The Slave Stealer
“Branded: In June 1844, Jonathan Walker, a Massachusetts-born mariner, attempted to free seven slaves by taking them aboard a boat from Pensacola, Florida, to the Bahamas, where slavery had been abolished in 1838. His vessel was overtaken and he and the fugitives were imprisoned. Walker’s hand was branded “SS” for Slave Stealer. On September 21 1844. William Jackson was elected to chair a meeting convened in Boston after Walker’s arrest. Jackson declared Walker’s arrest illegal, arguing that the Constitution did not empower Congress to permit slavery anywhere. Jackson and four others were named to a committee to raise funds to defend Walker and to support his family while he was imprison. Walker ws released from jail in may of 1845″ On display at the Jackson Homestead in Newton Mass.
April 23, 2012 @ 10:10 pm
why are the SS’s on his hand backwards? Is that the plate reversed?
April 24, 2012 @ 9:17 am
No idea
April 24, 2012 @ 10:54 am
When the slaves were able to cast off their chains and take over the Amistad and made their way to Connecticut, the authorities first tried to return them to their Spanish owners. Who stopped them? That champion of freedom, former president John Quincy Adams!
April 24, 2012 @ 8:25 pm
Steve nails it again!