Embedded Files
Black Abolitionists' Activism in Lowell
Document 22a: “Manstealers in Lowell!”, Lowell Tri-Weekly American, October 2, 1850
Document 22a: “Manstealers in Lowell!”, Lowell Tri-Weekly American, October 2, 1850
This article was featured in an 1850 Lowell newspaper. The writer was warning Lowellians – Black and white – that “slave catchers” were patrolling the town looking to kidnap Nathaniel Booth, a formerly enslaved man who ran from his enslaver’s home in Virginia to freedom in Lowell.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
Telegraphed: Sent a message via a telegraph machine using Morse code
Higher law: God’s law
Haynau’s excursion to the London Brewery: Refers to a brutal and unpopular Austrian army general named Julius van Haynau who was attacked by a mob at a London brewery
Transcript
Transcript
Manstealers in Lowell!
We understand that one or more persons
were in this city yesterday for the purpose of
capturing Mr. Booth, the barber, who has a
shop near the Washington House, a very re-
spectable man, who has been in this city for
some years. Mr. Booth was formerly a slave
in Virginia. He is now in Montreal, and his
friends yesterday telegraphed to him that he
had better remain there for the present. We
hope, however, he will return to the city, for
we think there are MEN enough in Lowell who
believe in the “higher law,” to protect him
against all the efforts of the manstealers. In
the meantime we recommend to all persons
who come to Massachusetts on business,
a perusal of the account of Haynau’s excur-
sion to the London Brewery.
Text-Dependent Questions
Text-Dependent Questions
Who was Nathaniel Booth and, according to the article, what happened to him?
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
·Why might a belief in a “higher law” cause some of Lowell’s citizens to protect freedom seekers?
Why do you think the author compared the experience of slave catchers (“manstealers”) to Haynau’s excursion to a London brewery?
Why do you think this article would appear in a local paper when it was perfectly legal, although morally reprehensible, for slave catchers to be searching for people who ran from their enslavers?
Who do you think is the primary audience(s) of this article?
Citation“Manstealers in Lowell!”, Lowell Tri-Weekly American, October 2, 1850.Center for Lowell History, Microfilm Collection.
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