{"id":2841,"date":"2022-11-12T14:31:55","date_gmt":"2022-11-12T18:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/?p=2841"},"modified":"2022-11-14T17:31:29","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T21:31:29","slug":"1844-charles-torrey-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/1844-charles-torrey-case\/","title":{"rendered":"(1844) Charles Torrey Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>An abolitionist reporter&#8217;s arrest and trial reveals the severity of Southern states&#8217; slave-stealing statutes<\/h4>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Date(s): arrested June 1844, convicted December 3, 1844<\/p>\n<p>Location(s): Washington, DC; Baltimore, Maryland<\/p>\n<p>Outcome: Conviction<\/p>\n<p>Summary:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2659\" style=\"width: 280px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Charles-Torrey.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2659\" class=\"wp-image-2659 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Charles-Torrey-270x300.png\" alt=\"Torrey headshot suit facial hair head slightly tilted\" width=\"270\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Charles-Torrey-270x300.png 270w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Charles-Torrey.png 539w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2659\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charles Torrey (<a href=\"https:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/47998\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\">House Divided Project<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Massachusetts-born Charles Torrey first came to Washington, DC in 1842 as an antislavery reporter. Torrey\u2019s journalism made plenty of enemies, but it was his covert work assisting freedom seekers that most disturbed slaveholders. Together with formerly enslaved man Thomas Smallwood and his wife Elizabeth Smallwood, Torrey coordinated escapes from the nation\u2019s capital. After several close calls with authorities, Torrey relocated with his wife and children to Albany, New York, while Smallwood fled to Canada.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>But Torrey continued to return to the capital area, and Maryland authorities arrested him in Baltimore in June 1844. A jury convicted Torrey after deliberating only twenty minutes, sentencing the abolitionist to six years in the Maryland state penitentiary. Torrey\u2019s died behind bars of tuberculosis on May 9, 1846, the same day Maryland governor Thomas Pratt pardoned him due to his failing health.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Related Sources<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.masshist.org\/database\/viewer.php?item_id=3237&amp;pid=3\">Charles T. Torrey to Milton M. Fisher, November 16, 1844<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/books\/edition\/Memoir_of_Rev_Charles_T_Torrey_who_Died\/ewsFAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;pg=PP11&amp;printsec=frontcover\">J.C. Lovejoy, <i>Memoir of Rev. Charles T. Torrey Who Died in the Penitentiary of Maryland, Where He Was Confined for Showing Mercy to the Poor\u00a0<\/i>(Boston: Jewett, 1847)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An abolitionist reporter&#8217;s arrest and trial reveals the severity of Southern states&#8217; slave-stealing statutes Date(s): arrested June 1844, convicted December 3, 1844 Location(s): Washington, DC; Baltimore, Maryland Outcome: Conviction Summary: Massachusetts-born Charles Torrey first came to Washington, DC in 1842 as an antislavery reporter. Torrey\u2019s journalism made plenty of enemies, but it was his covert [&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":[23497,23481],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harrold","category-sinha"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841","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=2841"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2842,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841\/revisions\/2842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}