[44] Comptroller’s Report for 1855-6, p. 435.
[45] Memorial from the Colonization Society of Tennessee, 1832 (State Archives).
[46] Comptroller’s Report for 1855-6, p. 439.
CHAPTER IV
Anti-slavery Societies
The attitude of the people of Tennessee toward the negro expressed itself not only in legislation and judicial decision, but also in organized societies, such as manumission and colonization societies, in the churches and in an abolition literature that is unique in American history. It is the purpose of this chapter to give the organization and work of the manumission and colonization societies.
The abolition forces made a determined effort to abolish slavery in the constitutional convention of 1796, and, failing in this, they straightway decided to establish anti-slavery societies. There is some doubt as to when the first manumission society was organized in Tennessee. It is clear that an effort was made to organize such a society in 1797. The Knoxville Gazette of January 23, 1797, published a letter from Thomas Embree in which it is stated that a number of the citizens of Washington and Greene counties were to meet in March, 1797 and organize abolition societies patterned after those of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, and Winchester.[1] The purpose of the society was to work for a more liberal basis of emancipation and for complete abolition as soon as the slaves by education could be prepared for it. Joshua W. Caldwell, author of The Constitutional History of Tennessee, claims that either a Tennessee Manumission Society was organized in 1809, or that the one mentioned above was still in existence.[2] It is not corroborated by historical evidence that there was organized a manumission society in Tennessee in either 1797 or 1809.
There was a preliminary organization of an anti-slavery society in December, 1814, at the home of Elihu Swain, the father-in-law of Charles Osborn, who was the moving spirit of the organization. Rachel Swain, later Rachel Davis, a daughter of Elihu Swain, said she was present at the organizing of the society.[3] The temporary organization was made permanent at the first session of the society, held at Lost Creek meeting house, Jefferson County, Tennessee, February 25, 1815.[4]
At this first meeting, the society was given the name of the Tennessee Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, and a constitution was adopted. The constitution consisted of a preamble and four articles.[5] The motto of the society was, “That freedom is the natural right of all men,” and each member displayed a placard to this effect in some conspicuous place in his home. The society went at once into politics by pledging its members to vote for only those candidates for office in the state government who favored emancipation.
There were several anti-slavery societies organized in Tennessee during this same year. They soon discovered the unity of their purpose and decided in 1815 to federate. For this purpose, these societies held a general convention at Lost Creek Meeting House of Friends[6] in Greene County, November 21, 1815, and organized the Tennessee Manumission Society on a federated basis. There were twenty-two branches of this society.[7] By 1827, there were twenty-five anti-slavery societies in Tennessee, and 130 in the United States. Of this number, one hundred and six were in the Southern States, Tennessee ranking second in the list.[8] The Tennessee society numbered one thousand members.[9] Its officers were a president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer. At the suggestion of Mr. Elihu Embree, a committee of inspection was provided to censor the publications of the society.[10] The dues of this society were 12½ cents per year.[11]