Passmore Williamson (1822-1895) was a Quaker abolitionist, successful businessman, and member of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Williamson helped many slaves gain freedom, among them Henry Box Brown (circa 1815 to 1897), but is best known for the liberation of Jane Johnson (circa 1814/1827 to 1872) in July 1855 and his subsequent imprisonment, which made him a national celebrity.
Williamson and William Still (1819-1902), both active members of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and the Underground Railroad, rescued Johnson from her master, John Hill Wheeler, at the docks of Philadelphia, and Still carried her and her two sons off, hiding them in a safe house. Wheeler had Judge John K. Kane issue a writ of habeas corpus to Williamson for Johnson and the boys to appear in court. Williamson could not comply because he had no idea where Still had taken them. He was charged with contempt of court and sentenced to 100 days in Moyamensing Prison.
Jane Johnson's liberation, the subsequent trial of William Still and five dockworkers who had helped in her escape, and, especially, Williamson's imprisonment became national news, and Williamson a celebrity prisoner. He was visited by Harriet Tubman (circa 1822-1913), Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), and many others. Friends sent him gifts and all the comforts of home for his prison cell, and he granted interviews on the Jane Johnson escape and the evils of slavery to anyone who asked.
By the time he was freed, on 3 November 1855, his name was known nationwide, and his unjust imprisonment further escalated tensions between the free states of the North and the slave states of the South, leading up to the American Civil War. The Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society published a book on the facts of the case of Passmore Williamson in 1855, which encouraged people's outrage and furthered the increasingly high tensions. An excerpt from that work appears below.
Early Life & Abolition
Passmore Williamson was born in Westtown Township, Pennsylvania, in 1822, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Williamson, both Quakers, who opposed slavery. He was one of three children, the other two girls, and, in the 1840s, the family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Thomas found work as a conveyancer preparing land deeds. Passmore took up his father's profession and became a successful businessman and respected member of the community. In 1848, he married Mercie Knowles Taylor, and the couple would have four children.
Having been raised by his parents to oppose slavery, he naturally joined the Pennsylvania Abolition Society in 1842 and was elected secretary in 1848. Even among the staunchest abolitionists, Williamson was considered a radical and devoted himself fully to the cause in any way that he could, whether directly as an agent and conductor on the Underground Railroad or indirectly by financing operations to free slaves.
In 1849, Williamson was instrumental in freeing Henry Box Brown from slavery. Brown hit upon the idea of having himself mailed in a box from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia, but, of course, he needed an address to be mailed to. Williamson agreed to have Brown delivered to him and was present when the box was opened, and Brown stepped out a free man.
As Pennsylvania was a free state, once a slave arrived there, they were legally free. Slaves brought into the state by their masters, for whatever reason, could claim their freedom; but only if they could find some way to let people know they were enslaved, not a free Black servant or free Black traveling with a White companion, which was the story masters encouraged their slaves to tell if asked. This was the case with Jane Johnson, who had been told by her master, Wheeler, to tell anyone who asked that she was a free Black traveling with her friend, a White minister.
Jane Johnson's Escape & Williamson's Imprisonment
William Still received word in July 1855 that an enslaved woman, Johnson, and her two children were seeking their freedom but would soon be taken out of state. They had been brought by their master, John Hill Wheeler, into the free state of Pennsylvania but were bound for New York, and, from there, to Nicaragua, where Wheeler was heading to accept a government position. Still alerted Williamson, and the two men hurried to the docks, where they separated Johnson and her two sons from Wheeler.
Still took Johnson and the boys away in a carriage, and Williamson addressed Wheeler, gave him his card, and told him he would accept any legal consequences. Wheeler went to court and had US District Court Judge John K. Kane, who was sympathetic to slaveholders, issue a writ of habeas corpus to Williamson to bring Johnson and her sons to court.
Williamson answered honestly that he could not produce Johnson and her boys because he had no idea where they were. In keeping with the usual policies of the Underground Railroad, knowledge of where slaves were being hidden, whether at a safe house or elsewhere, was on a need-to-know basis. There was no reason for Still to tell Williamson where he had hidden Johnson and her sons, and so he was unable to comply with Judge Kane's ruling, was charged with contempt of court, and sentenced to 100 days in Moyamensing Prison.
The Celebrity Prisoner
Williamson's case quickly became national news. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required all citizens in free states, even those personally opposed to slavery, to report fugitive slaves to authorities and assist slave-catchers in apprehending them. This law was extremely unpopular in the North. People who had never given much thought to slavery began to favor abolition because now they were being forced to cooperate with slaveholders in the perpetuation of the "peculiar institution" against their will.
Under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, if Jane Johnson and her boys had fled to Philadelphia on their own and claimed their freedom, anyone could turn them in for a reward, and they would be returned to their master. Williamson noted to the court that this was not the case with Johnson, who had been brought by her master to a free state, and, under the law, she had every right to claim her freedom.
His argument was picked up by local and then national newspapers, and he regularly granted interviews and 'held court' in his prison cell, which was comfortably furnished by friends and admirers. Williamson filed a writ of habeas corpus with the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court, claiming he was imprisoned illegally, but it was denied on the grounds that he had been found guilty by Judge Kane of contempt of court, and so his detention was legal.
Williamson's case was further popularized when, in August 1855, William Still and the five deckhands who had helped him and Williamson free Johnson were brought to trial for assault, creating riot, and kidnapping. Wheeler claimed that Still had abducted Johnson against her will and hired a top-notch legal team to win a conviction.
Johnson, then safely in New York, returned to Philadelphia at great personal risk, to testify that she had claimed her freedom on her own, without pressure from either Still or Williamson, and concluded her testimony saying how Williamson was in prison on her account, and she hoped her words in court would do him some good. Still and three of the deckhands were acquitted, and the other two given lighter sentences than they would have received without Johnson's testimony; but Williamson remained in prison.
Abolitionists rejoiced at his imprisonment because the longer he remained locked in that cell, the greater attention was generated by the media, and this encouraged more people to support the abolitionist cause. Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), the famous women's rights activist and abolitionist, who was also a Quaker, was among the many who recognized in writing how Williamson's unjust imprisonment was winning more and more people to the cause of abolition.
At the same time, and no matter how comfortable and welcoming his friends made his cell, he was still imprisoned, and so friends and supporters petitioned Judge Kane for early release. Kane refused, and Williamson served the entire 100 days, which affected his health. After his release in November 1855, he returned to his work and the abolitionist cause for the next ten years until slavery was ended by the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.
Little is known of Williamson's life after the American Civil War (1861-1865). He was active in the American Women's Suffrage Movement and supported Lucretia Mott and others in their efforts to win the right to vote. He seems to have struggled financially later in life. Mercie Williamson died in 1878 and Passmore Williamson in 1895, of natural causes.
Text
The following is taken from Narrative of the Facts in the Case of Passmore Williamson, published by the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, 1855, retrieved from the Internet Archive.
John H. Wheeler, of North Carolina, the accredited Minister of the United States to Nicaragua, arrived in the city of Philadelphia, on his way from Washington to Nicaragua, on Wednesday the 18th of July 1855. He brought with him Jane Johnson, a woman whom he had purchased as a slave, some two years before, at Richmond, Virginia, and her two children, both sons, one between 6 and 7, and the other between 11 and 12 years of age.
His professed design was to hold them as slaves, not only in the free States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, but also in the free country of Nicaragua! Lawyer by profession, and Diplomatist by occupation, he must have been fully aware that none of the States named tolerated the existence of slavery for a moment within their limits, excepting in the case of slaves escaping from other States. He seems to have relied for immunity upon the respect inspired by his representative character and upon his personal vigilance in guarding Jane and her children.
Upon his arrival at the Baltimore Railroad Depot, corner of Broad and Prime streets, in this city, he conveyed them to Bloodgood's Hotel, near Walnut Street wharf, stopping on the way at the house of a relative. During the two and a half hours of their stay at Bloodgood's, he lost sight but once of his companions. Jane's intention to assert her freedom at the earliest opportunity had been fully formed before starting from the South. She is a remarkably intelligent woman for one wholly without education.
When Mr. Wheeler was called to dinner, she feared to move, thinking his eye was upon her. It was well she did so, for in a few minutes he left the dining hall to see whether she was still there; and being satisfied on that point, returned to finish a hasty repast. At this time, she spoke to a colored woman who was passing, and told her that she was a slave, and to a colored man she said the same thing, afterwards adding, that she wished to be free.
An hour afterwards, William Still, an active member of the Vigilance Committee, and clerk at the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Office, received a note asking him to come down to Bloodgood's Hotel as soon as possible, as there were three slaves who wanted liberty, and that their master was with them, on his way to New York.
With this note in his hand, Mr. Still called upon the Secretary of the Acting Committee of "The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and /or the Relief of Free Negroes unlawfully held in Bondage, and for improving the condition of the African Race." This Society, whose objects are sufficiently indicated by its name, was incorporated by Legislative Act in 1789; Benjamin Franklin was its first President, and it has ever since been an efficient aid to Freedom in Pennsylvania. Mr. Williamson, the present Secretary, is every way worthy to fill his post. Well-educated, intelligent, of active habits and sound judgment, he has long enjoyed the respect and unlimited confidence of a large circle of acquaintances and friends.
Ever active at their important posts, Mr. Williamson and Mr. Still hastened to the hotel. Mr. Williamson, who arrived first, found that the party had gone on board the boat then at the wharf, designing to take the five o'clock Camden and Amboy train for New York. — Thither he followed them and found Jane and her children seated upon the upper deck. He went up to her and said, "You are the person I am looking for, I presume.''
Mr. Wheeler, who was sitting on the same bench, three or four feet from her, asked what Mr. Williamson wanted with him. The answer was, "Nothing, my business is entirely with this woman." Amid repeated interruptions from Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Williamson calmly explained to Jane that she was free under the laws of Pennsylvania, and could either go with Mr. Wheeler, or enjoy her freedom by going on shore.
The conversation between Williamson, Wheeler, Still and a by-stander, was kept up for several minutes, the same ideas being frequently repeated. A few persons gathered about them to hear. Wheeler begged Jane, in the most hurried and earnest manner, to say that she wanted to go with him to her children in Virginia. She made answer that she wanted to see her children, but she wanted to be free. At last, the bell rang, and Mr. Williamson, supposing the boat was about to start, turned to Jane and said, "The time has come when you must act; if you wish to exercise your right of freedom, you will have to come ashore immediately."
She looked round at her two children, grasped the hand or arm of the one next her, and attempted to rise from her seat. Wheeler pushed her back, saying, "Now don't go, Jane." She renewed her effort to get up, and did so, with the aid of Mr. Williamson. Wheeler's first movement had been to push Jane back, but he soon clasped her tightly round the body.
Mr. Williamson pulled him back and held him till she was out of danger from his grasp. Jane moved steadily forward towards the stairway leading to the lower deck. It was at the head of the stairway, if we may believe Mr. Wheeler, that he was seized by two colored men and threatened by one of them; but the most careful and repeated examination of witnesses has failed to elicit any testimony to a threat except one made on the lower deck.
She was led down the stairs of the boat and her children picked up and carried after her; one of them crying vociferously. She and her children were conducted ashore, and put into a carriage, and, amid the huzzas of the spectators, were driven off to a place of safety.
There was a crowd of persons, including some police officers, on and about the boat at the time, but no one offered any resistance. All seemed to regard it as a work proper to be done, and to approve of the manner in which it was executed.
Mr. Williamson behaved very judiciously in the affair, and discharged the duty imposed on him, by his office, in a manner becoming its importance. To the threats of Mr. Wheeler, he replied by giving him his card, indicating where he was to be found, if wanted, and saying that he would be responsible for the legal consequences of his action.
