit her school in protest, Prudence 143 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:35,480 Speaker 1: decided to double down and make her school only for 144 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:41,280 Speaker 1: black women. An angry mob eventually forced Prudence to flee Connecticut, 145 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:44,920 Speaker 1: but she never abandoned her belief in the equal right 146 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:50,240 Speaker 1: to education. At first glance, Crandell himself didn't seem as 147 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:53,360 Speaker 1: politically active as his friends and family. He was known 148 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:57,240 Speaker 1: to be an outspoken advocate for temperance abstaining from alcohol, 149 00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:00,720 Speaker 1: but besides that, his main passionate sae of his medical 150 00:11:00,760 --> 00:11:04,600 Speaker 1: work was botany. Twenty nine years old, he had originally 151 00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:07,360 Speaker 1: come to Washington, d c. As the live in physician 152 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:10,800 Speaker 1: for a family from Peakskill, New York. Liking what he 153 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:15,080 Speaker 1: saw of DC, Crandall had decided to stay. He secured 154 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:17,520 Speaker 1: a position as a science teacher at a school in 155 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:22,360 Speaker 1: nearby Alexandria, Virginia, and found a home and office space 156 00:11:22,520 --> 00:11:26,960 Speaker 1: in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington. A month after Crandall's 157 00:11:27,040 --> 00:11:32,240 Speaker 1: arrival in June eighteen thirty five, mysterious pamphlets began appearing 158 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:37,320 Speaker 1: all across Washington. Copies of abolitionist papers like The Anti 159 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:42,920 Speaker 1: Slavery Reporter and The Emancipator arrived by the bushel. These 160 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:47,880 Speaker 1: pamphlets spoke out strongly against slavery, discussing the cruelty of 161 00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:52,600 Speaker 1: slave masters, the humanity of enslaved people, and the arguments 162 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:59,000 Speaker 1: for immediate emancipation. The pamphlets were addressed to influential political, intellectual, 163 00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:04,160 Speaker 1: and religious leaders across the city. Government officials were baffled 164 00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:09,280 Speaker 1: where had they come from. In truth, these mailings were 165 00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:13,120 Speaker 1: the work of the American Anti Slavery Society. In May 166 00:12:13,240 --> 00:12:17,679 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty five, at the Society's second annual meeting, members 167 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:21,480 Speaker 1: had approved a plan to send pamphlets to the entire country. 168 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:25,400 Speaker 1: They wanted to shake white Americans out of their apathy 169 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:30,520 Speaker 1: about slavery. They wanted to start a conversation. They would 170 00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:34,640 Speaker 1: certainly get their wish, but even the most radical of 171 00:12:34,679 --> 00:12:39,480 Speaker 1: the Anti Slavery Society's members could not foresee what impact 172 00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:43,560 Speaker 1: their pamphlet plan would have in Washington, d c. In 173 00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:47,079 Speaker 1: the summer of eighteen thirty five, no one in Washington 174 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:50,480 Speaker 1: knew yet about the Anti Slavery Society's role in the 175 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,600 Speaker 1: pamphlet campaign. No one was quite sure where these pamphlets 176 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:58,960 Speaker 1: were coming from. But Reuben Crandall's neighbors had an idea. 177 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:04,520 Speaker 1: Crandell seemed like a mild mannered man, several Georgetown residents 178 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:09,400 Speaker 1: had uncovered a shocking secret when visiting his office. Alongside 179 00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:14,440 Speaker 1: his boxes of plant specimens and medical instruments, visitors noticed 180 00:13:14,440 --> 00:13:19,840 Speaker 1: that Crandell possessed many abolitionist pamphlets. Some of the pamphlets 181 00:13:19,920 --> 00:13:23,880 Speaker 1: people observed even had a handwritten note at the top 182 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:30,120 Speaker 1: read and circulate. When news of what Crandall's neighbors had 183 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:34,199 Speaker 1: seen reached Francis Scott Key, he was sure that he 184 00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:37,400 Speaker 1: had found the man responsible for sending out the pamphlets 185 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:44,199 Speaker 1: to prominent Washingtonians and in turn inspiring Arthur Bowen's alleged 186 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:49,840 Speaker 1: attempted murder of Anna Thornton. On August tenth, having obtained 187 00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:53,360 Speaker 1: a warrant to search Crandall's office and home, Key sent 188 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:57,440 Speaker 1: two of his constables to detain the man. He believed 189 00:13:57,440 --> 00:14:00,679 Speaker 1: that by arresting Crandall, he could cut off the source 190 00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:05,960 Speaker 1: of agitation at its root, but in reality, Key's actions 191 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:15,720 Speaker 1: would spark something far far worse. Word quickly spread that 192 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:20,480 Speaker 1: a man was being arrested for, in Key's words, exhibiting 193 00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:26,160 Speaker 1: and circulating dangerous and insurrectionary writings and thereby attempting to 194 00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:31,560 Speaker 1: excite an insurrection. As two constables searched Crandall's residence. A 195 00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:35,360 Speaker 1: crowd gathered outside, waiting to hear what the men found. 196 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,520 Speaker 1: They would not be disappointed. When one of the constables, 197 00:14:39,640 --> 00:14:43,240 Speaker 1: Madison Jeffers, stepped out to fetch a torch, a voice 198 00:14:43,280 --> 00:14:45,800 Speaker 1: in the crowd asked how many pamphlets he had found, 199 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:50,880 Speaker 1: More than I expected. Jeffers responded, we found one hundred 200 00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:55,520 Speaker 1: and fifty, maybe one hundred and sixty pamphlets. The crowd 201 00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:59,680 Speaker 1: was outraged. We ought to take the damned rascal and 202 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:02,720 Speaker 1: hang him up on one of those trees. A man shouted, 203 00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:06,360 Speaker 1: Seeing that the crowd might just do such a thing. 204 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:10,440 Speaker 1: Crandall and the constables agreed that jail was the safest 205 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:13,960 Speaker 1: place for him. As the group made its way by 206 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:17,920 Speaker 1: carriage to the jail behind City Hall, the constables started 207 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:22,120 Speaker 1: questioning Crandall. Why did he have so many pamphlets? They 208 00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:27,680 Speaker 1: asked to get information from Crandall said. When they pushed 209 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:30,880 Speaker 1: him on why he had multiple copies of certain pamphlets, 210 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:35,680 Speaker 1: Crandall refused to explain, but also stood firm on his principles. 211 00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:40,800 Speaker 1: I'm an anti slavery man, he said, don't you think 212 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:44,000 Speaker 1: it very dangerous? At the present time to set all 213 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:49,000 Speaker 1: the slaves free. Constable Henry Robertson asked Crandall did not. 214 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:54,720 Speaker 1: From Crandall's responses, it became clear to the Constables that 215 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:59,440 Speaker 1: Crandall believed that quote the slaves ought to be all 216 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:02,400 Speaker 1: free and had as much right to be free as 217 00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:07,400 Speaker 1: we had. To the constables, Crandall's proclamations were as good 218 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:12,480 Speaker 1: as a confession. Yes, he had denied distributing the pamphlets 219 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:14,960 Speaker 1: when they asked him about it in the house, but 220 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:19,640 Speaker 1: he wasn't denying his abolitionist views. What else could an 221 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:23,800 Speaker 1: abolitionist want with so many pamphlets if not to distribute them. 222 00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:27,560 Speaker 1: Don't say too much or speak too freely, Constable Robertson 223 00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:31,760 Speaker 1: warrened Crandall, we might be witnesses against you. The rest 224 00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:36,160 Speaker 1: of the carriage ride passed intent silence. Upon arriving at 225 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:39,080 Speaker 1: the jail, Crandall was escorted to a cell on the 226 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:43,760 Speaker 1: first floor and locked in. Back in Georgetown, the crowd 227 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:49,440 Speaker 1: gathered outside Crandall's house was growing increasingly angry. They had 228 00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:53,320 Speaker 1: been denied the chance to lynch not one but two men, 229 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:58,760 Speaker 1: both Arthur Bowen and Reuben Crandall, sat safely, if uncomfortably, 230 00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:04,320 Speaker 1: in jail cells. What kind of justice was this? Over 231 00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:08,760 Speaker 1: the next two days, their discontent only grew. Many in 232 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:11,560 Speaker 1: the crowd were white men who felt they had been 233 00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:14,879 Speaker 1: replaced in the labor market by d c's growing population 234 00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:18,040 Speaker 1: of freed black men. Many in the crowd were also 235 00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:21,919 Speaker 1: poor and felt that they had suffered disproportionately in the 236 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:26,120 Speaker 1: recent economic crisis caused by President Jackson's war with the banks. 237 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,040 Speaker 1: These men were sick of the freedoms granted to black 238 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:33,800 Speaker 1: people just when they felt their own voices were being suppressed. 239 00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:39,359 Speaker 1: They were racist, and they were angry. Arthur Bowen and 240 00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:44,440 Speaker 1: Reuben Crandell's alleged crimes were the final straw. On Wednesday, 241 00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:49,760 Speaker 1: August twelfth, more than three thousand men gathered in Judiciary Square, 242 00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:53,520 Speaker 1: where both City Hall and the jail stood, and demanded 243 00:17:53,600 --> 00:17:58,119 Speaker 1: the authority's hand over the prisoners. Key, who had just 244 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:02,639 Speaker 1: finished conducting an interrogation of the terrified Crandall, managed to 245 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:07,840 Speaker 1: calm the crowd, telling them Crandall will be punished if 246 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:12,359 Speaker 1: you let the trial progress. Grudgingly, the crowd dispersed and 247 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:21,720 Speaker 1: slunk off home. But the crowd's anger wasn't quelled for long. 248 00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:26,600 Speaker 1: The next morning, a mob swarmed the Epicurean Eating House, 249 00:18:27,119 --> 00:18:30,560 Speaker 1: a restaurant run by a free black man named Beverly Snow. 250 00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:35,440 Speaker 1: A rumor had spread that Snow, a well known larger 251 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:40,600 Speaker 1: than life character, had spoken inappropriately, either to or about 252 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:44,560 Speaker 1: a white woman. That was enough for the crowd to 253 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:48,960 Speaker 1: demand his life. Snow managed to slip out the back 254 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:52,280 Speaker 1: of his restaurant and run to safety, but the mob 255 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:56,919 Speaker 1: destroyed his business, and that was only the beginning of 256 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:01,439 Speaker 1: the violence. The mob split into small raiding parties and 257 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:06,040 Speaker 1: began destroying black owned businesses and cultural centers across the city. 258 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:12,199 Speaker 1: They tore apart schoolhouses and boarding houses, brothels, and churches. 259 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:17,960 Speaker 1: It was a targeted campaign designed to terrorize DC's black residents. 260 00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:22,960 Speaker 1: These events became known as the Snow Riot after the 261 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:30,720 Speaker 1: destruction of Beverly Snow's restaurant. Metropolitan newspaper reporting on the 262 00:19:30,800 --> 00:19:35,800 Speaker 1: violence said, the property of every colored person who rendered 263 00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:41,399 Speaker 1: themselves obnoxious to the mob was devoted to destruction for 264 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:46,440 Speaker 1: the crime of being obnoxious or, in other words, of thriving, 265 00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:52,119 Speaker 1: or even of simply existing. Many black people lost everything 266 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:56,680 Speaker 1: they had spent a lifetime building up for twenty four hours, 267 00:19:56,800 --> 00:20:01,760 Speaker 1: the mob held Washington hostage. By the morning of August fourteenth, 268 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:06,720 Speaker 1: their energy spent, the men began to disperse, though small 269 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:09,399 Speaker 1: groups continued to wreak havoc for the next few nights. 270 00:20:10,359 --> 00:20:13,359 Speaker 1: Washingtonians would soon learn that they were not the only 271 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:18,200 Speaker 1: cities subject to such chaos. Throughout eighteen thirty five, mobs 272 00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:21,520 Speaker 1: popped up all across the country, most of them stirred 273 00:20:21,560 --> 00:20:25,080 Speaker 1: to anger by the same anti slavery pamphlet campaign that 274 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:29,520 Speaker 1: had led to Reuben Crandall's arrest. Many white Americans saw 275 00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:33,760 Speaker 1: the American Anti Slavery Society's writings as a direct attack 276 00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:36,880 Speaker 1: on their way of life, and they did not hesitate 277 00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:41,200 Speaker 1: to fight back physically. The United States had been founded 278 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:45,520 Speaker 1: on a central contradiction, a land of liberty undergirded by 279 00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:49,200 Speaker 1: the institution of slavery, and in the summer of eighteen 280 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:54,480 Speaker 1: thirty five, that contradiction seemed to reach ahead. The rule 281 00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:58,960 Speaker 1: of law, writes Jefferson Morley, was buckling under the realities 282 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:04,560 Speaker 1: of a slave holding democracy. As District Attorney Francis Scott 283 00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:07,680 Speaker 1: Key both derived his power from that rule of law 284 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:12,560 Speaker 1: and was also sworn to protect it, but his actions 285 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:16,120 Speaker 1: after the Snow riots showed that he was more interested 286 00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:21,480 Speaker 1: in preserving the system of slavery than the rule of law. Yes, 287 00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:25,000 Speaker 1: his office arrested and charged a dozen of the rioters, 288 00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:28,919 Speaker 1: but when a jury recommended mercy in sentencing after the 289 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:33,080 Speaker 1: men's trial in March eighteen thirty six, he did not object. 290 00:21:34,119 --> 00:21:37,920 Speaker 1: Though he did not condone rioting, he was more interested 291 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:42,280 Speaker 1: in teaching a lesson to the radical abolitionists, who, in 292 00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:46,480 Speaker 1: his opinion, were most responsible for the damage done by 293 00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:52,239 Speaker 1: the mob. He wanted to send the abolitionists a message 294 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:57,280 Speaker 1: they were not welcome in his city. That message would come, 295 00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:03,600 Speaker 1: he hoped, from the conviction and punishment of Reuben Crandall. 296 00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:13,840 Speaker 1: By the time his trial began on Friday, April fifteenth, 297 00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:18,040 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty six, Ruben Crandall had spent more than eight 298 00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:22,920 Speaker 1: months in jail. The city jail was a dismal place, 299 00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:27,560 Speaker 1: and Crandall was feeling the effects of his imprisonment. Reporters 300 00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:33,000 Speaker 1: in the courtroom noticed how pale he looked. Fortunately, Crandall 301 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:36,639 Speaker 1: had his lawyers to support him. His family had hired 302 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:41,320 Speaker 1: two respected Washington lawyers, Richard Cox and Joseph Bradley. After 303 00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:44,600 Speaker 1: his arrest, and the men had been by Crandall's side 304 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:48,240 Speaker 1: every step of the way. They stood by him now 305 00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:51,560 Speaker 1: as he pled not guilty to the indictment in which 306 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:57,800 Speaker 1: Key had accused Crandall of having quote most unlawfully, mischievously, 307 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:04,120 Speaker 1: and seditiously contrived to traduce, vilify, and bring into hatred 308 00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:08,040 Speaker 1: and contempt among the good citizens the laws and the 309 00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:12,359 Speaker 1: government of the United States. In other words, Crandall was 310 00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:16,760 Speaker 1: accused of having committed seditious libel. If you aren't a 311 00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:21,480 Speaker 1: time traveling early American lawyer, which you probably aren't, the 312 00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:25,920 Speaker 1: charge of seditious libel is likely an unfamiliar one. Libel 313 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:29,639 Speaker 1: in modern legal practice is the publication of an untruth 314 00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:33,639 Speaker 1: which will cause harm to its subject. Seditious libel is 315 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:38,240 Speaker 1: something different in two ways. First, the subject of seditious 316 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:42,960 Speaker 1: libel is always the government, and second, the statement need 317 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:47,439 Speaker 1: not be untruthful in order to be found libelous. Seditious 318 00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:51,840 Speaker 1: libel entered the American legal practice via English law. British 319 00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:56,200 Speaker 1: government lawyers used seditious libel laws to punish citizens who 320 00:23:56,240 --> 00:24:01,080 Speaker 1: criticize the state. In the late eighteenth century, the American 321 00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:04,040 Speaker 1: Federalist Party pushed for the passage of the Alien and 322 00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:09,120 Speaker 1: Sedition Acts, which they used to prosecute journalists who criticize them. 323 00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:13,200 Speaker 1: Americans were less sympathetic towards the government's use of seditious 324 00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:17,040 Speaker 1: libel laws than their English forebears had been. The Alien 325 00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:21,120 Speaker 1: and Sedition Acts were extremely unpopular with the wider public 326 00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:25,000 Speaker 1: and expired in eighteen oh one. At the time of 327 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:28,600 Speaker 1: Reuben Crandall's trial in eighteen thirty six, there was no 328 00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:33,040 Speaker 1: seditious libel law in the federal books. So what exactly 329 00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:37,399 Speaker 1: had Francis Scott Key charged Grandell with. The Answer to 330 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:40,760 Speaker 1: this question requires a quick explainer of the District of 331 00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:45,600 Speaker 1: Columbia's bizarre legal status. Unlike US states, which are allowed 332 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:48,800 Speaker 1: to make their own laws, the ultimate authority over DC, 333 00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:51,760 Speaker 1: which is not a state but a federal district, is 334 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:56,760 Speaker 1: the United States Congress. The Constitution grants Congress oversight of 335 00:24:56,840 --> 00:25:01,200 Speaker 1: DC's laws. The city government of wahe Washington was and 336 00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:05,000 Speaker 1: is allowed to have some legal powers, but Congress retains 337 00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:09,560 Speaker 1: the power to oversee and overturn any local DC legislation. 338 00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:13,679 Speaker 1: The eighteen thirty three Code of Laws drafted for d 339 00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:18,359 Speaker 1: C contained a provision that specifically covered Reuben Crandall's crime, 340 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:24,240 Speaker 1: people in d C were prohibited from quote knowingly publishing 341 00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:28,560 Speaker 1: and circulating any writing or pamphlet among the free, black 342 00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:32,480 Speaker 1: or slave population of this district tending to excite a 343 00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:37,240 Speaker 1: discontent or insurrection. Congress did not approve this provision when 344 00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:40,720 Speaker 1: it approved the Code of Laws, but according to historian 345 00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:46,120 Speaker 1: Neil S. Kramer, quote, this code accurately represented legal practice 346 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:49,000 Speaker 1: in the District of Columbia at the time it was compiled. 347 00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:52,520 Speaker 1: Though it lacked the authority of law, the code was 348 00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:55,720 Speaker 1: used by the Circuit Court. It was this code that 349 00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:59,560 Speaker 1: Key was relying on to convict Crandall. Another note here 350 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,840 Speaker 1: about to legal terminology. Most of us think the verb 351 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:05,720 Speaker 1: to publish as meaning to print a text and make 352 00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:10,840 Speaker 1: it publicly available, but in this legal context, publishing simply 353 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:14,600 Speaker 1: means making something known to an audience that can be 354 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:18,600 Speaker 1: as small as one person. He was relying on this 355 00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:23,800 Speaker 1: legal definition because, unfortunately for his case, he had only 356 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:28,200 Speaker 1: one concrete example of Reuben Crandall giving an anti slavery 357 00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:32,040 Speaker 1: pamphlet to another person, and Key now called that person 358 00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:40,720 Speaker 1: a man named Henry King, as his first witness. Henry 359 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:44,000 Speaker 1: King was a Washington physician whose office was just down 360 00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:48,199 Speaker 1: the block from Crandall's. One day, King testified he had 361 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:52,560 Speaker 1: dropped by Crandall's office to say hello. Finding Crandall busy 362 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:56,480 Speaker 1: with his botanical work, King, like any good visitor, had 363 00:26:56,520 --> 00:27:00,960 Speaker 1: started to snoop. He was startled to find an abolitionist 364 00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:04,920 Speaker 1: pamphlet on a table. The latitude is too far south 365 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:08,480 Speaker 1: for these things, he told Crandall, meaning that Washington was 366 00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:11,520 Speaker 1: too southern of a city for Crandall to safely possess 367 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:16,760 Speaker 1: such pamphlets. Despite this warning to Crandall, though, King was 368 00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:20,240 Speaker 1: curious about the pamphlet's contents and asked if he could 369 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:27,120 Speaker 1: borrow it. Crandall reluctantly agreed. Crandall's lawyer Cox objected here 370 00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:30,600 Speaker 1: that King's testimony was irrelevant. He was a white man, 371 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,159 Speaker 1: not an enslaved or free black man. The group that 372 00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:37,840 Speaker 1: d c's quasi legal code prohibited distribution of pamphlets to 373 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:42,960 Speaker 1: Key responded that King's testimony was necessary to establish a 374 00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:48,400 Speaker 1: chain of evidence, and the panel of judges judges Cramch, Morsel, 375 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:52,679 Speaker 1: and Threston, agreed to admit it. Key soon began to 376 00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:56,120 Speaker 1: build the chain he had alluded to. His next witness 377 00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:00,000 Speaker 1: William Robinson described seeing the pamphlet that Crandall had give 378 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:04,439 Speaker 1: King and added a crucial detail. At the top of 379 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:08,240 Speaker 1: the pamphlet, there was a handwritten note that said read 380 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:14,200 Speaker 1: and circulate. So Crandell hadn't simply given one person a pamphlet, 381 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:18,280 Speaker 1: he had given them a pamphlet that instructed the recipient 382 00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:23,200 Speaker 1: to read the pamphlet and pass it on. It sounded damning. 383 00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:27,399 Speaker 1: He next read from the pamphlets Crandall was in possession of, 384 00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:31,600 Speaker 1: hoping that their abolitionist sentiments would alarm the jury and 385 00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:37,119 Speaker 1: make Crandall's seditious intentions clear. In one anti colonization pamphlet, 386 00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:42,280 Speaker 1: the author sarcastically claimed that given the immigrant heritage of 387 00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:46,400 Speaker 1: most white Americans, they were just as deserving of deportation 388 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:49,720 Speaker 1: to Europe as black people were of being sent to 389 00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:55,080 Speaker 1: Africa for a colonization advocate like Key, such language was shocking. 390 00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:59,600 Speaker 1: Another pamphlet set bloody stakes for the conflict over slavery. 391 00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:05,000 Speaker 1: So long as slavery is tolerated, no peace can exist, 392 00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:09,640 Speaker 1: the pamphlet read, before exhorting slaveholding states to begin the 393 00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:15,280 Speaker 1: work of emancipation lest they risk quote the fiery indignation 394 00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:19,800 Speaker 1: of him, to whom vengeance belongeth. The threats contained in 395 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:24,840 Speaker 1: this pamphlet weren't just divine. The slave, the pamphlet continued, 396 00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:28,960 Speaker 1: will become conscious sooner or later of his strength. His 397 00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:31,719 Speaker 1: torch will be at the threshold, and his knife at 398 00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:35,640 Speaker 1: the throat of the planter. As Key read these words aloud, 399 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:39,480 Speaker 1: and he was a skillful, passionate speaker, he knew what 400 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:44,240 Speaker 1: he was evoking. The specters of Southampton, the bloody legacy 401 00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:48,400 Speaker 1: of Nat Turner, and more recently here in their own city, 402 00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:54,000 Speaker 1: the outrages of Arthur Bowen. He made that connection more explicit, 403 00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:58,800 Speaker 1: describing Arthur Bowen as being inspired by pamphlets like the 404 00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:01,800 Speaker 1: very ones he had just read from. And he also 405 00:30:01,960 --> 00:30:05,680 Speaker 1: raised the connection between Ruben Crandall and the pamphlet campaign 406 00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:10,560 Speaker 1: that had flooded local mailboxes, but the judges were unsympathetic 407 00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:14,080 Speaker 1: to this argument. In the months leading up to the trial, 408 00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:18,320 Speaker 1: it had become clear that the American Anti Slavery Society 409 00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:23,400 Speaker 1: was responsible for these mailings. Unless Key could prove that 410 00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:26,480 Speaker 1: Reuben Crandall was a member of the society, he would 411 00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:30,160 Speaker 1: have to drop this claim. So Key attempted to prove 412 00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:33,600 Speaker 1: Crandall's membership. He had uncovered what he thought to be 413 00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:37,080 Speaker 1: a trump card, a record in the Society's roles of 414 00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:41,640 Speaker 1: a member named Phineas Crandall residing in Peaskill, New York, 415 00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:45,240 Speaker 1: just where Ruben Crandall had lived before coming to Washington. 416 00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:48,560 Speaker 1: The first names might not match, but what were the 417 00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:52,480 Speaker 1: odds of it not being the same Crandall? Well. Crandall's 418 00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:56,440 Speaker 1: lawyers were prepared for this argument and quickly submitted to 419 00:30:56,800 --> 00:31:01,240 Speaker 1: devastating depositions from secretaries of the Society, which revealed that 420 00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:05,160 Speaker 1: the longs contained a typo. The Phineas Crandall in question 421 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:10,000 Speaker 1: was from Sandy Hill, not Peak Skill, and certified that 422 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:14,040 Speaker 1: Reuben Crandall had never been a member at all. Key's 423 00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:17,400 Speaker 1: evidence seemed weak, but in the political climate of the day, 424 00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:19,840 Speaker 1: it might still have been enough for a jury to 425 00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:23,360 Speaker 1: convict Crandall. The defense team would have to present a 426 00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:33,960 Speaker 1: compelling rebuttal in their case. Joseph Bradley delivered the opening 427 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:38,680 Speaker 1: for the defense, and he started strangely. As the jury 428 00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:42,880 Speaker 1: listened intently, Bradley began to read a passage discussing the 429 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:46,200 Speaker 1: evils at the slave trade. It sounded a lot like 430 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:50,840 Speaker 1: the pamphlets Key had read during the prosecution's case. After 431 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:54,800 Speaker 1: some time, Judge Cranch interrupted Bradley to ask exactly what 432 00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:59,320 Speaker 1: he was reading. I'm reading, Bradley said, from a speech 433 00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:03,960 Speaker 1: made by the district attorney at a colonization meeting. Cranch 434 00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:07,080 Speaker 1: was shocked. I thought you were reading from some of 435 00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:11,200 Speaker 1: the libels given in evidence. He said, that, of course, 436 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:15,600 Speaker 1: was Bradley's point. How libelists could these pamphlets really be 437 00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:20,160 Speaker 1: if the very district attorney prosecuting Crandell over them had 438 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:26,280 Speaker 1: himself spoken so similarly on the topic. He was furious 439 00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:30,080 Speaker 1: and demanded a chance to respond, but the judges told 440 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:33,800 Speaker 1: him in essence to get over himself. The rest of 441 00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:37,720 Speaker 1: Bradley's opening was much more standard and outlined the defense's case. 442 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:42,320 Speaker 1: They would prove Crandall's good character, Bradley said, prove that 443 00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:46,160 Speaker 1: he had no intention of distributing any pamphlets, and proved 444 00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:49,640 Speaker 1: that he had no involvement in the abolition movement. To 445 00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:54,160 Speaker 1: testify to Crandall's character, his lawyers had recruited prominent citizens 446 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,680 Speaker 1: who had known Crandell in New York, including former Congressman 447 00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:02,680 Speaker 1: At Judson, spoke highly of Crandell and even revealed that 448 00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:06,000 Speaker 1: Crandell had opposed his sister's integrated school and begged her 449 00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:09,040 Speaker 1: to shut it down. None of Crandall's New York friends 450 00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:12,880 Speaker 1: or acquaintances had ever heard him speak about abolition. The 451 00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:16,760 Speaker 1: defense lawyers also brought in Crandall's former employers, mister and 452 00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:21,040 Speaker 1: Missus Austin, who offered an explanation for how Crandall had 453 00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:24,840 Speaker 1: even gotten the boxes of pamphlets to begin with. When 454 00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:27,560 Speaker 1: Crandall had lived with the family in New York, a 455 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:31,120 Speaker 1: visitor named mister Dennison had left behind some anti slavery 456 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:35,520 Speaker 1: pamphlets ahead of Crandall's move to d C. Missus Austin 457 00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:38,600 Speaker 1: had helped him by packing up his library and scientific 458 00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:44,000 Speaker 1: instruments she had, she testified, used the abolitionist pamphlets as 459 00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:48,680 Speaker 1: packing material to wrap the instruments. In jail, the night 460 00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:52,120 Speaker 1: after his arrest, Crandall had been questioned by Key and 461 00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:56,920 Speaker 1: several magistrates about the origins of the pamphlets. His explanation 462 00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:01,480 Speaker 1: had been garbled and occasionally contradictory, which Key pointed to 463 00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:05,600 Speaker 1: as evidence of his duplicity, but the general outline of 464 00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:09,480 Speaker 1: his story mashed what the Austins were saying, and Bradley 465 00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,920 Speaker 1: pointed out that Crandall had been questioned under extreme duress, 466 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:16,920 Speaker 1: barricaded in a building as the crowds outside called for 467 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:20,840 Speaker 1: his head. More than making any point about Crandall's character 468 00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:25,640 Speaker 1: or providing logistical explanations for the pamphlets, Cox and Bradley 469 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:29,400 Speaker 1: used their time to argue against the validity of Key's 470 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:34,040 Speaker 1: moral and legal case. Bradley wondered how Key could argue 471 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:37,600 Speaker 1: that these pamphlets were so dangerous that even the transmission 472 00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:41,840 Speaker 1: to one person could lead to general rebellion, while also 473 00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:46,040 Speaker 1: reading the pamphlets aloud in the courtroom, guaranteeing that their 474 00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:51,080 Speaker 1: audience multiplied exponentially. Cox followed up on his colleague's point, 475 00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:54,680 Speaker 1: discussing how the language of the pamphlets was no different 476 00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:58,560 Speaker 1: than that used by thousands of Americans as they discussed slavery. 477 00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:03,160 Speaker 1: There is not one sentiment or one expression bearing upon 478 00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:06,879 Speaker 1: the subject of slavery, Cox said in his closing, which 479 00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:10,800 Speaker 1: I shall not show you to have been uttered by slaveholders, 480 00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:14,880 Speaker 1: by the statesmen and the legislators, the divines, the lawyers, 481 00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:17,960 Speaker 1: and the philosophers of the South. He proceeded to do 482 00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 1: just that pulling passages from a variety of famous texts, 483 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:26,640 Speaker 1: including ones by Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and Francis Scott, 484 00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:29,840 Speaker 1: key himself to show that there was nothing new or 485 00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:34,320 Speaker 1: particularly libelous about the text of these pamphlets. What's more, 486 00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:38,279 Speaker 1: Cox continued, was that possessing a pamphlet could not be 487 00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:44,040 Speaker 1: considered a crime if quote, I shall be indictable without 488 00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:49,920 Speaker 1: any overt act for sedition and subject as crandall has 489 00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:54,120 Speaker 1: been to an incarceration for eight months preparatory to trial, 490 00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:58,760 Speaker 1: and then denounced before the community in the unmeasured terms 491 00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:02,279 Speaker 1: you have applied to him and be told that for 492 00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:06,839 Speaker 1: such an offense as having in my private custody under 493 00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:10,759 Speaker 1: my own lock and key publications such as he had, 494 00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:14,719 Speaker 1: or for loaning one to an intelligent friend for his 495 00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:21,280 Speaker 1: single perusal, I shall encounter such consequences. Then to escape 496 00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:25,520 Speaker 1: such tyranny, would I fly to the remotest parts of 497 00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:31,920 Speaker 1: this once free land. This trial, Cox implied, was an 498 00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:35,400 Speaker 1: affront to the principles of free speech and democracy that 499 00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:44,000 Speaker 1: the nation held so dear Key, in his closing, would 500 00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:49,000 Speaker 1: not be subdued. He rejected Cox's comparison of the pamphlet's 501 00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:52,399 Speaker 1: contents to his own speeches, saying that he had never 502 00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:57,319 Speaker 1: called for emancipation, let alone insurrection. His speech had been 503 00:36:57,320 --> 00:37:00,600 Speaker 1: critical of the slave trade, but not of the slave 504 00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:04,960 Speaker 1: system or of the government, unlike the pamphlets, which, in 505 00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:09,400 Speaker 1: his words, declared that every law which sanctioned slavery is 506 00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,439 Speaker 1: null and void, that we have no more rights over 507 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:15,880 Speaker 1: our slaves than they have over us. Does this not 508 00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:18,879 Speaker 1: bring the Constitution and the laws under which we live 509 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:23,120 Speaker 1: into contempt? Is it not a plain invitation to resist them? 510 00:37:23,239 --> 00:37:28,120 Speaker 1: He asked, Summoning up his most fiery rhetoric, he argued 511 00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:30,680 Speaker 1: that what was at stake was not freedom of speech, 512 00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:34,440 Speaker 1: but the safety of the nation and the right of 513 00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:38,720 Speaker 1: Southerners to their way of life. If the jury allowed 514 00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:44,080 Speaker 1: men like Crandall to quote whisper their principles in chimney 515 00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:47,279 Speaker 1: corners and in byways, to come to the South in 516 00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:51,160 Speaker 1: a cold blooded manner and deluge the country with blood 517 00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:55,120 Speaker 1: and give the dwellings to the flames, then there was 518 00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:58,680 Speaker 1: an end to all protection for the lives and property 519 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:03,120 Speaker 1: of the people of the se Would the jurors men 520 00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:09,040 Speaker 1: of the South themselves allow this? Francis Scott Key hoped 521 00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:14,200 Speaker 1: they would not. With this, the jurors were dismissed to deliberate. 522 00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:18,359 Speaker 1: It did not take them long. After only an hour 523 00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:22,239 Speaker 1: or so of discussion, the jury returned a verdict on 524 00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:26,840 Speaker 1: the charges of seditious libel. Ruben Crandall had been found 525 00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:36,840 Speaker 1: not guilty. Ruben Crandall was free, but he did not 526 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:40,880 Speaker 1: yet feel safe. The papers and public officials who had 527 00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,279 Speaker 1: once condemned him were now commenting on the weakness of 528 00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:48,560 Speaker 1: Key's case, but Crandall knew that many Washingtonians still saw 529 00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:52,160 Speaker 1: him as a scourge. Terrified that a mob might seize him, 530 00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:55,480 Speaker 1: Crandall asked to be taken back to jail until his 531 00:38:55,560 --> 00:39:00,319 Speaker 1: safety was guaranteed. Later that night, Congressman William Jackson, a 532 00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:04,880 Speaker 1: prominent anti slavery activist, arrived at the jail to personally 533 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:09,120 Speaker 1: escort Crandall home, but Crandall was too afraid to return 534 00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:13,239 Speaker 1: to Georgetown. Jackson invited Crandall to come to his own 535 00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:17,360 Speaker 1: boarding house, where Crandall stayed for several hours before fleeing 536 00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:20,800 Speaker 1: to his parents' home in Connecticut. Writing to a friend, 537 00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:24,319 Speaker 1: Jackson wrote of the toll the past nine months had 538 00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:29,000 Speaker 1: taken on Crandall. Thus an amiable and respectable young man's 539 00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:34,440 Speaker 1: prospects are all overturned, his property sacrificed, and his health 540 00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:39,000 Speaker 1: greatly injured by long imprisonment, and after a full proof 541 00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:42,560 Speaker 1: of his innocence, he is compelled to flee from the 542 00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:46,000 Speaker 1: capital of his country for his life, like a felon 543 00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:50,200 Speaker 1: in the dark. Jackson was not exaggerating about the ill 544 00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:54,600 Speaker 1: effects imprisonment and had on Crandall. Sometime during his pre 545 00:39:54,680 --> 00:40:00,479 Speaker 1: trial detainment, Crandall had contracted tuberculosis. His health both never 546 00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:03,680 Speaker 1: fully recovered, and he died less than two years later, 547 00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:09,440 Speaker 1: on January eighteenth, eighteen thirty eight, aged only thirty two. 548 00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:14,239 Speaker 1: He may have been acquitted, but Key's persecution had ultimately 549 00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:19,279 Speaker 1: meant a death sentence for Reuben Crandall. Crandall's actual role 550 00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:23,400 Speaker 1: in the abolitionist movement is uncertain. Though Bradley and Cox 551 00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:26,919 Speaker 1: had made a compelling case that Crandall had only accidentally 552 00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:30,640 Speaker 1: obtained the pamphlets, there were hints that he was more 553 00:40:30,719 --> 00:40:35,200 Speaker 1: involved in the abolitionist movement than the public knew. Remember 554 00:40:35,239 --> 00:40:39,440 Speaker 1: how Crandall's former employer, mister Austen, testified to a man 555 00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:43,280 Speaker 1: leaving anti slavery pamphlets at his home after visiting Crandall. 556 00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:48,920 Speaker 1: That visitor was none other than Charles Denison, editor of 557 00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:52,719 Speaker 1: the abolitionist newspaper The Emancipator and a leader of the 558 00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:57,320 Speaker 1: American Anti Slavery Society. Key seems not to have realized 559 00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:01,359 Speaker 1: who Denison was during Austin's testimony and did not dig 560 00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:06,120 Speaker 1: into the relationship further, so it remained unexplored. Crandall's true 561 00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:10,480 Speaker 1: connection to the abolitionist movement is still unknown. There are 562 00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:13,759 Speaker 1: two more key players in the Riots and Trials of 563 00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:19,120 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty five whose fates are worth mentioning. Beverly Snow, 564 00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:23,360 Speaker 1: the black restaateeur whose business had been destroyed by the mob, 565 00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:26,720 Speaker 1: tried to return to Washington in the summer of eighteen 566 00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:30,920 Speaker 1: thirty six. He was immediately recognized and harassed by a 567 00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:33,920 Speaker 1: group of white men, who chased him down and threatened 568 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:38,400 Speaker 1: to lynch him. Luckily, the mayor, a personal friend of Snow, 569 00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:43,160 Speaker 1: intervened and convinced the mob to release Snow. After spending 570 00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:46,320 Speaker 1: a night in jail for his own safety and undergoing 571 00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:50,560 Speaker 1: a public interrogation, Snow and his wife left for Canada. 572 00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:55,560 Speaker 1: He became a successful businessman in Toronto, opening several popular 573 00:41:55,600 --> 00:42:00,359 Speaker 1: restaurants before dying in eighteen fifty six. The other man 574 00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:03,800 Speaker 1: at the heart of Washington's tumultuous year was Arthur Bowen, 575 00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:07,960 Speaker 1: the enslaved nineteen year old accused of attempting to murder 576 00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:11,960 Speaker 1: his owner, Anna Thornton. Thornton had come to believe that 577 00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:14,680 Speaker 1: Bowen never meant to harm her, and in the lead 578 00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:18,400 Speaker 1: up to Bowen's trial, she had petitioned endlessly for his release. 579 00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:23,800 Speaker 1: Key denied her at every turn. Arthur Bowen was convicted 580 00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:27,760 Speaker 1: of attempted murder and sentenced to death on January twenty third, 581 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:34,000 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty six. Horrified, Thornton intensified her campaign to free him. 582 00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:38,640 Speaker 1: After a series of stays of execution, President Andrew Jackson 583 00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:42,800 Speaker 1: issued Bowen a pardon on June twenty fifth, eighteen thirty six. 584 00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:47,239 Speaker 1: But a reprieve from prison did not mean freedom for 585 00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:51,000 Speaker 1: Arthur Bowen. Anna Thornton believed that he would never be 586 00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:54,279 Speaker 1: safe in Washington, d c. Given the notoriety of his 587 00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:57,799 Speaker 1: alleged crime. She had always made it clear in her 588 00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:00,720 Speaker 1: petitions to the authorities that she would see sell Bowen 589 00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:04,040 Speaker 1: out of the city if he was freed. Upon his release, 590 00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:07,919 Speaker 1: Thornton did just that. We know that Bowen was sold 591 00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:11,720 Speaker 1: to a man in Florida. In June eighteen thirty seven, 592 00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:14,560 Speaker 1: he wrote to his mother Maria that his new owner 593 00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:18,520 Speaker 1: mistreated him. Thornton arranged for the new owner to sell 594 00:43:18,560 --> 00:43:20,920 Speaker 1: Bowen to a man who worked in the pensacle And 595 00:43:21,040 --> 00:43:24,840 Speaker 1: Navy Yard, and in eighteen thirty eight Bowen wrote to 596 00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:27,400 Speaker 1: his mother that he was doing well and working on 597 00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:31,760 Speaker 1: a steamboat. But after that he disappears from the historical record. 598 00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:35,000 Speaker 1: We do not know the ultimate fate of the teenaged 599 00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:38,719 Speaker 1: boy whose drunken actions on an August night sparked a 600 00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:41,799 Speaker 1: riot in the nation's capital and led to his own 601 00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:50,960 Speaker 1: exile from the only home he had ever known. Unlike 602 00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:56,120 Speaker 1: Arthur Bowen, Francis Scott Key is firmly enshrined in history. 603 00:43:56,239 --> 00:43:59,240 Speaker 1: The words he wrote in eighteen fourteen are sung daily 604 00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:01,920 Speaker 1: in the school room, on the sports field, and in 605 00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:05,640 Speaker 1: the halls of government. Though he was criticized for his 606 00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:09,360 Speaker 1: actions in the Crandell case, Key continued on as District 607 00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:13,319 Speaker 1: attorney for another two years. After eventually resigning from the 608 00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:17,200 Speaker 1: post in eighteen forty, Key worked in private practice until 609 00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:22,360 Speaker 1: his death on January eleventh, eighteen forty three, his legacy 610 00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:25,799 Speaker 1: as a lawyer would be a checkered one. In his 611 00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:29,480 Speaker 1: earliest years of practice, Key had defended people of color 612 00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:34,000 Speaker 1: against abuses of power. But as district Attorney, Key had 613 00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:37,080 Speaker 1: abused the power of his office against the most vulnerable 614 00:44:37,160 --> 00:44:40,640 Speaker 1: members of society, all in the interest of maintaining the 615 00:44:40,680 --> 00:44:45,400 Speaker 1: status quo. He is certainly not alone in this. Throughout 616 00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:49,520 Speaker 1: American history, particularly in times of unrest, the law has 617 00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:53,640 Speaker 1: been used to penalize the most outspoken among us. During 618 00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:58,520 Speaker 1: Reuben Crandall's trial, one of the judges, Buckner Thruston, recognized 619 00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:01,360 Speaker 1: the slippery slope that Key he was hurtling down with 620 00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:06,200 Speaker 1: this case. Threston, a slave owner himself, was not sympathetic 621 00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:10,400 Speaker 1: towards the abolitionist cause, but he was a passionate defender 622 00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:15,200 Speaker 1: of Crandall's right to express his opinions. Every man has 623 00:45:15,239 --> 00:45:19,239 Speaker 1: an unquestionable right to his own moral or religious sentiments. 624 00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:23,439 Speaker 1: There is no crime in this, Threston said, as part 625 00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:27,160 Speaker 1: of his descent on a certain evidentiary ruling. He further 626 00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:32,799 Speaker 1: noted that quote bad as the tendency of these writings 627 00:45:32,880 --> 00:45:37,320 Speaker 1: may be, I know not how much less danger would 628 00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:42,440 Speaker 1: result if, led by our feeling, we bend the rules 629 00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:47,920 Speaker 1: and principles of law from expediency or the supposed political 630 00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:53,759 Speaker 1: necessity of convicting the accused. If we invade the panoply 631 00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:57,279 Speaker 1: which the law has provided for the protection of the 632 00:45:57,320 --> 00:46:04,600 Speaker 1: accused against arbitrary or vindictive judgments, we establish precedence, the 633 00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:09,920 Speaker 1: evil consequences of which cannot be calculated. In other words, 634 00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:13,319 Speaker 1: Francis Scott Key may have thought he was protecting the 635 00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:15,480 Speaker 1: land of the Free and the home of the brave 636 00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:20,320 Speaker 1: by trying Reuben Crandell, But had he succeeded in convicting 637 00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:23,600 Speaker 1: the man, he would have created an even greater threat 638 00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:28,680 Speaker 1: to our democracy. That's the story of the United States v. 639 00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:33,080 Speaker 1: Reuben Crandall. After the break, one more look into Francis 640 00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:45,200 Speaker 1: Scott Key's surprising influence on the US legal system. Francis 641 00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:50,200 Speaker 1: Scott Key's most impactful legacy, besides the extremely difficult to 642 00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:53,640 Speaker 1: sing national anthem that he wrote, might be the lobbying 643 00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:55,960 Speaker 1: work that he performed on behalf of one of his 644 00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:59,960 Speaker 1: best friends. Key first met Roger Taney in the late 645 00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:04,560 Speaker 1: seventeen nineties when they were both practicing law in Fredericktown, Maryland. 646 00:47:05,440 --> 00:47:08,480 Speaker 1: The two men immediately hit it off, and their relationship 647 00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:12,520 Speaker 1: only grew closer when Taney married Key's sister Anne in 648 00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:16,880 Speaker 1: eighteen oh six. Taney, an ambitious man who admitted to 649 00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:21,480 Speaker 1: desiring quote high rank and social position, was drawn to 650 00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:26,080 Speaker 1: politics before Key was. He became Attorney General from Maryland 651 00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:29,760 Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty seven, and then United States Attorney General 652 00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:34,080 Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty one. Francis Scott. Key was instrumental in 653 00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:38,360 Speaker 1: securing the latter job for Taeney, negotiating the resignation of 654 00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:41,640 Speaker 1: the previous Attorney General and clearing the way for his friend. 655 00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:47,000 Speaker 1: While Attorney General, Taeney became extremely close to President Andrew Jackson, 656 00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:51,320 Speaker 1: and when Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall died in 657 00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:58,280 Speaker 1: July eighteen thirty five, the President nominated Taeney as Marshall's replacement. Again, 658 00:47:58,719 --> 00:48:03,320 Speaker 1: Key acted as Teeney's chief support, lobbying senators to confirm 659 00:48:03,400 --> 00:48:08,560 Speaker 1: the appointment. On March fifteenth, eighteen thirty six, the Senate 660 00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:12,040 Speaker 1: approved Tainey, and two weeks later he was sworn in 661 00:48:12,120 --> 00:48:15,600 Speaker 1: as the fifth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. 662 00:48:16,680 --> 00:48:20,360 Speaker 1: Twenty years later, Taeney would author the Court's decision in 663 00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:25,520 Speaker 1: dread Scott v. Sandford. This was the notorious opinion that 664 00:48:25,640 --> 00:48:31,080 Speaker 1: declared that people of African descent were quote beings of 665 00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:35,880 Speaker 1: an inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the 666 00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:40,719 Speaker 1: white race, and not entitled to legal protections or the 667 00:48:40,840 --> 00:48:46,520 Speaker 1: right of citizenship. Further, the dread Scott decision denied Congress's 668 00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:51,319 Speaker 1: power to ban slavery in federal territories. The outcry over 669 00:48:51,360 --> 00:48:54,600 Speaker 1: this decision is often regarded as one of the inciting 670 00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:58,080 Speaker 1: incidents of the Civil War. Just how the dread Scott 671 00:48:58,160 --> 00:49:01,400 Speaker 1: case would have been decided without Tane is impossible to know, 672 00:49:02,080 --> 00:49:05,680 Speaker 1: but the inflammatory racist language he used in writing the 673 00:49:05,719 --> 00:49:10,000 Speaker 1: opinion made him infamous and sparked outrage across the country, 674 00:49:10,920 --> 00:49:13,759 Speaker 1: and it's likely that Teaney would not have risen as 675 00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:16,719 Speaker 1: high as he did, allowing him to have as much 676 00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:20,640 Speaker 1: impact as he had without the help of his best friend, 677 00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:26,920 Speaker 1: Francis Scott Key. Thank you for listening to History on Trial. 678 00:49:27,560 --> 00:49:30,759 Speaker 1: The main sources for this episode were the trial transcripts 679 00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:36,680 Speaker 1: and Jefferson Morley's book Snowstorm in August, Washington City, Francis 680 00:49:36,719 --> 00:49:40,479 Speaker 1: Scott Key, and the Forgotten Race Riot of eighteen thirty five. 681 00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:44,200 Speaker 1: For a full bibliography, as well as a transcript of 682 00:49:44,239 --> 00:49:48,400 Speaker 1: this episode with citations, please visit our website History on 683 00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:54,759 Speaker 1: Trial podcast dot com. History on Trial is written and 684 00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:58,640 Speaker 1: hosted by me Mira Hayward. The show is edited and 685 00:49:58,719 --> 00:50:02,680 Speaker 1: produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Trevor Young and 686 00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:08,600 Speaker 1: executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward. 687 00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:12,400 Speaker 1: Learn more about the show at History on Trial podcast 688 00:50:12,600 --> 00:50:16,279 Speaker 1: dot com and follow us on Instagram at History on 689 00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:21,760 Speaker 1: Trial and on Twitter at Underscore History on Trial. Find 690 00:50:21,800 --> 00:50:27,120 Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio by visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 691 00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:30,480 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.