{"id":2790,"date":"2022-11-09T16:01:31","date_gmt":"2022-11-09T20:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/?p=2790"},"modified":"2022-11-15T14:40:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T18:40:43","slug":"1839-new-york-virginia-extradition-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/1839-new-york-virginia-extradition-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"(1839) New York-Virginia Extradition Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>New York governor William Seward refuses to extradite three Black sailors to Virginia on slave stealing charges, signaling Northern states&#8217; growing resolve to protect their free Black residents<\/h4>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Date(s): escaped 1839<\/p>\n<p>Location(s): Norfolk, Virginia; New York<\/p>\n<p>Outcome: Freedom, Refusal to Extradite<\/p>\n<p>Summary:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2984\" style=\"width: 256px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/William-Seward.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2984\" class=\"wp-image-2984 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/William-Seward-246x300.jpeg\" alt=\"profile engraving man with collar\" width=\"246\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/William-Seward-246x300.jpeg 246w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/William-Seward.jpeg 485w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 246px) 100vw, 246px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2984\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New York governor William Seward refused to extradite three Black sailors to face slave stealing charges in Virginia (<a href=\"https:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/15139\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\">House Divided Project<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">During the summer of 1839, an enslaved carpenter named Isaac escaped from Norfolk, Virginia aboard the Robert Center, a New York ship. Isaac had apparently relied on the assistance of three Black sailors from New York, Isaac Gansey, Peter Johnson, and Edward Smith. But Isaac\u2019s slaveholder caught on and alerted authorities about the escape. Virginia\u2019s lieutenant governor, Henry L. Hopkins, demanded the extradition of Gansey, Johnson, and Smith to face slave stealing charges in Virginia, but New York governor William Seward refused. Seward argued that because New York state laws did not recognize slavery, there was no comparable charge to slave stealing to provide grounds for extradition. The case prompted a lengthy standoff, with Virginia\u2019s legislature targeting New York vessels with special inspection fees, and also helped launch Seward\u2019s career as a darling of the political antislavery movement. In the end, Gansey, Johnson, and Smith never faced extradition, a sign of Northern states\u2019 growing resolve to protect free Black residents on their own soil.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Related Sources<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/quod.lib.umich.edu\/m\/moa\/abj4572.0001.001\/86?view=image&amp;size=100\">George E. Baker (ed.),\u00a0<em>The Life of William H. Seward <\/em>(New York: Redfield, 1855),\u00a084-87<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Related Essays<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/thematic-essays\/state-laws-and-freedom-seeking-baker\/\">H. Robert Baker, State Laws and Freedom Seeking<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/thematic-essays\/the-abolitionist-underground-sinha\/\">Manisha Sinha, The Abolitionist Underground<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York governor William Seward refuses to extradite three Black sailors to Virginia on slave stealing charges, signaling Northern states&#8217; growing resolve to protect their free Black residents Date(s): escaped 1839 Location(s): Norfolk, Virginia; New York Outcome: Freedom, Refusal to Extradite Summary: During the summer of 1839, an enslaved carpenter named Isaac escaped from Norfolk, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23505,23481],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baker","category-sinha"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2790"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2791,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions\/2791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}