Joseph S. Donovan

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Joseph S. Donovan
Joseph S. Donovan shipped 93 people from Baltimore to J. M. Wilson in New Orleans on the John C. Calhoun in October 1850; the ship's owner charged Donovan $12 to send enslaved people over 12, $6 each for children under 12 years old, "infants no charge" (University of Maine Digital Commons)
Born(1800-04-20)April 20, 1800
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
DiedApril 15, 1860(1860-04-15) (aged 59)
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Other namesJ. S. Donovan
Occupation(s)Slave trader, slave jailor

Joseph S. Donovan (April 20, 1800 – April 15, 1861) was an American slave trader known for his slave jails in Baltimore, Maryland. Donovan was a major participant in the interregional slave trade, building shipments of enslaved people from the Upper South and delivering them to the Deep South where they would be used, for the most part, on cotton and sugar plantations. As one Baltimore historical researcher and tour guide summarized, "the change from raising tobacco to wheat in the region caused a surplus of labor, whereas the South needed more labor due to the invention of the cotton gin".[1] Donovan, in company with Austin Woolfolk, Bernard M. Campbell, and Hope H. Slatter, have been described as one of the "tycoons of the slave trade" in the Upper South, "responsible for the forced departures of approximately 9000 captives from Baltimore to New Orleans."[2]

Biography[edit]

Records of Donovan's early life are spare but based on census and death records he was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1800.[3][4] It is possible he started out as what was called a tavern trader, as he is known to have operated a tavern called Vauxhall Garden.[5]

Donovan was briefly involved in local politics; Eighth Ward Democratic nominations, 1840

As a landed, literate, adult white male, Donovan was permitted to participate in American democratic processes of that time and was briefly involved in local politics: In 1840, Donovan was a member to the First Branch City Council of Baltimore, elected from the eighth ward.[6][7] In 1844 he placed a "cash for Negroes" add in the newspaper and described his premises as the former jail of Austin Woolfolk.[8] He also placed a runaway slave ad seeking the return of 32-year-old Sarah Green, who had recently been purchased near Annapolis and whose mother, Hanna Green, lived on Strawberry Alley near Caroline Meeting House.[9] In summer 1845, a man named Airheart Winter was Donovan's "agent for the purchase of Negroes in Carroll County."[10] Another man named Lucius Winters also worked as a trading agent for Joseph S. Donovan in 1847.[11]

According to historian Jonathan Pritchett, between 1845 and 1847, Donovan made eight coastwise slave shipments to New Orleans, totaling 395 people.[12] In 1848, the Edmondson sisters were shipped to New Orleans; the manifest listed Donovan as the shipper although they were legally titled to Joseph Bruin and another trader called Hill.[13] In 1849, a farmer named William Henry Warfield sold two recaptured runaway slaves named Big Sam and Little Sam to Donovan for $850 with a caveat that Warfield could change his mind within five days; Warfield and the Sams worked out a limited-term indenture agreement, and Warfield took them back from Donovan.[14]

At the time of the 1850 census, Joseph S. Donovan reported that his occupation was trading, and that the real estate he owned was worth US$8,000 (equivalent to $292,992 in 2023)[3] In 1850, following the abolition of the slave trade in Washington, D.C., a man who lived in New Orleans requested that several enslaved people he owned who lived in D.C. be shipped down to him. The slave trader sent to collect these people for shipment was Joseph S. Donovan, and the people were the wife, daughters and grandchildren of a White House coachman named William Williams. Williams was understandably distraught, and U.S. President Millard Fillmore reportedly paid for Williams to visit Donovan's slave jail before they were shipped south. Upon arriving at Baltimore, Williams was informed he could buy back his family for $3,200. Funds were apparently raised from the likes of Fillmore, Daniel Webster, Winfield Scott, William Corcoran, Georgiana Patterson, Sophia Towson, and William Bliss. White House Historical Association scholar Pamela Scott found a receipt from Donovan for Williams, dated August 13, 1850, in the amount of $1,850, for Williams' wife Dolly, daughter Maria, daughter Susan Johnson, and Susan's three children, who were between three and six years old.[15]

"Notice to Slaveholders" The Baltimore Sun, November 30, 1844
"For sale" The Baltimore Sun, November 25, 1847

In 1851, the newly passed Fugitive Slave Act was used to recapture James Hamlet, a self-emancipated man who had been living free in New York City. Upon his forced return to Maryland, Hamlet was promptly sold to Donovan and deposited in his slave jail.[16]

According to Frederic Bancroft in Slave-Trading in the Old South, "Joseph S. Donovan, who appealed to slaveholders for 500 negroes, put special stress on the facts that his office and yard adjoined the Baltimore and Ohio station and were close to the steamboat landings; and, later, that he had built a secure jail where he would 'receive negroes for safe-keeping, at the southwest corner of Eutaw and Camden streets, opposite' the west side of that station. Extant manifests tell of his shipments of 144 slaves from Baltimore to New Orleans between April 3, 1851, and December 2, 1852. Publicity, convenience and safety were winning features."[17] In 1853, Donovan was part of a committee advocating for a rail line down Camden to connect with B&O Railroad line.[18] Down south, in 1857, his sometime trading partner J. M. Wilson was advertising "Maryland and Virginia negroes" available at his establishment near the corner of Chartres and Moreau in New Orleans.[19] Donovan moved to his final trading location, at Eutaw and Camden, in 1858. Thirty years later, a former slave trader named Jack Campbell recalled to a newspaper reporter that several enslaved men he had once stored in a slave jail at that location had escaped, probably with the help of abolitionists, which cost him, personally, a great deal of money.[20]

Partial manifest of the coastwise slaver brig Union, showing people shipped by Joseph S. Donovan in 1849

At the time of the 1860 census, Donovan's occupation was said to be slave trader and he owned US$130,000 (equivalent to $4,408,444 in 2023) in real estate and US$220,000 (equivalent to $7,460,444 in 2023) in personal property.[4] In March 1860, Donovan assisted in the return of a free man named John Brown who had been kidnapped into slavery by four men who entered his home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the middle of the night.[21] In April 1860, a U.S. Circuit Court was to hear Donovan's suit against a man named James G. Noel "to recover from the defendant the amount paid to him for a negro woman warranted to be in sound health".[22] The result seems to have been a hung jury.[23]

Donovan died in early 1861, just as the American Civil War was getting underway. The Baltimore Sun reported his death as follows: "Deceased. Joseph S. Donovan, Esq., a well-known slave-dealer, and extensively known throughout the South, died yesterday morning, after a short illness, at his residence, southwest corner of Eutaw and Camden sts."[24] The following day the same paper published another notice: "His male friends are respectfully invited to attend his funeral, on this (Tuesday) afternoon, at three o'clock, from his late residence."[25] Donovan was buried in Baltimore's Green Mount Cemetery in the Summit Vaults area, lot six.[26]

Slave jails[edit]

Donovan had four trading sites in Baltimore over the course of his career, most or all of which seemingly had associated prison facilities where people were stored until they could be shipped south. Donovan also offered "boarding" where enslaved people could be held with their legal owners traveled etc.[27][28][29][30]

Joseph S. Donovan business addresses and slave jails
Years Location Notes
~1840–~1842 Light & Montgomery[31]
1843–1847 Pratt & Cove[32]
Further information: Austin Woolfolk § Slave jail
1846–1858[a] 13 Camden, near Light[34][35] Donovan advertised the site's proximity to Camden Station
1858–1861 Eutaw & Camden[36] Near where the Babe's Dream statue stands today

Legacy[edit]

Like many of the major traders in key cities of the Chesapeake region, Donovan was widely noted in American abolitionist literature. His advertisements received comment in William I. Bowditch's Slavery and the Constitution (1849),[37] American Scenes and Christian Slavery (1849),[38] and Harriet Beecher Stowe's A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852).[39]

When Donovan's widow died in 1890, the value of her estate was estimated to be US$2,000,000 (equivalent to $67,822,222 in 2023).[40] The pallbearers at Caroline Donovan's funeral included Mayor of Baltimore F. C. Latrobe, chemistry professor and Johns Hopkins University president Ira Remsen, and Col. Albert Ritchie.[41] The Donovans had no children so the fortune was divided between nieces and nephews, along with a number of charitable bequests. Among the gifts was major donation to Johns Hopkins University, resulting in the Caroline Donovan endowed chair in the English department.[17][41]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ In 1854 J.M. Wilson advertised that they were trading at 11 Camden, which had previously been occupied by J.S. Donovan.[33]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Ricks, Molly (December 17, 2019). "Volunteer Spotlight: Richard Messick - Baltimore Heritage". Baltimore Heritage - Preserving and promoting Baltimore's historic buildings and neighborhoods. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  2. ^ Williams, Jennie K. (April 2, 2020). "Trouble the water: The Baltimore to New Orleans coastwise slave trade, 1820–1860". Slavery & Abolition. 41 (2): 275–303. doi:10.1080/0144039X.2019.1660509. ISSN 0144-039X.
  3. ^ a b "Entry for Joseph S Donovan and Caroline Donovan, 1850", United States Census, 1850 – via FamilySearch
  4. ^ a b "Entry for James Donovan and Caroline Donovan, 1860", United States Census, 1860 – via FamilySearch
  5. ^ Messick, Richard F. "Site of Donovan Light St Slave Jail - Site where the business of slavery once took place". Explore Baltimore Heritage. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  6. ^ Scharf, John Thomas (1881). History of Baltimore City and County, from the Earliest Period to the Present Day: Including Biographical Sketches of Their Representative Men. L.H. Everts. p. 189.
  7. ^ Baltimore (Md.) City Council First Branch; BALTIMORE MD--CITY COUNCIL (1841). Journal of Proceedings of the First Branch City Council of Baltimore at the Sessions of ... J. Cox.
  8. ^ "Cash for Negroes". The Baltimore Sun. April 11, 1844. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  9. ^ "In Light of History – Paul Rucker". www.inlightofhistory.com. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
  10. ^ Maryland Court of Appeals; Gill, Richard W.; Miller, Oliver (1852). Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of Appeals of Maryland. Geo. Johnston, Printer. p. 372.
  11. ^ "The Slave Abduction Case". New York Daily Herald. July 31, 1848. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  12. ^ Pritchett, Jonathan B. (Summer 1997). "The Interregional Slave Trade and the Selection of Slaves for the New Orleans Market". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 28 (1): 57–85. doi:10.2307/206166. JSTOR 206166.
  13. ^ Pacheco, Josephine F. (March 15, 2010). The Pearl: A Failed Slave Escape on the Potomac. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-8078-8892-6.
  14. ^ Grivno, Max (2011). Gleanings of Freedom: Free and Slave Labor along the Mason-Dixon Line, 1790-1860. University of Illinois Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-252-09356-2.
  15. ^ Klein, Gil (2018). Trouble in Lafayette Square: Assassination, Protest & Murder at the White House. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-6429-2.
  16. ^ Masur, Jenny (January 9, 2023). Maryland Freedom Seekers on the Underground Railroad. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-7677-6.
  17. ^ a b Bancroft, Frederic (2023) [1931, 1996]. Slave Trading in the Old South (Original publisher: J. H. Fürst Co., Baltimore). Southern Classics Series. Introduction by Michael Tadman (Reprint ed.). Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press. pp. 121–122. ISBN 978-1-64336-427-8. LCCN 95020493. OCLC 1153619151.
  18. ^ "Ordinances and resolutions of the mayor and City Council of Baltimore. 1853". HathiTrust. hdl:2027/coo.31924070558733. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  19. ^ Digital Collections, The New York Public Library. "(still image) Advertisement from J.M. Wilson for sale of Maryland and Virginia Negroes, (1857 - 1997)". The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
  20. ^ "The Last of His Kind: Talk with an Old Slave-Seller Who Lags Superfluous on the Stage". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. May 24, 1884. p. 12. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
  21. ^ May, Samuel (1861). The Fugitive Slave Law and Its Victims. American Anti-slavery Society. pp. 131–133.
  22. ^ "U.S. Circuit Court". The Baltimore Sun. April 18, 1860. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  23. ^ "U.S. Circuit Court". The Daily Exchange. April 21, 1860. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  24. ^ "The Baltimore Sun 16 Apr 1861, page 1". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  25. ^ "Died". The Baltimore Sun. April 16, 1861. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  26. ^ Email from Green Mount Cemetery staff, 2023-10-30: Re: New Form Entry #149 for Genealogy Request "Hello- We do have Joseph and Caroline here, Joseph was interred on 15 Apr 1861, and Caroline on 7 Mar 1890. They are located in the Summit Vaults Area, Lot 6. Thanks for your inquiry-"
  27. ^ Worth, Perk (September 10, 1878). "Slave Prisons". Bedford County Press and Everett Press. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-08-14.
  28. ^ "cash for negroes". The Baltimore Sun. January 17, 1860. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-08-14.
  29. ^ Messick, Richard F. "Site of Donovan Eutaw St. Slave Jail - Site where the business of slavery once took place". Explore Baltimore Heritage. Retrieved 2023-08-14.
  30. ^ "Seeing the Unseen: Baltimore's slave trade". Baltimore Sun. Photographs by Amy Davis. May 4, 2022. Retrieved 2023-10-08.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  31. ^ Messick, Richard F. "Site of Donovan Light St Slave Jail - Site where the business of slavery once took place". Explore Baltimore Heritage. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
  32. ^ Messick, Richard F. "Site of Woolfolk/Donovan Slave Pen - Site where the business of slavery once took place". Explore Baltimore Heritage. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
  33. ^ Humanities, National Endowment for the (December 5, 1854). "Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, December 05, 1854, Image 4" – via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
  34. ^ Bowditch, William Ingersoll (1849). Slavery and the Constitution. R. F. Wallcut.
  35. ^ Messick, Richard F. "Site of Donovan Camden & Light St. Slave Jail - Site where the business of slavery once took place". Explore Baltimore Heritage. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
  36. ^ Messick, Richard F. "Site of Donovan Eutaw St. Slave Jail - Site where the business of slavery once took place". Explore Baltimore Heritage. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
  37. ^ Bowditch, William Ingersoll (1849). Slavery and the Constitution. R. F. Wallcut.
  38. ^ Davies, Ebenezer (2007). American Scenes and Christian Slavery: A Recent Tour of Four Thousand Miles in the United States. Applewood Books. ISBN 978-1-4290-0266-0.
  39. ^ Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1853). A key to Uncle Tom's cabin: presenting the original facts and documents upon which the story is founded. Boston: J. P. Jewett & Co. LCCN 02004230. OCLC 317690900. OL 21879838M.
  40. ^ "Under the provisions..." The Valley Virginian. March 13, 1890. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  41. ^ a b "Mrs. Caroline Donovan". Staunton Vindicator. March 14, 1890. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-10-27.

External links[edit]

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