Charles Turner Torrey
Charles Turner Torrey (November 21, 1813 – May 9, 1846) was a leading American
Education and early career
Torrey was born November 21, 1813, in Scituate, Massachusetts. By the time he was 4 years old, his mother, father, and baby sister had all died from tuberculosis, so he went to live with his maternal grandparents in a part of Scituate that later became Norwell. His maternal grandfather, once a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, remained active in local affairs, and introduced his grandson to political issues.[2]
Torrey attended
Early work as an abolitionist
In 1834, Torrey enrolled at the
After graduation, Torrey served Congregational pastorates in Providence, Rhode Island, and Salem, Massachusetts. However, he relinquished his professional duties to devote himself to anti-slavery activism in Maryland, having come to believe in a much more activist approach than his mentor. Torrey and Garrison disagreed on other issues as well. For example, Garrison and his female abolitionist followers wished to incorporate women's rights into the anti-slavery movement, whereas Torrey and the majority of other abolitionists thought such mixture of issues unwise.[2]
In January 1839, Torrey and colleagues
The New Organization immediately adopted a more activist, and overtly political, approach to the abolition of slavery. In July 1839, almost 500 delegates met in Albany to discuss the formation of a political party devoted exclusively to abolitionism. Finally, on April 1, 1840, at another meeting in Albany, the Liberty Party was formed. Torrey was one of the vice-presidents of the organizing meeting. Following the meeting, he became the Liberty Party organizer for Massachusetts.[2]
Torrey was one of the original founders of the Boston Vigilance Committee in 1841, and served briefly as its secretary.[4]
Freeing slaves
By the end of 1841, Torrey had tired of the slow pace of political abolitionism and went to Washington, D.C., as a reporter for several abolitionist newspapers. It seems likely that he had already formulated a plan to free slaves. He immediately began attending black churches and befriending abolitionist members of Congress, especially
Following his release from jail, Torrey continued using his cover as a reporter but immediately organized an elaborate Underground Railroad route from Washington to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Albany. He worked closely with Thomas Smallwood, a free black.[5] Together, they solicited slaves in Washington to run away, then transported them north to freedom in Pennsylvania. There, they were conducted through a series of safe houses, mostly owned by Quakers, to Philadelphia, Albany, and ultimately, for many, Canada. Torrey and his colleagues rented horses and wagons and often transported as many as 15 or 20 slaves at a time. Torrey and Smallwood specifically targeted slaves owned by Southern members of Congress and important political figures so as to cause as much public disruption as possible. Professor Stanley Harrold offered the first academic account of Torrey's slave-freeing exploits.[6][7]
By October 1842, Torrey had been targeted by the police in Washington for his activities, so he moved to Albany. Smallwood continued to recruit slaves to run away until the spring of 1843, by which time they had freed approximately 400 slaves. Smallwood then also moved north because of the danger of arrest.
Much of the funding for Torrey and Smallwood's work apparently came from Gerrit Smith, a wealthy abolitionist from upstate New York. In November 1843, Torrey and Smallwood returned to Washington, despite both being wanted by the police, and narrowly escaped arrest. Smallwood thereafter settled in Toronto, but Torrey went to Baltimore, where he continued the freeing of slaves. Finally, in June 1844, Torrey was arrested and put in jail. He was said to have been armed with two pistols at the time of his arrest.[2]
Prison and death
Torrey was charged with three counts of stealing slaves. He initially regarded his arrest as an opportunity to challenge the constitutional legitimacy of slaveholding in general; if it was not legitimate, then freeing slaves would not be a crime. By September 1844, it was clear that this strategy was not going to work, so he attempted to break out of jail and almost succeeded. He wrote to his wife that the jailbreak was foiled by the betrayal of a fellow prisoner, by the name of Dryer, who was, as it happened, a "negro trader" in prison on charges of counterfeiting money.[8]
In December, Torrey was tried, convicted, and sentenced to six years in the state penitentiary. Prison conditions caused the return of Torrey's tuberculosis. Throughout New England, including
His corpse was taken to Boston, and many people attended his funeral at Tremont Temple.[2] He was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where a monument with a figure of a female slave was erected over his grave.[10] The Anti-Slavery Society and abolitionist Photius Fisk funded the monument.[11] "Torrey's blood crieth out" became an abolitionist battle cry, and the story of his sufferings and death excited eager interest both in the United States and in Europe, giving new impetus to the anti-slavery cause.
He was replaced as head of the Washington Underground Railroad by William L. Chaplin.[12]
Assessment
Following the end of the Civil War, Charles Torrey was essentially lost to history. The main reason for this was that the history of the abolitionist movement was mostly written by Garrison and his supporters, most of whom were still alive. By contrast, most of Torrey's supporters had died. Despite his relatively brief abolitionist career, Torrey made major contributions to the freeing of slaves.[2]
- He co-led the 1839 challenge to William Lloyd Garrison's leadership, resulting in the permanent schism between Garrison's "old" and Torrey's "new" abolitionists. The new group was much more aggressive in their tactics. Garrison and Torrey were hated rivals.
- He cofounded the 1840 Liberty Party, whose sole platform was the abolition of slavery.
- He established in 1842 the first highly organized Underground Railroad route, running from Washington, DC, to Albany, NY. He was referred to by some at that time as the "father" of the Underground Railroad.
- He personally freed about 400 slaves, more than most other abolitionists. Torrey took the slaves from the Washington and Baltimore region and specifically recruited slaves owned by Southern members of Congress and other high government officials.
- He was one of the first white abolitionists to work closely with black counterparts, staying at their homes and sharing the dangers of their task.
- He strongly influenced the aggressive abolitionists who followed him. John Brown, for example, cited Torrey as one of the three abolitionists he looked to as models for his own efforts.[1][failed verification]
Publications
- Home, or the Pilgrim's Faith Revived, a volume of sketches of life in Massachusetts, which Torrey prepared in prison (1846)
Notes
- ^ ISBN 039446124X.
- ^ a b c d e f g Torrey, E. Fuller (2013). The Martyrdom of Abolitionist Charles Torrey. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
- ^ Chapman, Maria Weston (1839). Right and Wrong in Massachusetts. Boston: Dow and Jackson.
- ISBN 9781574780192. Archivedfrom the original on 2014-01-11. Retrieved 2017-11-07.
- ISBN 1429707143.
- JSTOR 3124704.
- ISBN 0807128384.
- ^ "TORREY, the abolitionist in Baltimore jail..." Alexandria Gazette. 1844-09-27. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-09-18.
- ^ "SECRETARY OF STATE (Pardon Record) MSA S1108, Rev. Charles T. Torrey, May 9, 1846, p 6, MSA S 1108-2, MdHR 7931". Maryland State Archive. Archived from the original on 3 August 2022. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
- ^ Nelson T. Strobert, Daniel Alexander Payne: The Venerable Preceptor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (University Press of America, 2012) pp. 55-56
- ^ Hodge, Lyman F. (1891). Photius Fisk A Biography. Boston, Mass: Lyman F. Hodge. p. 136. Archived from the original on 2022-08-03. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
- ^ Skelcher, Bradley (April 2004). "Skelcher on Harrold, 'Subversives: Antislavery Community in Washington, D.C., 1828-1865' | H-DC". networks.h-net.org. Archived from the original on 2022-08-03. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
- ^ Lovejoy, Joseph Cammet (1847). "Memoir of Rev. Charles T. Torrey: Who Died in the Penitentiary of Maryland, where He was Confined for Showing Mercy to the Poor. By J. C. Lovejoy". Archived from the original on 2022-08-03. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1889). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. This work in turn cites:
- Memoir of the Martyr Torrey (1847)
External links
- Media related to Charles Turner Torrey at Wikimedia Commons
- Lovejoy, Joseph C. (1847). Memoir of Rev. Charles T. Torrey : who died in the penitentiary of Maryland, where he was confined for showing mercy to the poor. Boston: John P. Jewett.
- Torrey, Charles T. (1845). Home!, or, The pilgrim's faith revived / written during his incarceration in Baltimore Jail, after his conviction and while awaiting--his sentence [four lines of poetry] ; published for the benefit of his family. Salem, Massachusetts and Cincinnati: John P. Jewett and George L. Weed.