Jonathan Daniel Wells
Goodreads Author
Member Since
June 2020
More books by Jonathan Daniel Wells…
“In fact, the Southern District of New York became—in the eyes of activists like Ruggles—synonymous with the interests of southern slaveholders.”
― The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War
― The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War
“Justice Josiah Hoffman wrote the opinion for the supreme court, an opinion that proved every bit as favorable to the South as Riker, Wells, and others had hoped. The court declared that the requirement of a jury trial violated the US Constitution because “the legal rights of the Southern Slaveholder are so clearly defined, as at once to mark him, who in any way impede their exercise, as a violator of the public space.”
― The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War
― The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War
“Wright rose to the challenge and defended himself and Ruggles against Morse’s attacks. In what would later be termed the “higher law” argument that justice and morality superseded the Constitution’s compromise over the return of runaways, Wright maintained that he would continue to call out Boudinot and other members of the New York Kidnapping Club. With God and Christian faith on his side, Wright declared, he would continue to speak out against the kidnapping of free Blacks as well as the return of runaways. “It was enough for me,” Wright responded to Morse, “to know that in the City of New York men, women and children had been arrested and thrown into miserable dungeons, for no offense—but merely because they were claimed as PROPERTY.” Wright reminded Morse and other conservatives that neither the Constitution nor Wall Street’s business ties with southern cotton would trump the immorality of slavery and kidnapping.”
― The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War
― The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War










