Merchant's House Museum

The Underground Railroad

Abolition and the Underground Railroad

in Pro-Slavery New York City, 1820s-30s

…	Looking up into the passageway. Photo by Max Touhey

In 1827, after 30 years of gradual steps to emancipation, New York State officially abolished slavery. Still, New York City’s economy remained deeply entwined with the slave South. Merchants, insurers, financiers, manufacturers, and shipping firms all profited from buying, selling, and transporting enslaved people. Manufacturers were able to offer low prices since many raw materials were produced using forced labor, to the benefit of newly middle class consumers. The City was firmly – and conveniently – pro-slavery. It was in this dangerous climate that Joseph Brewster, among others, fought fervently for abolition.

It was so dangerous to help freedom seekers that even those who voiced anti-slavery views put their lives at risk. 

Assisting freedom seekers was a federal crime under the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act. Free Black New Yorkers were at constant risk of kidnapping and sale into Southern slavery. Both Black and white abolitionists faced intimidation and mob violence; few dared to openly voice their anti-slavery beliefs. Pro-slavery sentiment exploded in the summer of 1834 when rioters attacked African-Americans and white anti-slavery activists, as well as homes, churches, and buildings that were associated with anti-slavery work. Thousands of rioters flooded the streets of this very neighborhood, targeting prominent abolitionists.

The Underground Railroad 

By the 19th century, enslaved people had been escaping to the North in search of freedom for generations. Their journeys were perilous, often hundreds of miles, and while they may have known their routes, unexpected changes were not uncommon. Church-based networks, mutual-aid societies, and informal safe houses evolved, forming what came to be known as the “Underground Railroad,” born of the nation’s railroad-era that launched in the 1830s. By mid-century, railroad terminology, including terms like “stations” and “conductors,” became a useful code for freedom seekers and those who aided them. 

First person narrative accounts of freedom seekers were commonly published in the African American and anti-slavery press, and exposed the horrors of slavery to the public. They are an important source of information about this time period. In the 19th century, these stories made a case for both the humanity of African American people, and for the abolition of slavery. 

Meet Abolitionist Joseph Brewster, Builder of the Merchant’s House

…	Portrait of Joseph Brewster, 1840-1851

In 1832, Joseph Brewster (1787–1851) built this Late Federal–Greek Revival row house as a home for himself and his wife, Susan (1784-1859). A prosperous hatter with two shops on Broadway, Brewster moved to the fashionable Bond Street neighborhood along with many of his contemporaries

In the 1820s, Brewster experienced a profound religious conversion and became a passionate advocate for social reforms like temperance and abolition. During the Second Great Awakening, an Evangelical Christian movement that swept the country, many were inspired to take action to create a more perfect world. Reform movements addressed moral issues such as slavery, alcohol consumption, and women’s rights. 

Brewster sought and found his fortune in New York City, selling beaver hats.

 

 

…	Advertisement for Brewster hats, Republican Banner, Nashville, TN, March 29, 1828

 

Joseph Brewster was born in Preston, CT, in 1787. He apprenticed as a hatter and set up shop in Lower Manhattan with his brother Lemuel, in 1813. The J&L Brewster Company specialized in men’s beaver hats, fashionable at the time and a symbol of wealth and respectability. By 1818, they had two shops on lower Broadway and Brewster hats were advertised and sold across the country.

Brewster joined and quickly rose to leadership positions in professional societies, including the Society of Hatters and the Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen.

Swept up in the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening, Brewster became a devout evangelical and avid social reformer.

In the 1820s, Brewster underwent a profound religious conversion and joined a network of reform-minded Protestant Evangelicals who believed individuals—and the nation—could be morally transformed. Brewster dedicated his time, and fortune, campaigning for temperance and the abolition of slavery. By the 1830s, abolition became the most pressing moral issue for evangelicals like Brewster.

Brewster was known to put temperance leaflets, or “tracts,” like these in the hats he sold. As a leader of the American Tract Society, Brewster received a large number of tracts of his choosing every year. Where better to put them!

By the 1830s abolition became the most pressing social reform movement, as slavery was considered both a moral outrage and an obstacle to spreading the gospel. Anti-slavery work, however, was still seen as radical. 

This political cartoon depicts a pro-slavery mob burning abolition tracts in an 1835 raid on the post office in Charleston, South Carolina.

Anti-Slavery Groups 

Many of the most influential anti-slavery groups were founded in the 1830s; a number of mutual aid and anti-slavery groups were actively working to assist freedom seekers and advocate for the immediate abolition of slavery. This work was concentrated in African American communities, while white supporters, including Evangelical social reformers like Joseph Brewster, contributed mainly through moral advocacy, fundraising, and legal defense.

…	An Address to the New York Society for Mutual Relief, 25th March, 1811 on the First Anniversary of its Incorporation, Printed by J.Low

The New York African Society for Mutual Relief aimed to encourage “mutual aid, mutual relief, and mutual benefit” such as assisting with education, health care, burial costs, and helping find homes for orphans. NYASMR was successful and influential; serving as the blueprint for similar organizations in other cities. 

…	Portrait of David Ruggles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1835, David Ruggles, a Black anti-slavery activist from the same hamlet in Connecticut as Joseph Brewster, established the New York Committee of Vigilance, an integrated organization that took direct action to protect the rights of free Black New Yorkers and assist self-emancipators on their escape to freedom. Ruggles was one of the only people to publicly speak out about this highly dangerous work, claiming to have assisted hundreds of freedom seekers through a coordinated network of safe-houses.  

Joseph Brewster and Anti-Slavery Churches

Brewster played a prominent role in founding and leading three anti-slavery churches, between 1826 and his death in 1851. 

As a church elder, Brewster was integral in the creation, doctrine, and goals of the church, including selecting ministers sympathetic to the cause. At Brainerd Church, on Rivington Street, Brewster designed and built both the church and the houses on either side. He served as President of the Board of Trustees and authorized the construction of a false floor in the upper level of the church. Brainerd Church was integrated, with records that did not differentiate congregants by skin color, unlike others of the period. Brewster sold the Merchant’s House in order to move closer to this church. 

The Rev. Asa Dodge Smith, selected by Brewster and the other elders to lead Brainerd Church, was well known for his abolitionist beliefs. Rev. Smith delivered Brewster’s funeral sermon, titled “The Guileless Israelite.” In his  eulogy, he described Brewster as especially known as a generous, caring person to whom one could go for help, financial or practical – in spite of his own personal circumstances.

“It was affecting, at the funeral, to see with what emotion some of the poorer members of the church took their last look at that countenance, by the kindly radiance of which they had so often been cheered and comforted.”

 

Joseph Brewster signed two anti-slavery petitions – in 1831 and 1836 – making him one of very few activists willing to make public his name and connection to the abolitionist movement. 

Signing a petition was a courageous act at the time, marking the signer as an outlier in pro-slavery New York. Slavery was such a controversial topic in the 1830s that it was banned from discourse in the United States Congress in 1836. Spurred on by the advocacy of former president John Quincy Adams, who championed the Constitutional right to petition, i.e, debate issues, activists like Brewster signed petitions to be carried onto the House floor, forcing the discussion of emancipation.  

Even small acts can carry great significance: Frederick Douglass, remembering an 1831 petition like this one wrote in his memoirs: 

“I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed. While in this state of mind, I was eager to hear any one speak of slavery. I was a ready listener…. After a patient waiting, I got one of our city papers, containing an account of the number of petitions from the north, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and of the slave trade between the States. From this time I understood the words abolition and abolitionist, and always drew near when that word was spoken, expecting to bear something of importance to myself and fellow-slaves. The light broke in upon me by degrees.”