Description
“Kidnapping Slaves.” Quite an excitement prevailed a short time ago in Platte County, Missouri. As the affair is stated, it is about this:
An individual in Maryland willed a parcel of negroes to certain persons for life, with the remainder to other persons. Those holding the life estate removed to Ohio, and took the slaves with them without the knowledge or consent of those owning the reversionary interest. The persons having the reversionary interest, after the death of the persons holding the life estate, went to Ohio and brought away the slaves to Missouri.
A Mr. Moore and Mr. Middleton, citizens of Platte, and interested in the slaves, were indicted for kidnapping the negroes, and a requisition made by the Governor of Ohio upon the Governor of Missouri. A writ was issued and they were apprehended, and upon a writ of habeas corpus, they were released.
The Western Journal advises Mr. Fee, who accompanies the Deputy Marshal from Ohio, to leave suddenly, or perchance he may get a coat of tar and feathers, or something worse.
(Researcher's note: "Fanny Wigglesworth and her husband Vincent were formerly enslaved people who had escaped to freedom and settled in Clermont County, Ohio. On October 30, 1842, a group of men broke into their home. They kidnapped Fanny and her four children to sell them back into southern slavery. The men who organized this kidnapping were William Moore and William Middleton. They claimed Fanny and her family as "property" inherited from a deceased woman's estate.
The Community Response & Robert E. Fee: The illegal abduction of a free family deeply outraged the local community of Moscow, Ohio. On November 4, 1842, local citizens—including future U.S. Congressman David Fisher and Ohio State Senator Doughty Utter—held an emergency meeting at the Calvary Methodist Church to formally condemn the kidnapping as a "heinous crime". Robert E. Fee, a member of a prominent local abolitionist family, became the legal agent for the distraught husband, Vincent Wigglesworth. Fee launched a massive effort to rescue Fanny and the children:
First Attempt (Independence, Missouri): Fee tracked the kidnappers and the Wigglesworth family to Independence, Missouri. He negotiated a deal with local town officials to buy the family's freedom for $150, putting down a $20 deposit before returning to Ohio to raise the rest of the funds
Second Attempt (Platte County, Missouri): While Fee was gone, Moore and Middleton caught wind of the plan and moved Fanny's family to Platte County, Missouri. Fee secured official kidnapping indictments from the State of Ohio and traveled to Platte County with extradition papers. However, he was confronted by a hostile, pro-slavery mob and was unable to retrieve them.
Though Moore and Middleton were briefly arrested under the Ohio warrants, they were quickly released by sympathetic local authorities. Tragically, Fanny Wigglesworth and her four children were never rescued, and their ultimate fate in the southern slave trade remains unknown.
However, this failed rescue attempt deeply altered Robert E. Fee's life. Outraged by the injustice, Fee dedicated his mansion on the Ohio River to the Underground Railroad. He placed a lantern in his upstairs window as a beacon for runaway slaves crossing from Kentucky, hiding and safeguarding dozens of freedom seekers on their journey north. Today, the Robert E. Fee Home Site and the Wigglesworth Kidnapping Site are designated historical landmarks on the Clermont Freedom Trail." source: https://www.wcpo.com/longform/freedoms-divide)Date(s) of Creation
4/21/1845
