The Princeton Fugitive Slave: The Trials of James Collins Johnson

by Lolita Buckner Inniss

Overview

WINNER, NEW JERSEY STUDIES ACADEMIC ALLIANCE BOOK AWARD

James Collins Johnson made his name by escaping slavery in Maryland and fleeing to Princeton, New Jersey, where he built a life in a bustling community of African Americans working at what is now Princeton University. After only four years, he was recognized by a student from Maryland, arrested, and subjected to a trial for extradition under the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act. On the eve of his rendition, after attempts to free Johnson by force had failed, a local aristocratic white woman purchased Johnson’s freedom, allowing him to avoid re-enslavement. The Princeton Fugitive Slave reconstructs James Collins Johnson’s life, from birth and enslaved life in Maryland to his daring escape, sensational trial for re-enslavement, and last-minute change of fortune, and through to the end of his life in Princeton, where he remained a figure of local fascination.

Stories of Johnson’s life in Princeton often describe him as a contented, jovial soul, beloved on campus and memorialized on his gravestone as “The Students Friend.” But these familiar accounts come from student writings and sentimental recollections in alumni reports—stories from elite, predominantly white, often southern sources whose relationships with Johnson were hopelessly distorted by differences in race and social standing. In interrogating these stories against archival records, newspaper accounts, courtroom narratives, photographs, and family histories, author Lolita Buckner Inniss builds a picture of Johnson on his own terms, piecing together the sparse evidence and disaggregating him from the other black vendors with whom he was sometimes confused.

By telling Johnson’s story and examining the relationship between antebellum Princeton’s black residents and the economic engine that supported their community, the book questions the distinction between employment and servitude that shrinks and threatens to disappear when an individual’s freedom is circumscribed by immobility, lack of opportunity, and contingency on local interpretations of a hotly contested body of law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823294077
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Lolita Buckner Inniss, J.D., LL.M., Ph.D., is a professor at Southern Methodist UniversityDedman School of Law, where she is a Robert G. Storey Distinguished Faculty Fellow. Her research addresses historic, geographic, metaphoric, and visual norms of law, especially in the context of race, gender, and comparative constitutionalism.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

James Collins of Maryland, and His Escape from Slavery

For fifty-six years this old negro has been a familiar figure about the Princeton campus; he is known by nearly every living alumnus, and hundreds whom he saw graduate have long ago passed away. Myths and traditions have clustered about him, rumors have sprung up which in after years have been accepted as true, and stories are told which I fear cannot always be "mentioned in the presence of Mrs. Boffin" as Dickens would say. And yet, no one has ever undertaken the task of "writing him up."

"Now wh-wh-wh-what d' yo' want?"

"Your history, Jim — your personal history. I have no doubt, Mr. Johnson, that there are few men in this country who can point to a career more interesting than yours, few men who can look back upon a life more adventurous and romantic —" "Ye-ye-ye-yes, sah," he replied slowly, scratching his head reflectively. "But I neber tol' nobody 'bout dat. Hones'ly, sah, I neber did." "Will you tell me, then?" "Ye-ye-ye-yes, sah. I guess, den, I'd better begin at 'bout de time I was b-b-b-born." I quietly assured him that such would be a very satisfactory starting point.

— Andrew C. Imbrie, from his 1895 interview with James Collins Johnson

Who was James Collins before he arrived in Princeton and became James Collins Johnson, and why and how did he flee Maryland in 1839? Details about Johnson's Maryland life are sparse. As was true for many enslaved persons, few contemporaneous writings described his life during servitude. Even in the stories written about Johnson after his escape, including writings where he was interviewed, little was said of his early life. Though many enslaved families passed down oral histories, some of these stories tended to be lost due to forced family dissolutions after sales of the enslaved, escapes by the lucky few like Johnson, and by the even broader dispersal of some families after the general emancipation of enslaved blacks. Just as there is little information about Johnson's life in Maryland, it is also difficult to know the precise cause for Johnson's flight from Maryland and the details of his journey to freedom in New Jersey. Some indicators of Johnson's ancestry and about his escape do remain, however, and these clues, taken together with the broader context of what is known about the lives of his enslavers, and the lives of other enslaved persons in Maryland, help provide a picture of Johnson's early history and his flight.

Johnson's Origins

James Collins (he was known as Collins while in Maryland and later added the surname Johnson) was born near Easton, Maryland, on October 2, 1816. His parents' names are unknown. According to the account that Johnson gave to Andrew C. Imbrie, a member of the class of 1895, Johnson's parents were owned by "Colonel Wallace." This is a reference to Philip Wallis, the family patriarch when Johnson was born. By this same account, James Collins Johnson was given as a "gift" to Severn Teackle Wallis, one of the sons of his owner. Johnson apparently served the younger Wallis as both companion and body servant. Johnson's fate was not unusual; enslaved children were sometimes presented as gifts to young white children. Though Johnson asserted that his parents were also owned by Philip Wallis, it is not clear whether his parents and other family members were in proximity in his childhood. They may not have been, as it was not unusual for young enslaved persons to be far apart from their families. As Frederick Douglass, also a native of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, noted in his writings about his own parentless childhood: "It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor."

There are few other clues to the identity of Johnson's family. A December 1839 article in the Baltimore Sun notes that Littleton and Emeline Collins, slaves of a P. Wallis, had escaped with "a quantity" of clothing. Described as a boy and girl, it is not clear whether they were in fact children or young adults; even adult blacks were sometimes called boys and girls. Because of their common surname, the escapees may have been siblings, spouses, or related in some other degree. The pair might just as well have been unrelated to each other and to James Collins Johnson. Collins was a common enough name, and the pair may have owed their common surname to a shared enslaver. The reference to "P. Wallis," however, is a likely indicator of Philip Wallis, the elder. Wallis appeared frequently in Baltimore papers of the time and was designated often by his first initial only in several listings. If the pair were escaping from Philip Wallis, the "boy and girl" might have been enslaved persons related to James Collins Johnson. Johnson had fled Maryland just a few months before in August 1839; these might have been relatives who, encouraged by Johnson's success, sought to follow. It is odd that Philip Wallis seems not to have advertised Johnson's flight. While Wallis appeared fairly frequently in local news stories and advertisements, no mention of Johnson's escape appears in news accounts until during and after his fugitive trial.

A more narrow clue about Johnson's family came from what appears to be James Collins Johnson himself. Decades after Johnson's escape from Maryland, in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War, a James Collins of Princeton placed an advertisement seeking his brother Henry Collins, who had been owned by a Sarah Harris of Queen Anne's County, Maryland. Perhaps one of the most significant emotional and practical burdens of formerly enslaved people after the Civil War was that of locating relatives from whom they had been separated. One common tool for seeking these family members was newspaper advertisements. It is difficult to learn more of Henry Collins, as the name is so common as to yield hundreds of results in a search of records of persons from Maryland born between 1800 and 1830, a period that would likely cover the birth of a sibling of Johnson. Similarly, Sarah Harris is also a common name. There are two possible Sarah Harrises to whom the advertisement might have referred, one married to a Robert Harris and the other to an Edward Harris. Though it does not discount the possibility that either of the Sarahs may have owned Henry Collins, neither they nor their husbands are indicated in slave census records as slave owners in 1860. There is also the possibility that Johnson may have misstated either the first name or the last name of his brother's enslaver. There are, for example, several Harrisons who enslaved laborers in and around Queen Anne's County.

Another possible clue to Johnson's ancestry is the 1900 decennial census report, which indicates that Johnson's parents were born in Africa. It is not clear whether Johnson himself made this claim about his parentage or whether some other informant, or census takers themselves, provided this information. If Johnson did provide this information, it is impossible to know whether he was serious: Johnson was known to Princeton students and faculty as a joker. However, census enumeration was a crucial governmental function that few persons, including Johnson, would have treated with levity. Census inaccuracies did sometimes occur, especially around factors such as age, names of informants and their families, or place of origin. Sometimes informants misled demographers to protect their identities or to avoid legal trouble. Johnson was himself using a pseudonymous surname once he reached Princeton, going back and forth between Collins and Johnson in census reports over the decades. Nonetheless, it has been asserted that the decennial census of 1900 was more accurate than any had been up to that period, especially as it concerned age and other background information.

Even if Johnson had been inclined to joke or give false information to census takers, it is perhaps less likely that he would have done so in the 1900 census, when he approached his middle eighties, was subject to ill health, and had little reason to obscure details of his identity. Moreover, though the 1900 census was the first to ask informants the precise place of their parents' birth, beginning in 1870 informants were asked if their parents were of foreign birth. While the 1880 census reports that Johnson's parents were born in Maryland, on the 1870 report the box for foreign parents appears to be checked next to Johnson's name. There is some ambiguity in these demarcations, however, as there is a check mark right on the line and not directly in the boxes for foreign born. Other persons in the area who indicated that they were born in England or Ireland (as were several persons in Princeton of the late 1800s) had clearly indicated tally marks placed directly in the boxes for foreign-born parents.

While it is possible that Johnson's parents came from Africa, it not probable that his parents were transported directly from Africa to Maryland. The vast majority of documented arrivals of enslaved persons from Africa to Maryland arrived before 1774. However, it is possible that Johnson's parents arrived from Africa either in a later Maryland cohort or disembarked from Africa in another state and were transported to Maryland. Between 1790 and 1816, scores of ships transported African captives to the United States, with most ships landing in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Moreover, there is some evidence that as late as 1859, well after the 1808 ban on the importation of slaves into the United States, captured Africans were brought to the United States to be sold as slaves. The ship Clotilde (or Clotilda) is believed to be the last known U.S. slave ship to bring captives from Africa to the United States. The Clotilde arrived at Mobile Bay in Alabama in either 1859 or 1860 (sources are unclear) and carried somewhere over one hundred slaves.

In 1836 Johnson apparently married a woman, Phillis, who had been manumitted by her enslaver and who lived nearby in a cottage at Church Hill, Maryland, about thirty miles from Easton. Marriages between enslaved blacks and freed blacks were apparently not unusual, as parts of Maryland, especially urban areas, had high numbers of freed blacks. Moreover, even when such couples married, they did not always cohabit the same household. This practice of marrying "abroad," or away from an enslaved person's primary residence, expanded the potential pool of marriage partners. However, such relationships were often difficult to sustain, given the difference in status between spouses, the possibility that the enslaved spouse might be sold or hired out far away, and the logistics of maintaining a regular family life when couples lived apart even when in geographic proximity. The little that is known of Phillis comes from Johnson's interview in 1895.

The identity of Johnson's family, and the details of his early life in Maryland, may be gleaned only by inference aided by limited clues, analogy, and reasoned conjecture. In contrast, much is known of the family of Johnson's enslavers, the Wallises. Even with the tensions stemming from the vast status separation between blacks in bondage and their white enslavers, there existed at the same time a requisite physical proximity, as enslaved blacks like Johnson sometimes performed intimate personal care for their white enslavers such as bathing and dressing. This enforced vassalage meant that details of the lives of enslavers were much more known to the enslaved than vice versa.

Johnson's Enslavers

James Collins was enslaved by the Wallis family, a Maryland Eastern Shore family with landholdings throughout the state. The Wallises were a prominent family with land in Kent, Talbot, and Queen Anne's Counties, Maryland, and beyond. Many Wallises resided in Maryland, though in the middle and late nineteenth century many began moving to the southern United States. Samuel Wallis, the father of Philip Wallis, was a descendant of one of the early settlers of the colony of Maryland and one of its largest landholders.

Philip Wallis, the patriarch of the family when Johnson was born, was born May 17, 1793, in Baltimore, Maryland. On January 26, 1814, Philip Wallis married Elizabeth Custis Teackle. At the death of his father, Samuel Wallis, in 1807, Philip Wallis inherited a substantial amount of both real estate and personal property. Though wealthy, Philip Wallis apparently did not inherit all of the family property that his father owned. Some have surmised that this was because Samuel Wallis was not married to Philip's mother, Bathsheba Eagle Cosden, the widow of a man named Jesse Cosden. Samuel Wallis's will stipulated that his son Philip should not sell any of the land included in the estate until he was thirty years old. This age stipulation may have been meant to prevent Philip Wallis from too rapidly consuming his inheritance. It is not clear that the stipulation did its intended work, however. Philip Wallis was a teenager at the 1807 death of his father. When he reached the age of twenty-one in 1814, and for the next several years, local newspapers were filled with advertisements for land that Philip Wallis had inherited from his father. One such advertisement mentioned that land would be "sold low, if immediate application be made." Samuel Wallis's concern with his son's potential intemperate spending may have been well warranted. Records suggest that Philip Wallis was a sportsman with involvement in horse racing and breeding; his name appeared frequently in listings of thoroughbred horse owners and breeders in the early nineteenth century. He was a participant in several races throughout the 1830s.

Philip Wallis engaged in a variety of professional activities, but no single activity seemed to predominate. Wallis had studied law but never practiced. He was often involved in local and regional politics in roles such as Baltimore councilman for what was then the seventh ward, bank commissioner, and a member of various committees and delegations. Wallis apparently felt grievances deeply, and he was frequently involved in lawsuits either to collect on debts, as in the case of foreclosures, or to vindicate himself. He was also apparently a man of sharp words, and on more than one occasion he was involved in legal or other official actions as a result.

For example, in the 1810 case Wheatley v. Wallis, Wallis's overseer sued him for slander after Wallis accused him of stealing corn and wheat. Wallis prevailed when the court found that an employee may be charged with stealing goods belonging to the employer even when the goods have been entrusted to the employee. In the years after the American Revolution, Wallis suffered financial losses that he felt were attributable to French seizures of cargoes in which he held an interest, and he spent years pressing for compensation. Wallis also sought government compensation for private losses occasioned by the War of 1812. In 1839, a few months before Johnson's escape, the Baltimore City Council censured Philip Wallis for making threats against another council member. An April 15, 1839, notice in the Baltimore Sun from Wallis indicated that he contested the censure entered against him by the council. Wallis indicated that he wished for the public to reserve judgment in the matter until he had the opportunity to fully refute the claims.

It is unclear how many enslaved people Philip Wallis held over the course of his life. Besides those he inherited, there is some evidence of his purchase of the enslaved, such as a July 1814 advertisement through which Philip Wallis sought to purchase a "Negro man who has been accustomed to full charge of horses, etc." Wallis offered a "liberal place" for such a slave. However, this pledge of liberality may have been less an indication of kindness and more an acknowledgment of the fact that some Maryland enslaved people during this period were allowed a say in their own placements and would have sought fair if not pleasant working and living conditions before making a change. In addition, skilled enslaved persons such as horsemen were especially valuable, and obtaining the services of such a person, even an enslaved person, would have required a conciliatory approach to engaging someone. For much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, enslaved grooms and jockeys had relatively greater autonomy than other enslaved persons, and even sometimes traveled on their own to interstate venues.

(Continues…)

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Table of Contents

Preface | vii

Timeline | xxiii

Introduction | 1

1 James Collins of Maryland, and His Escape from Slavery | 13

2 Princeton Slavery, Princeton Freedom | 37

3 The Betrayal and Arrest of James Collins Johnson | 57

4 The Fugitive Slave Trial of James Collins Johnson | 68

5 The Rescue of James Collins Johnson | 84

6 Johnson’s Princeton Life after the Trial | 100

Conclusion | 129

Acknowledgments | 133

Notes | 137

Bibliography | 205

Index | 229

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

I never got no free papers. Princeton College bought me; Princeton College owns me; and Princeton College has got to give me my living.

Editorial Reviews

The Princeton Fugitive Slave is fascinating historical detective work. Lolita Buckner Inniss has recovered the journey of James Collins Johnson from his youth as a slave on the Maryland Eastern Shore to his life as a free man in Princeton. Deeply researched, the book overturns any lingering idea that Princeton was a haven from the broader society. Johnson had to cope with the casual racism of students, occasional eruptions of racial violence in town and the ubiquitous use of the N-word by even the supposedly educated. This book contributes to our understanding of slavery’s legacy today.—Shane White, author of Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street's First Black Millionaire

A rare story. James Collins Johnson was a legend among Princeton students, and Inniss provides enriching detail to explain what slave life was like, the difficulties of escape, the practical operation of the fugitive slave law, and why an owner would bother to seek a slave’s return four years after he left. Johnson’s saga is one example of the hurdles faced by fugitive slaves and of race relations in the 19th century in slave-holding Maryland and the free state of New Jersey.—James H. Johnston, author of From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family

Collectively, Inniss's work provides an exciting model for future scholars of slavery and labor. Perhaps most importantly, Inniss skillfully and compassionately restores Johnson's voice to his own historical narrative.—G. Patrick O'Brien, H-Slavery

From the Publisher

Inniss has richly transformed Johnson's story from that of an escapee from a "kind slave master," saved by a white woman, and beloved by Princeton students as a sweet, jovial darling into a much more nuanced portrait of a human being. Her portrayal raised important questions about what it means to be free, and where the line lies between work and servitude. Most of all it is a lesson in the critical importance in listening to the narrative of each person.

Center for Compassionate Leadership

The Princeton Fugitive Slave is fascinating historical detective work. Lolita Buckner Inniss has recovered the journey of James Collins Johnson from his youth as a slave on the Maryland Eastern Shore to his life as a free man in Princeton. Deeply researched, the book overturns any lingering idea that Princeton was a haven from the broader society. Johnson had to cope with the casual racism of students, occasional eruptions of racial violence in town and the ubiquitous use of the N-word by even the supposedly educated. This book contributes to our understanding of slavery’s legacy today.

Shane White

A rare story. James Collins Johnson was a legend among Princeton students, and Inniss provides enriching detail to explain what slave life was like, the difficulties of escape, the practical operation of the fugitive slave law, and why an owner would bother to seek a slave’s return four years after he left. Johnson’s saga is one example of the hurdles faced by fugitive slaves and of race relations in the 19th century in slave-holding Maryland and the free state of New Jersey.

James H. Johnston

Through her dogged pursuit of Johnson’s story, Inniss presents a powerful understanding of Johnson’s life that unravels the dehumanizing narrative that persisted for generations of students on Princeton’s campus... [A]n important step towards creating a more truthful history of the relationships between black community members and institutions of higher education at the turn of the 20th century.

New Jersey Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal

Collectively, Inniss's work provides an exciting model for future scholars of slavery and labor. Perhaps most importantly, Inniss skillfully and compassionately restores Johnson's voice to his own historical narrative.

H-Net Reviews