Abolition Riot of 1836

The Abolition Riot of 1836 took place in Boston, Massachusetts (U.S.) in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. In August 1836, Eliza Small and Polly Ann Bates, two enslaved women from Baltimore who had run away, were arrested in Boston and brought before Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw. The judge ordered them freed because of a problem with the arrest warrant. When the agent for the slaveholder requested a new warrant, the spectators—mostly African-American women—rioted in the courtroom and rescued Small and Bates.

The incident was one of several slave rescue efforts that took place in Boston. Controversy over the fate of George Latimer led to the passage of the 1843 Liberty Act, which prohibited the arrest of fugitive slaves in Massachusetts. Abolitionists rose to the defense of Ellen and William Craft in 1850, Shadrach Minkins in 1851, and Anthony Burns in 1854. An attempt to rescue Thomas Sims in 1852 was unsuccessful.

In 1836, Boston was home to about 1,875 free African Americans, some of whom were refugees from slave states. The vast majority were committed to abolitionism; among the more outspoken activists were William Cooper Nell, Maria Stewart, and David Walker. Some, such as Lewis Hayden and John T. Hilton, devoted their lives to defending fugitive slaves.

On Saturday, July 30, Captain Henry Eldridge sailed into Boston Harbor on the Chickasaw. Among his passengers were two African-American women, Eliza Small and Polly Ann Bates, both of whom carried legal documents declaring them free women. Before the ship docked it was boarded by Matthew Turner, the agent of a wealthy Baltimore slaveholder named John B. Morris. Turner claimed that Small and Bates were fugitive slaves belonging to Morris. Eldridge agreed to detain the women on his ship until Turner returned with a warrant for their arrest.

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