Description
Circumstances Alter Cases - Freedom respects Law; Slavery tramples Law under Foot. Freedom uses Sheriffs; Slavery, clubs and pistols. Freedom submits; Slavery commands.
Nearly 3 years ago, a gang of ruffians broke into the house of a colored man in Clermont County (Ohio), bound him band and foot, seized his wife and children, and bore them off from the husband and father, to Kentucky. Pursuit was immediately given, but it was in vain.
The woman had been living for a long time in Ohio, and all her children thus kidnapped, were born in this State. The sympathies of the community in this region were greatly excited. Thomas Corwin interested himself deeply in the case. Citizens of Clermont, without distinction of party, held a meeting on the subject. Mr. Fee, an old citizen, not an abolitionist, was dispatched after the kidnappers, found them in Missouri, and made strenuous but unsuccessful efforts to recover the poor woman and her children.
After a little while, the affair was forgotten, except by the heart-broken husband, and no one seemed to think it deserving of further notice.
The latest intelligence we have of the case in the following from the St Louis Republican of April 8th. We call attention to the style and spirit of the paragraph.
"Kidnapping Negroes. Quite an excitement prevailed a short time ago in Platte county in this State. As the affair is stated, it is about this:
An individual in Maryland willed a parcel of negroes to certain persons lor 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 this State. A Mr. Moore and Mr. Middleton, citizens of Platte (County), and interested in the slaves, were indicted for kidnapping the negroes, and a requisition made by the Governor of Ohio upon the Governor of this State. A writ was issued and they were apprehended, and upon a writ of habeas corpus they were released. The Weston 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..”
This is respect for decency, for hospitality, for the Sovereignty of Ohio; this is the regard for human rights, which is the proper offspring of the slaveholding spirit.
(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
4/30/1845
