James Batchelder
Encyclopedia
James Batchelder was the second United States Marshal to be killed in the line of duty. Batchelder was a truckman employed by the Marshals, and assigned to stand guard at the Boston
Court House, where Anthony Burns
, an escaped slave captured by slave-hunters, was imprisoned.
President Franklin Pierce
was determined to turn over an escaped slave from Boston
- a center of abolitionist
activity - in order to show Southern politicians that Northern states would enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, a key provision of the Compromise of 1850
.
On the night of May 26, 1854, a crowd of black and white Bostonians, planning to rescue Burns, tried to force the doors of the Court House with axes, and a long plank used as a battering ram
. There was a confused struggle as the crowd was turned back by the guards at the Court House. Gunfire broke out between the guards and the crowd. James Batchelder was mortally wounded by a blade of some kind. Accounts vary as to whether he was stabbed more than once.
In one account, Batchelder was killed by a blunderbuss
. The marshals physically blocked the crowd from forcing their way into the Court House, until Boston police and a military patrol arrived to disperse the crowd and make arrests. Burns was ultimately forced back into slavery in Virginia
, with Pierce deploying federal artillery
and United States Marines
to ensure the enforcement of the law.
In his autobiography Cheerful Yesterdays, Thomas Wentworth Higginson
, one of the leaders of the rescue party commented "There had been other fugitive slave rescues in different parts of the country, but this was the first drop of blood actually shed. In all the long procession of events which led the nation through the Kansas struggle, past the John Brown
foray and up to the Emancipation Proclamation
, the killing of Batchelder was the first act of violence. It was like the firing on Fort Sumter
, a proof that war had begun."
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
Court House, where Anthony Burns
Anthony Burns
Anthony Burns was born a slave in Stafford County, Virginia. As a young man, he became a Baptist and a "slave preacher"...
, an escaped slave captured by slave-hunters, was imprisoned.
President Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...
was determined to turn over an escaped slave from Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
- a center of abolitionist
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
activity - in order to show Southern politicians that Northern states would enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, a key provision of the Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in September 1850, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War...
.
On the night of May 26, 1854, a crowd of black and white Bostonians, planning to rescue Burns, tried to force the doors of the Court House with axes, and a long plank used as a battering ram
Battering ram
A battering ram is a siege engine originating in ancient times and designed to break open the masonry walls of fortifications or splinter their wooden gates...
. There was a confused struggle as the crowd was turned back by the guards at the Court House. Gunfire broke out between the guards and the crowd. James Batchelder was mortally wounded by a blade of some kind. Accounts vary as to whether he was stabbed more than once.
In one account, Batchelder was killed by a blunderbuss
Blunderbuss
The blunderbuss is a muzzle-loading firearm with a short, large caliber barrel, which is flared at the muzzle and frequently throughout the entire bore, and used with shot and other projectiles of relevant quantity and/or caliber. The blunderbuss could be considered to be an early form of shotgun,...
. The marshals physically blocked the crowd from forcing their way into the Court House, until Boston police and a military patrol arrived to disperse the crowd and make arrests. Burns was ultimately forced back into slavery in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, with Pierce deploying federal artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
and United States Marines
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
to ensure the enforcement of the law.
In his autobiography Cheerful Yesterdays, Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson was an American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, and soldier. He was active in the American Abolitionism movement during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with disunion and militant abolitionism...
, one of the leaders of the rescue party commented "There had been other fugitive slave rescues in different parts of the country, but this was the first drop of blood actually shed. In all the long procession of events which led the nation through the Kansas struggle, past the John Brown
John Brown (abolitionist)
John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
foray and up to the Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
, the killing of Batchelder was the first act of violence. It was like the firing on Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.- Construction :...
, a proof that war had begun."