Nathan Mead alias Alexander Hemsley (b. circa 1800 -
d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-051248
Fled from slavery, Queen Anne's County, Maryland
Biography:
Nathan Mead was the slave of Isaac Baggs, a religious leader in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. According to the 1820 Census, Baggs owned 10 African-American slaves, who labored on his land.1 Mead would later remark that his master "used to instruct me in a hypocritical way in the duties of religion. I used to go to church on Sunday to hear him talk, and experience the contrary on Monday."2 Many former bondsmen noted this characteristic in Maryland slave owners, who often perverted scripture to support the peculiar institution. Still, Mead developed an appreciation for the religion of his owner, and ultimately became a preacher himself.
It was no particular incident, but a "natural wish to be free", that caused a 23 year old Nathan to flee to Philadelphia some time in the 1820's. On his way there, the freedom seeker spent three weeks with "a good old Quaker," whose name he chose to omit from the narrative. Nathan passed through the city, but quickly made his way to New Jersey.3 Mead changed his name to Alexander Hemsley in order to avoid the ever-present threat of slave catchers, who were especially active in that area. In New Jersey he met Nancy, a black woman who was also from the Eastern Shore region. Though her parents were technically slaves in Caroline County or Delaware, they had been freed by "word of mouth" before her birth. Nancy had moved to Evesham, New Jersey, as a precaution against the real possibility of being dragged into slavery. The two were married, had three children and settled in the Burlington County community, which had become a popular destination for many Maryland fugitives. Hemsley stated that in eight or nine years there, "no one disturbed me all this time." This peaceful situation would drastically shift soon after the family moved to Northampton, NJ some time before 1835.4
Unbeknownst to Hemsley, John Willoughby had consulted the executor of Baggs' will, ultimately buying the rights to the former slave. These men realized that he had fled many years earlier, but must have sought out his new location in hopes of securing a profit. According to New Jersey law, the claimants had to express their accusations to a local official, who might then order the arrest of alleged fugitives. The 1826 modification of the state's policy had actually been passed due to pressure from a Maryland delegation, which included Judge Ezekiel F. Chambers of Kent County.5 Especially on the Eastern Shore, slaveholders had become increasingly frustrated with the loss of their bondsmen to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, a state which passed a similar statute the same year. The then deceased man's executor Goldsborough Price provided Willoughby with an oath stating that "Nathan a negro man" had been held to labor by Baggs. With that Burlington County judge George Haywood issued a warrant for the alleged fugitive's arrest on October 24, 1835. Charles Bryan, constable of Northampton, executed the warrant.6 On the day of capture, Nathan said that "the five southerners flung themselves upon me and put me in irons." One of the men, whom he recognized from childhood, tried to get him to admit his identity but Mead denied all charges.7
Willoughby also represented Richard D. Cooper of Kent County, Delaware, who claimed the service of Nancy and her offspring. At some point they were detained as well. Fortunately, Cooper's father came forward with the manumission papers from Delaware which proved that Nancy and their children, were free by law. They were released, but Alexander's case was still unresolved. Further complicating the situation was Judge Haywood's southern origins. Hemsley would later contend that "the judge being a Virginia born man ... was found, like the handle of a jug, all on one side, and that side against me."8 One of his lawyers, John R. Slack, cleverly presented the judge with a writ of habeas corpus, which fellow counsel Thomas Shipleigh had traveled nearly forty miles to acquire. This document required that Hemsley be brought before the New Jersey Supreme Court in Trenton, where Chief Justice Joseph C. Hornblower would hear the case.9 Still concerned that the Marylanders would attempt to steal him on their way out of the state, the defendant's legal team remained on guard with pistols throughout the night.
Hemsley was held in jail for another three months, until he was transported to Trenton for the February term. At that next level, Alexander Hemsley was represented by Theodore Frelinghuysen, who was described as "a warm and zealous friend of the oppressed."10 He also happened to be a former mayor of Newark, and leader within the American Colonization Society. Though Justice Hornblower had no history of abolitionist sentiment, he treated the case with impressive objectivity. Because Hemsley was being held under a state law, Hornblower did not address the legality of the 1793 Federal Fugitive Slave Act. Stating that the local statute "deprives the accused of a trial by jury," he determined that a summary hearing by a single judge was not a sufficient process. What he considered to be an unconstitutional law might allow for "free-born native inhabitants, the owners of property, and the fathers of families," to be fraudulently torn away from their state with little evidence.11 Hornblower recognized that a fugitive slave would stand little chance of receiving a fair trial in the slave state of their alleged owner. With this decision, Alexander Hemsley was freed and determined to be a free resident of New Jersey.
The next year, Eastern Shore politician and slaveholder Thomas Emory used Hemsley's case as evidence that New Jersey would be an ideal destination for the unwanted free black populations of Maryland. He stated, "that the people of that state have given the most substantial evidence of their desire to have amongst them this class of people ... recently we have a report of an instance of the great zeal & pertinacity of the people of the state defending & protecting three slaves of the people of Queen Annes County."12 Emory, an active leader within the Maryland Colonization Society may have sensed an opportunity to promote his organization's expressed goals. However, there is no evidence that the local chapter truly considered this course in subsequent years. Interestingly, the case of a Dorchester fugitive, Henry Gladden, allegedly captured in New Jersey was resolved in a similar fashion in late 1836. Though habeas corpus was also employed to free the man, the newspaper account does not mention the precedent set just months earlier by Hemsley's counsel.13 Such cases would continue to be a contentious issue between Maryland and its immediate northern neighbors, ultimately leading to the passage of the federal 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.
Almost immediately after his release, Hemsley travelled north fearing that he might be illegally smuggled back to Maryland. He went to New York for a short period of time and finally settled in St. Catherine's, Canada. Hemsley became a Methodist minister and preached to the black community in Canada, all the while holding out hope that he could return to New Jersey, which he considered to be his home. Reading about the continuing terror that African-Americans faced in subsequent years caused him to accept his new situation more fully. In the published narrative, Hemsley stated that "salt and potatoes in Canada, were better than pound-cake and chickens in a state of suspense and anxiety in the United States."14 By 1854, when he was interviewed by Benjamin Drew, he was struggling due to health and financial issues but still derived strength from his religious service. Hemsley's leadership in this capacity is confirmed by Daniel Alexander Payne's account of the Upper Canada Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.15 This event was held on July 21, 1840 in Toronto, and Hemsley was one of four men to be ordained as a deacon. Even after being in Canada for only a few years, the former fugitive slave's abilities had been recognized. Two years later he would be ordained as an elder, for which he received a small salary to oversee the St. Catharine's circuit. Hemsley, as well as many other Maryland ex-pats, faced serious challenges in his new home that belied the promises of freedom which many had heard. Little else is known about the reverend after the 1854 interview. His absence from the 1861 Canadian Census suggests that the aforementioned health complications ultimately took their toll on Alexander Hemsley before that time.
Footnotes -
1. Ancestry.com. 1820 United States Federal Census, Queen Anne's County, District 2, p. 2.
2. Benjamin Drew. The Refugee: A North-Side View of Slavery. Boston: John Jewett, 1854. - "Rev. Alexander Hemsley," pp. 32-33.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid, 34.
5. Letter from William R. Stuart, President of Maryland Senate, to the President of New Jersey Senate. Mrs. Ford K. Brown Collection MSA SC 247: Materials Accumulated by Ezekiel F. Chambers, Judge from 1834 to 1851.
6. New Jersey Supreme Court Case Files, 1835-6, Burlington County. Case 36286*: State of New Jersey v. Alexander Hemsley.
7. Drew, 35-36.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid, 35-37.
12. James Wood Poplar Grove Collection, SC 5807, Series 13, pp. 245 - 246.
13. "A Slave Case," Dorchester Aurora, 23 January 1837. Special Collections, MSA SC 4856.
14. Drew, 39.
15. Daniel Alexander Payne. History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Nashville, TN: A.M.E Sunday School Union, 1891, p. 129.
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