Fewer than half of Cincinnati,ย Ohioโs Black population remained in the city after theย 1829 white riots. Most had left. Many of the 1,100 who stayed were unusually poor, unable to finance emigration to safer places such as surrounding towns, farther west, or toย Canada.
The small black community regrouped, rebuilt the razed section of town, and restored community organization. Nonetheless the exodus had decimated community institutions such as church leadership and members, political leaders, teachers and business people.
The white violence in 1829 had spawned one unexpected effect, however. At Lane Theological Seminary, a newย Presbyterianย institution nearby, a group of white students and some faculty, shocked by the brutality, held a week-long debate on slavery andย abolition. It ended in a two-fold consensus:ย one, immediate abolition was an absolute necessity for all Christians; andย two, so-called repatriation efforts to Africa were fundamentally misguided. Their published opinions spread throughout the abolitionist movement. The seminary was led by Lyman Beecher, whose daughter Harriett would later shake the world with her literary indictment of slavery,ย Uncle Tomโs Cabin.
In response to growing abolitionist sentiment, in January of 1836 some of Cincinnatiโs prominent white residents organized an anti-abolitionist meeting, reportedly attended by over 500 men. They called for an end to abolitionist agitation and strict enforcement of the Black Laws. Additionally, white day workers along the riverfront were again complaining about competition for common labor jobs with black workers.
In April of 1836, James Gillespie Birney, a former slaveholder fromย Alabama, arrived in Cincinnati to open theย Cincinnati Weekly and Abolitionist.ย The anti-slavery newspaper reached readers on both sides of the Ohio River, threatening bothย Kentucky slaveholders and the Cincinnati merchants who depended on trade with them.
Within two weeks, a white mob invaded the largely black First and Fourth wards. Led again by mainly Irish immigrants, the mobย burnedย down a Black tenement, killing an unknown number of African Americans. The mob attacked residences and businesses and beat people on the streets. The crowds also targeted known white abolitionists. The mobs ruled the streets until Ohio Governor Robert Lucas intervened and declared martial law.
White rioting again broke out on July 5, set off by a white-Black altercation at the traditional Fourth of July celebration. Whites gathered and attacked the demonstrators. Sporadic violence continued for one week.ย On July 12, 40 white men broke into the building where Birneyโs printing press was located and destroyed it. Anti-abolitionists posted โwanted postersโ all over the city offering $100 for Birneyโs capture and delivery to pro-slavery hooligans, who called themselves โOld Kentucky.โ
Backed by a $2,000 guarantee from the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Birney published again. Pro-slavery whites responded, led by Cincinnati mayor Samuel A. Davis.ย At an angry meeting he chaired on July 23, the city promised to shut down all abolitionist publications. One week later, on July 30, another white mob attacked Birneyโs new press and destroyed it. They also attacked an area of the city known as The Swamp, populated mainly by poor African Americans, burning homes and assaulting residents. The mayor reportedly praised the actions of the mob, many of whom were Kentuckians who crossed the Ohio River into Cincinnati.
The riot was finally suppressed by organized local volunteers who for three nights patrolled the streets. No arrests were made despite numerous deaths. National reaction was strong. Abolitionists were outraged by the brutality of the riots; the movement in fact gained national traction as accounts of the violence spread. Harriett Beecherโs horror and revulsion as an eyewitness made its way into her future novel. Salmon Chase, later Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was profoundly affected by the violence and it shaped his growing abolitionism.
