Slaves in free Iowa

     A large number of the early settlers came from the Middle and Southern states. While there were people among them who believed in slavery, few slaves were ever held in Iowa. They could not be held legally, for Iowa was free territory according to the Missouri Compromise, the Organic Law of Iowa Territory, and the State constitution. Still, there were 16 slaves in Iowa in 1840.

    Until 1856 the Democrats were in control in Iowa. This meant that they could easily have the laws they wanted from the legislature. One of the laws enacted by the Legislative Assembly forbade free Negroes to stay in Iowa unless each could furnish a $500 bond as a guarantee for his good behavior. This made it difficult for them to live in the Territory and later in the State. Some Democrats, furthermore, believed that slaves who escaped into Iowa should be returned to their masters. To aid fugitive slave they considered about as bad as aiding a thief.

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    Among the settlers from the northern states were certain Abolitionists who believed slavery was a great sin. The small anti-slavery party called Free Soil Party, which opposed the extension of slavery to the territories, also had adherents in Iowa. This principle of no slaves in the territories was adopted by the Republican Party, formed in Iowa between 1854 and 1860. The Republican Party attracted Abolitionists, Free Soilers, some Whigs and even some Democrats. Its members frequently aided fugitive slaves on their way through Iowa to Canada, usually by way of Chicago. This was called operating an Underground Railroad.

Aiding fugitive slaves

in Lee County, and at Grinnell in Poweshiek County. As the struggle over slavery waxed fiercer and fiercer, the people in these and other Iowa towns joined efforts, and regular routes came to be established. One led through Tabor, Earlham, Grinnell and Springdale to Clinton; another through Denmark, to Burlington, and a third from Denmark though Salem and Crawfordsville to Musca-....

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....tine. From the river towns in Iowa, the fugitives were hurried on to Chicago where ship passage could be obtained to Canadian parts.

    None were more ingenious in devising schemes for helping fugitive slaves than Quakers. It is said that a Quaker once drove a surrey filled with Negro fugitives from New Garden (an extinct village between Salem and Fort Madison) to Denmark in open daylight, past friend and foe and unsuspected by all. The Negroes were dressed like Quaker women.

    At another time a slave hunter stopped at a Quaker home where two fugitive Negro women were hidden. The owner of the house met the slave hunter at the door. The latter asked it there were any slaves there, and the Quaker, evading answering directly, replied that he kept no slaves. When the slave hunter asked to look through the house, the Quaker asked if he had a warrant; and when the slave hunter admitted he didn't, the Quaker said: "Then thee canst not enter my house!"

    Meanwhile the Quaker's wife had thrown a feather bed over the fugitives and, appearing at the door, upbraided her husband for not letting the strangers in, since they of course kept no slaves. The slave hunters searched the house, but did not find the slaves.

    If the slave hunters could prove in court that the fugitives actually were slaves, they could be returned to their masters, and those who had helped them might be fined. For aiding ten fugitives, a fine was once imposed on the Salem Quakers. The fine was paid, but that did not cool the ardor of the Salem Quakers to help black men and women to freedom.

    The Abolitionists were often censured for aiding fugitives. When they were reminded that it was unlawful, they remonstrated that the laws could not forbid them to do acts of mercy and kindness. So the Underground Railroad continued, until the Civil War put an end to slavery.

John Brown and the Coppoc boys

     One of the most active Abolitionists in Iowa was John Brown. He aided many fugitives from Missouri and Kansas, and usually they passed along the routes of the underground in Iowa. He had many friends at the stations of the Underground, especially at Tabor and Springdale. During the winter of 1857 and 1858, John Brown and his men stayed in Springdale where they prepared for the attack on the United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry in Virginia. Two Springdale boys, the brothers Edwin and Barclay....

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.... Coppoc, took part or were near at the time of this incident. Edwin was caught and died manfully on the scaffold, but Barclay succeeded in making his escape back to Springdale. The governor of Virginia asked Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood of Iowa to deliver him up to the Virginia authorities, but this Governor Kirkwood refused since the requisition papers were not in correct form. When the papers had been made out in due form, Kirkwood consented to the arrest of Barclay, but he had already left Iowa and was not captured.

Questions and Exercises: Why could slaves not be held legally in Iowa? Were free Negroes permitted to live in Iowa? What party members joined to form the Republican Party? Why did fugitive slaves go to Canada? Locate the places mentioned in this chapter. Did the Quaker tell the truth to the slave hunter? Does it please you that Barclay escape?