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Snow-Storm in August: Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the Forgotten Race Riot of 1835
A gripping narrative history of the explosive events that drew together Francis Scott Key, Andrew Jackson, and an 18-year-old slave on trial for attempted murder.
In 1835, the city of Washington pulsed with change. As newly freed African Americans from the South poured in, free blacks outnumbered slaves for the first time. Radical notions of abolishing slavery circulated on the city's streets, and white residents were forced to confront new ideas of what the nation's future might look like.
On the night of August 4th, Arthur Bowen, an eighteen-year-old slave, stumbled into the bedroom where his owner, Anna Thornton, slept. He had an ax in the crook of his arm. An alarm was raised, and he ran away. Word of the incident spread rapidly, and within days, Washington's first race riot exploded, as whites fearing a slave rebellion attacked the property of the free blacks. Residents dubbed the event the “Snow-Storm," in reference to the central role of Beverly Snow, a flamboyant former slave turned successful restaurateur, who became the target of the mob's rage.
In the wake of the riot came two sensational criminal trials that gripped the city. Prosecuting both cases was none other than Francis Scott Key, a politically ambitious attorney famous for writing the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” who few now remember served as the city's district attorney for eight years. Key defended slavery until the twilight's last gleaming, and pandered to racial fears by seeking capital punishment for Arthur Bowen. But in a surprise twist his prosecution was thwarted by Arthur's ostensible victim, Anna Thornton, a respected socialite who sought the help of President Andrew Jackson.
Ranging beyond the familiar confines of the White House and the Capitol, Snow-Storm in August delivers readers into an unknown chapter of American history with a textured and absorbing account of the racial secrets and contradictions that coursed beneath the freewheeling capital of a rising world power.
" Snow-Storm in August is the sort of book I most love to history so fresh it feels alive, yet introducing me to a time and place that I had little known or utterly misunderstood. After reading Jefferson Morley's vibrant account, one can never hear 'The Star-Spangled Banner' the same way again."
—David Maraniss, author of Barack The Story
In 1835, the city of Washington pulsed with change. As newly freed African Americans from the South poured in, free blacks outnumbered slaves for the first time. Radical notions of abolishing slavery circulated on the city's streets, and white residents were forced to confront new ideas of what the nation's future might look like.
On the night of August 4th, Arthur Bowen, an eighteen-year-old slave, stumbled into the bedroom where his owner, Anna Thornton, slept. He had an ax in the crook of his arm. An alarm was raised, and he ran away. Word of the incident spread rapidly, and within days, Washington's first race riot exploded, as whites fearing a slave rebellion attacked the property of the free blacks. Residents dubbed the event the “Snow-Storm," in reference to the central role of Beverly Snow, a flamboyant former slave turned successful restaurateur, who became the target of the mob's rage.
In the wake of the riot came two sensational criminal trials that gripped the city. Prosecuting both cases was none other than Francis Scott Key, a politically ambitious attorney famous for writing the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” who few now remember served as the city's district attorney for eight years. Key defended slavery until the twilight's last gleaming, and pandered to racial fears by seeking capital punishment for Arthur Bowen. But in a surprise twist his prosecution was thwarted by Arthur's ostensible victim, Anna Thornton, a respected socialite who sought the help of President Andrew Jackson.
Ranging beyond the familiar confines of the White House and the Capitol, Snow-Storm in August delivers readers into an unknown chapter of American history with a textured and absorbing account of the racial secrets and contradictions that coursed beneath the freewheeling capital of a rising world power.
" Snow-Storm in August is the sort of book I most love to history so fresh it feels alive, yet introducing me to a time and place that I had little known or utterly misunderstood. After reading Jefferson Morley's vibrant account, one can never hear 'The Star-Spangled Banner' the same way again."
—David Maraniss, author of Barack The Story
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
53 people are currently reading
976 people want to read
About the author
Jefferson Morley
10 books109 followersJEFFERSON MORLEY is a journalist and editor who has worked in Washington journalism for over thirty years, fifteen of which were spent as an editor and reporter at The Washington Post. The author of The Ghost, a biography of CIA spymaster James Jesus Angleton, and Our Man in Mexico, a biography of the CIA’s Mexico City station chief Winston Scott, Morley has written about intelligence, military, and political subjects for Salon, The Atlantic, and The Intercept, among others. He is the editor of JFK Facts, a blog. He lives in Washington, DC.
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August 7, 2025
The “Snow Riot” or “Snow-Storm” that took place in Washington, D.C., in August of 1835 had nothing to do with frozen precipitation. Rather, it was a racially motivated civil disturbance in which a mob of white rioters attacked, among other targets, a popular Washington restaurant owned by a successful African American restaurateur named Beverly Snow. It is a sad story from Washington’s past, with troubling implications for the modern life of the nation of which Washington is the capital, and Jefferson Morley tells this story well in his 2012 book Snow-Storm in August.
Morley, a Washington journalist who has written for publications such as Salon, The New Republic, and The Nation, originally studied and wrote about the “Snow Riot” in a series of feature articles for The Washington Post Magazine in 2005; and his expansion of those magazine articles into a book makes a valuable contribution to the reader’s understanding of Washington, D.C., history, and of U.S. history more generally.
The early chapters of this look at The Struggle for American Freedom and Washington’s Race Riot of 1835 (the book's somewhat awkward if well-intentioned subtitle) place the reader firmly in the Washington, D.C., of thirty years before the American Civil War. Andrew Jackson was president, and slavery was solidly entrenched in the life of Washington, as it was in the life of the entire American South.
Indeed, part of what is most disturbing about reading Snow-Storm in August is learning how normalized slavery was – how much it was a reality of life that people took for granted. One learns, for example, that slave traders transported enslaved people through the city late at night, so that otherwise “respectable” Washington whites would not be offended by the sight of lines of chained people being led toward the Georgetown or Alexandria wharves to be shipped south.
Against that background of the most terrible social injustice imaginable, Beverly Snow nonetheless achieved success. Born into slavery in Lynchburg, Snow was manumitted by a slaveholder who had promised him his freedom, and Snow and his wife eventually moved to Washington. In the nation’s capital, Snow used his knowledge of fine food and his penchant for hard work to establish the Epicurean Eating House, an innovative restaurant that quickly became one of the city’s most popular. It might have seemed, for a time, as if Beverly Snow, against all odds, had achieved his American dream.
Yet Snow’s story was destined to interact with that of Francis Scott Key, the lawyer and poet who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Indeed, one of the salient features of Snow-Storm in August is Morley’s critical portrait of Key, a racial conservative who opposed abolition and instead advocated “colonization” of black Americans to Africa or some other site outside the United States.
Morley also hopes to induce the reader to read “The Star-Spangled Banner” in new and questioning ways. Morley points out, for example, that most Americans know only the first of the poem's four stanzas, the stanza that Americans hear at ball games – the stanza that ends by asking, “O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave/O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” And what about those other three stanzas? "[T]aught in American public schools for much of the twentieth century, [they] have fallen out of favor and been forgotten, probably because...they no longer fit with prevailing notions of patriotism" (pp. 55-56).
And indeed, there is much in those remaining stanzas that many contemporary Americans might call to question. Two lines from the third verse – “No refuge could save the hireling and slave/From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave” – were written specifically as a denunciation of African Americans who had fled American slavery to assist the British forces in the War of 1812.
Ultimately, in Morley’s reading, Key’s poem “captured and defined something essential and enduring in America’s love of nation” – a sense of “the divine destiny of the land of the free” (p. 56) that can justify offensive war: or, as Key himself put it, "Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just/And this be our motto, 'In God is our trust'". Under these circumstances, Key’s 206-year-old anthem, with its aggressive expression of religiously-inflected nationalism, starts to sound awfully modern – in all the worst ways.
What brought together the destinies of restaurateur Snow and lawyer-poet Key in 1835 Washington, D.C., was an incident that occurred in the household of Anna Thornton one August night. Anna Thornton, the widow of the man who had designed the U.S. Capitol, was a fixture of Washington high society. She was also the owner of two enslaved people – Maria Bowen, and Maria's 19-year-old son Arthur. Unbeknownst to Anna Thornton, Arthur Bowen had been attending meetings of abolition societies, and was acutely conscious of the injustice amidst which he lived; and late one August evening, after a long night of drinking, Arthur Bowen walked into Anna Thornton’s bedroom, holding an axe and talking about his right to be free.
Anna Thornton called for help from a neighbor; and in short order, a mob of white “mechanics” (unskilled or semi-skilled laborers) began to assemble. In some ways, what unfolded after that was typical of the race riots or lynch mobs that, tragically, have been so characteristic a feature of American life through so much of U.S. history. Any allegation of “inappropriate” behavior by a black man toward a white woman – no matter how outlandish or false the allegations – could unleash hideous massed violence by whites against blacks.
At the same time, the riot that then unfolded reflected the specific circumstances, and specifically the racial and class tensions, of antebellum Washington. Many of the “mechanics” were unemployed or underemployed, amidst an economic downturn that was then affecting Washington and the nation; and among the “mechanics,” resentment toward the growing population of successful and sometimes affluent free African Americans in Washington was festering: “[T]he peculiar respectability of the successful free people of color in Washington City undermined the pretensions of the slave republic by refuting its presumption of white supremacy. As a result, everyone was feeling more free and less safe” (p. 112).
The violence of the Washington, D.C., race riot of August 1835 was not general or indiscriminate, but rather was aimed against specific African Americans: “The mobs of Washington City chose their targets, discerning observers noted” (p. 153). And those targets were invariably the property of African Americans who either (a) achieved economic success far above that of the “mechanics” or (b) were thought to harbor abolitionist ideas.
Beverly Snow, as a practical businessman, carefully stayed away from politics of any sort, but his public success as a restaurateur unfortunately made him a target of the mob. After all, “Snow had proven he could mix and compete with any white man in Washington City”; Snow “dressed better, spoke better, carried more money than…the mechanics now squalling in the streets”, and every day his Epicurean Eating House “show[ed] that white and black people could break bread together in peace and pleasure” (p. 149). And thus it was that the mob of “mechanics” descended upon the Epicurean Eating House.
While some leaders of the “Snow Riot” were eventually brought to trial, most of the rest of Snow-Storm in August focuses upon two other trials: the 1835 trial of Arthur Bowen for attempted murder, and the 1836 trial of Reuben Crandall, a white abolitionist, on charges of seditiously attempting to incite a revolution against slavery (because he had anti-slavery pamphlets in his rented room). Crandall’s attorney was Richard Coxe, a highly regarded lawyer who was himself affiliated with various reform causes. Francis Scott Key, as attorney general for the District of Columbia, prosecuted both cases, and seems to have taken them personally, as challenges to the slaveholding system in which he believed.
As he sets forth the drama of the two trials, author Morley also sets forth his belief that these trials from the 1830’s reveal much regarding American life in modern times. He suggests that opposing attorneys Coxe for the defense and Key for the prosecution “were exemplars of what would become known as blue and red politics.” To him, defense attorney Coxe embodied liberal ideas “that property rights can be limited for the common good; that American citizenship should be as inclusive as possible; and that freedom of expression is a prerequisite of a free society.” Prosecutor Key meanwhile represented conservative beliefs in “a maximal definition of property rights (embodied in freedom from taxation and regulation); a narrower conception of citizenship (to be reserved for native-born Americans); and a belief that threats to public safety may justify limitations on civil liberties” (pp. 217-18).
Morley published these then-and-now reflections on “blue-state” and “red-state” politics in 2012, during the Obama Administration. Eight years later, when I was reading Morley's book amidst the civic disorder and social division of the Trump years, his words seemed even more applicable. And I found myself returning to Morley's book once again after a mob of supporters of then-president Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
What is past is prologue.
As a Washington, D.C., native, I always seek out new information regarding the city in which I was born, and this book truly taught me something new about Washington’s history. Before reading Snow-Storm in August, the only Washington riots about which I knew anything were the 1968 riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April of that year – even though, as Morley points out, much of the 1968 rioting took place within “the same Fourteenth Street corridor where the white mechanics had attacked [African-American educator] John Cook’s school in August 1835” (p. 250). This important and hitherto-overlooked story from Washington's history needed to be told, and it is good that Morley has told it here.
Well-illustrated with maps and photographs, and including extras such as a Toronto restaurant menu that provides a haunting post-script to the book’s action, Snow-Storm in August does a strong and effective job of setting forth this important and tragic episode from the life of Washington, D.C., in 1835. It also reminds the reader of the race-related difficulties of American life in this present August – more than 180 years after the “Snow-Storm” subsided.
Morley, a Washington journalist who has written for publications such as Salon, The New Republic, and The Nation, originally studied and wrote about the “Snow Riot” in a series of feature articles for The Washington Post Magazine in 2005; and his expansion of those magazine articles into a book makes a valuable contribution to the reader’s understanding of Washington, D.C., history, and of U.S. history more generally.
The early chapters of this look at The Struggle for American Freedom and Washington’s Race Riot of 1835 (the book's somewhat awkward if well-intentioned subtitle) place the reader firmly in the Washington, D.C., of thirty years before the American Civil War. Andrew Jackson was president, and slavery was solidly entrenched in the life of Washington, as it was in the life of the entire American South.
Indeed, part of what is most disturbing about reading Snow-Storm in August is learning how normalized slavery was – how much it was a reality of life that people took for granted. One learns, for example, that slave traders transported enslaved people through the city late at night, so that otherwise “respectable” Washington whites would not be offended by the sight of lines of chained people being led toward the Georgetown or Alexandria wharves to be shipped south.
Against that background of the most terrible social injustice imaginable, Beverly Snow nonetheless achieved success. Born into slavery in Lynchburg, Snow was manumitted by a slaveholder who had promised him his freedom, and Snow and his wife eventually moved to Washington. In the nation’s capital, Snow used his knowledge of fine food and his penchant for hard work to establish the Epicurean Eating House, an innovative restaurant that quickly became one of the city’s most popular. It might have seemed, for a time, as if Beverly Snow, against all odds, had achieved his American dream.
Yet Snow’s story was destined to interact with that of Francis Scott Key, the lawyer and poet who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Indeed, one of the salient features of Snow-Storm in August is Morley’s critical portrait of Key, a racial conservative who opposed abolition and instead advocated “colonization” of black Americans to Africa or some other site outside the United States.
Morley also hopes to induce the reader to read “The Star-Spangled Banner” in new and questioning ways. Morley points out, for example, that most Americans know only the first of the poem's four stanzas, the stanza that Americans hear at ball games – the stanza that ends by asking, “O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave/O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” And what about those other three stanzas? "[T]aught in American public schools for much of the twentieth century, [they] have fallen out of favor and been forgotten, probably because...they no longer fit with prevailing notions of patriotism" (pp. 55-56).
And indeed, there is much in those remaining stanzas that many contemporary Americans might call to question. Two lines from the third verse – “No refuge could save the hireling and slave/From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave” – were written specifically as a denunciation of African Americans who had fled American slavery to assist the British forces in the War of 1812.
Ultimately, in Morley’s reading, Key’s poem “captured and defined something essential and enduring in America’s love of nation” – a sense of “the divine destiny of the land of the free” (p. 56) that can justify offensive war: or, as Key himself put it, "Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just/And this be our motto, 'In God is our trust'". Under these circumstances, Key’s 206-year-old anthem, with its aggressive expression of religiously-inflected nationalism, starts to sound awfully modern – in all the worst ways.
What brought together the destinies of restaurateur Snow and lawyer-poet Key in 1835 Washington, D.C., was an incident that occurred in the household of Anna Thornton one August night. Anna Thornton, the widow of the man who had designed the U.S. Capitol, was a fixture of Washington high society. She was also the owner of two enslaved people – Maria Bowen, and Maria's 19-year-old son Arthur. Unbeknownst to Anna Thornton, Arthur Bowen had been attending meetings of abolition societies, and was acutely conscious of the injustice amidst which he lived; and late one August evening, after a long night of drinking, Arthur Bowen walked into Anna Thornton’s bedroom, holding an axe and talking about his right to be free.
Anna Thornton called for help from a neighbor; and in short order, a mob of white “mechanics” (unskilled or semi-skilled laborers) began to assemble. In some ways, what unfolded after that was typical of the race riots or lynch mobs that, tragically, have been so characteristic a feature of American life through so much of U.S. history. Any allegation of “inappropriate” behavior by a black man toward a white woman – no matter how outlandish or false the allegations – could unleash hideous massed violence by whites against blacks.
At the same time, the riot that then unfolded reflected the specific circumstances, and specifically the racial and class tensions, of antebellum Washington. Many of the “mechanics” were unemployed or underemployed, amidst an economic downturn that was then affecting Washington and the nation; and among the “mechanics,” resentment toward the growing population of successful and sometimes affluent free African Americans in Washington was festering: “[T]he peculiar respectability of the successful free people of color in Washington City undermined the pretensions of the slave republic by refuting its presumption of white supremacy. As a result, everyone was feeling more free and less safe” (p. 112).
The violence of the Washington, D.C., race riot of August 1835 was not general or indiscriminate, but rather was aimed against specific African Americans: “The mobs of Washington City chose their targets, discerning observers noted” (p. 153). And those targets were invariably the property of African Americans who either (a) achieved economic success far above that of the “mechanics” or (b) were thought to harbor abolitionist ideas.
Beverly Snow, as a practical businessman, carefully stayed away from politics of any sort, but his public success as a restaurateur unfortunately made him a target of the mob. After all, “Snow had proven he could mix and compete with any white man in Washington City”; Snow “dressed better, spoke better, carried more money than…the mechanics now squalling in the streets”, and every day his Epicurean Eating House “show[ed] that white and black people could break bread together in peace and pleasure” (p. 149). And thus it was that the mob of “mechanics” descended upon the Epicurean Eating House.
While some leaders of the “Snow Riot” were eventually brought to trial, most of the rest of Snow-Storm in August focuses upon two other trials: the 1835 trial of Arthur Bowen for attempted murder, and the 1836 trial of Reuben Crandall, a white abolitionist, on charges of seditiously attempting to incite a revolution against slavery (because he had anti-slavery pamphlets in his rented room). Crandall’s attorney was Richard Coxe, a highly regarded lawyer who was himself affiliated with various reform causes. Francis Scott Key, as attorney general for the District of Columbia, prosecuted both cases, and seems to have taken them personally, as challenges to the slaveholding system in which he believed.
As he sets forth the drama of the two trials, author Morley also sets forth his belief that these trials from the 1830’s reveal much regarding American life in modern times. He suggests that opposing attorneys Coxe for the defense and Key for the prosecution “were exemplars of what would become known as blue and red politics.” To him, defense attorney Coxe embodied liberal ideas “that property rights can be limited for the common good; that American citizenship should be as inclusive as possible; and that freedom of expression is a prerequisite of a free society.” Prosecutor Key meanwhile represented conservative beliefs in “a maximal definition of property rights (embodied in freedom from taxation and regulation); a narrower conception of citizenship (to be reserved for native-born Americans); and a belief that threats to public safety may justify limitations on civil liberties” (pp. 217-18).
Morley published these then-and-now reflections on “blue-state” and “red-state” politics in 2012, during the Obama Administration. Eight years later, when I was reading Morley's book amidst the civic disorder and social division of the Trump years, his words seemed even more applicable. And I found myself returning to Morley's book once again after a mob of supporters of then-president Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
What is past is prologue.
As a Washington, D.C., native, I always seek out new information regarding the city in which I was born, and this book truly taught me something new about Washington’s history. Before reading Snow-Storm in August, the only Washington riots about which I knew anything were the 1968 riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April of that year – even though, as Morley points out, much of the 1968 rioting took place within “the same Fourteenth Street corridor where the white mechanics had attacked [African-American educator] John Cook’s school in August 1835” (p. 250). This important and hitherto-overlooked story from Washington's history needed to be told, and it is good that Morley has told it here.
Well-illustrated with maps and photographs, and including extras such as a Toronto restaurant menu that provides a haunting post-script to the book’s action, Snow-Storm in August does a strong and effective job of setting forth this important and tragic episode from the life of Washington, D.C., in 1835. It also reminds the reader of the race-related difficulties of American life in this present August – more than 180 years after the “Snow-Storm” subsided.
October 30, 2017
You know the saying "don't put words into my mouth"? Like when someone finishes your sentence or wrongly insinuates your words to mean something else... or simply says "I know what you're thinking", and they actually don't?
Unfortunately, this book had too many cases like this. Except Morley, telling this great story that has a lot of research and primary source material to back it up, kept phrasing things like 'Frank Key probably thought' or 'Andrew Jackson would have said'. No. This is lazy research and writing and only distracted from the story. We know what people were saying, because you [Morley] just quoted from their diary/letter/affadavit or a published newspaper article. So, don't put words into their mouth.
All of this to say that this could have been a 5-star read because it was a fascinating history of the tinderbox years of the Jacksonian 1830s in "Washington City" if it had been written with more care - and better notes. Did you know that Francis Scott Key, the patriot poet behind The Star-Spangled Banner, was a total schill and a legal"fixer" for Andrew Jackson? Did you know that people tried to litigate against the Postmaster and the postal service because abolitionist literature was mailed from the North to the mid-Atlantic states?
I will not recount the entire story here, but I am interested in reading up some more on this era because it was a pretty fascinating time in the country's history. I enjoyed the local historical notes about the land, waterways, and travel distances - noting how much has changed in the intervening 180 years.
Even though I am rating this 3.5 stars, I do recommend the book for armchair historians - just proceed with caution when the author says someone would/should/could have done something...
--
Read for Book Riot's 2017 Read Harder Challenge "Read a book that is set within 100 miles from your location". Setting of this book: Washington, DC (about 20 miles away)
Unfortunately, this book had too many cases like this. Except Morley, telling this great story that has a lot of research and primary source material to back it up, kept phrasing things like 'Frank Key probably thought' or 'Andrew Jackson would have said'. No. This is lazy research and writing and only distracted from the story. We know what people were saying, because you [Morley] just quoted from their diary/letter/affadavit or a published newspaper article. So, don't put words into their mouth.
All of this to say that this could have been a 5-star read because it was a fascinating history of the tinderbox years of the Jacksonian 1830s in "Washington City" if it had been written with more care - and better notes. Did you know that Francis Scott Key, the patriot poet behind The Star-Spangled Banner, was a total schill and a legal"fixer" for Andrew Jackson? Did you know that people tried to litigate against the Postmaster and the postal service because abolitionist literature was mailed from the North to the mid-Atlantic states?
I will not recount the entire story here, but I am interested in reading up some more on this era because it was a pretty fascinating time in the country's history. I enjoyed the local historical notes about the land, waterways, and travel distances - noting how much has changed in the intervening 180 years.
Even though I am rating this 3.5 stars, I do recommend the book for armchair historians - just proceed with caution when the author says someone would/should/could have done something...
--
Read for Book Riot's 2017 Read Harder Challenge "Read a book that is set within 100 miles from your location". Setting of this book: Washington, DC (about 20 miles away)
June 5, 2012
In between the War for Independence and the Civil War calls for the abolition of slavery began to grow in number and volume, but few people could imagine whites and former black slaves living peacefully side-by-side. Some favored re-settling freed slaves in Africa or the Caribbean, but understandably most blacks viewed America as their home and didn't relish the idea of being shipped off to a land they'd never known. But it didn't stop a few from agitating in southern states, and scattered reports of slave uprisings caused fear and anxiousness among those who owned such "human property."
Snow-Storm in August: Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the Forgotten Race Riot of 1835 by Jefferson Morley tells the story of combustible race relations in the American capitol. Arthur Bowen, a young slave owned by Anna Thornton (widow of William Thornton, designer of the U. S. Capitol) who enjoyed a fair amount of liberty, came home very drunk late one night. What is known is that he picked up an axe and entered his mistresses' bedroom where his own mother also slept, and mumbled some drunken threats. His actual intent isn't known but the women panicked and Arthur was eventually arrested and charged with attempted murder. In the already charged atmosphere, mobs of white men quickly formed and threatened to take Arthur to "Judge Lynch."
At the same time a former slave named Beverly Snow (a man, not a woman) ran a popular and successful restaurant in Washington. Unlike Arthur, Beverly did not mix much with those pressing for emancipation, but was very forward and cheeky in promoting himself and his restaurant (which bothered some people). Rumors quickly spread that Snow had made offensive comments about white women, and the two situations combined to feed mob riots which came to be known as the "Snow-Storm."
Morley has written an interesting account of this long forgotten episode of history. He adds in the story of F. S. Key, whose song "The Star-Spangled Banner" was later adopted as the national anthem, and who as District Attorney prosecuted Bowen and Reuben Crandall, a white man who was allegedly circulating abolitionist newspapers. It's not a deep or dry history but is instead very readable, including dialog as it was recorded at the time ("edited for clarity") and it mostly avoids moralizing or making too many judgments. It's an interesting view of the atmosphere and tensions in society as slavery began it's long and painful death.
(I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher. This review is modified from my 6/5/12 blog review at bookworm-dad.blogspot.com.)
Snow-Storm in August: Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the Forgotten Race Riot of 1835 by Jefferson Morley tells the story of combustible race relations in the American capitol. Arthur Bowen, a young slave owned by Anna Thornton (widow of William Thornton, designer of the U. S. Capitol) who enjoyed a fair amount of liberty, came home very drunk late one night. What is known is that he picked up an axe and entered his mistresses' bedroom where his own mother also slept, and mumbled some drunken threats. His actual intent isn't known but the women panicked and Arthur was eventually arrested and charged with attempted murder. In the already charged atmosphere, mobs of white men quickly formed and threatened to take Arthur to "Judge Lynch."
At the same time a former slave named Beverly Snow (a man, not a woman) ran a popular and successful restaurant in Washington. Unlike Arthur, Beverly did not mix much with those pressing for emancipation, but was very forward and cheeky in promoting himself and his restaurant (which bothered some people). Rumors quickly spread that Snow had made offensive comments about white women, and the two situations combined to feed mob riots which came to be known as the "Snow-Storm."
Morley has written an interesting account of this long forgotten episode of history. He adds in the story of F. S. Key, whose song "The Star-Spangled Banner" was later adopted as the national anthem, and who as District Attorney prosecuted Bowen and Reuben Crandall, a white man who was allegedly circulating abolitionist newspapers. It's not a deep or dry history but is instead very readable, including dialog as it was recorded at the time ("edited for clarity") and it mostly avoids moralizing or making too many judgments. It's an interesting view of the atmosphere and tensions in society as slavery began it's long and painful death.
(I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher. This review is modified from my 6/5/12 blog review at bookworm-dad.blogspot.com.)
April 8, 2019
This book needs to be read not only for the excellent analysis of how our political history led to our political present, but also for logic. The logic of mob mentality, the logic of blame, and the logic of 'divide and rule,' as our British friends say. White workers against Free men of Color rioted for mistaken reasons, but for understandable anger.
And another excellent quote regarding "The South's violent reaction," from page 174. Deliberate, even if indirect, incitement to violence is inimical to the cause of Democracy.
This book shows why when some are enslaved, none are free.
To Community,
Shira Destinie
MEOW Date: 1 September 12,014 H.E. (Holocene Era)
And another excellent quote regarding "The South's violent reaction," from page 174. Deliberate, even if indirect, incitement to violence is inimical to the cause of Democracy.
This book shows why when some are enslaved, none are free.
To Community,
Shira Destinie
MEOW Date: 1 September 12,014 H.E. (Holocene Era)
July 25, 2017
A very interesting book. Morley is a professional writer, not a historian (but heck, I'm neither!) and it does show from time to time. Sometimes he can't resist to tell us what the characters are thinking and I believe he has no earthly method of knowing that.
But Morley is a good writer, at least in this book. It reads like a novel covering a lesser-emphasized period of American history. The events covered in the book are not generally known and while some of the characters are familiar (Sam Houston, Francis Scott Key, Andrew Jackson) we generally do not view them in the light Morley casts on them. This was fascinating.
Other characters have been ignored by the histories with which I am familiar, and Morley does a nice job introducing them to us. In fact, they are fascinating people.
I particularly enjoyed the thread Morley weaves showing how terribly fearful white slaveholders were of slave insurrections. It gives credence to Pauline Maier's discussion of the second amendment in her book, "Ratification." Maier claims that the right to keep and bear arms was rooted less in the desire to protect citizens from the government than in slaveholders fear of insurrections. Her analysis is certainly relevant to the Washington D.C. riot of 1835 that is the centerpiece of Morley's book.
But Morley is a good writer, at least in this book. It reads like a novel covering a lesser-emphasized period of American history. The events covered in the book are not generally known and while some of the characters are familiar (Sam Houston, Francis Scott Key, Andrew Jackson) we generally do not view them in the light Morley casts on them. This was fascinating.
Other characters have been ignored by the histories with which I am familiar, and Morley does a nice job introducing them to us. In fact, they are fascinating people.
I particularly enjoyed the thread Morley weaves showing how terribly fearful white slaveholders were of slave insurrections. It gives credence to Pauline Maier's discussion of the second amendment in her book, "Ratification." Maier claims that the right to keep and bear arms was rooted less in the desire to protect citizens from the government than in slaveholders fear of insurrections. Her analysis is certainly relevant to the Washington D.C. riot of 1835 that is the centerpiece of Morley's book.
May 8, 2012
LOOK AT THIS!
Beverly Snow, a former slave who came to own what is likely to have been the first modern restaurant in the country loved to start off his advertisements with that catchy phrase. What we learn of Mr. Snow is delightful...he is a fantastic cook and shrewd businessman, in addition to being a well-liked and wise Epicurean.
But he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and became a focal point of a forgotten race riot. He wasn't the start of the trouble, in fact, he did nothing wrong at all. But he was a symbol to the "mechanics", the white working class males of the city who could not stand a negro they could not feel superior to.
This is also a story of Francis Scott Key, his defense of slavery, and his fascinating ties to Andrew Jackson.
Give it a read!
Beverly Snow, a former slave who came to own what is likely to have been the first modern restaurant in the country loved to start off his advertisements with that catchy phrase. What we learn of Mr. Snow is delightful...he is a fantastic cook and shrewd businessman, in addition to being a well-liked and wise Epicurean.
But he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and became a focal point of a forgotten race riot. He wasn't the start of the trouble, in fact, he did nothing wrong at all. But he was a symbol to the "mechanics", the white working class males of the city who could not stand a negro they could not feel superior to.
This is also a story of Francis Scott Key, his defense of slavery, and his fascinating ties to Andrew Jackson.
Give it a read!
November 22, 2012
Morley writes with a keen sense of historical writing in this rarely told piece of American history. He lays the story out through facts and adds the perfect amount of detail to keep the telling interesting but not overwhelming. He supposes little. And when he does surmise, he lets the reader know with those wonderful words of perhaps or possibly or it is unknown whether. One little thing I enjoyed - physical character descriptions were often taken from quotes. This subtlety added authenticity to his telling. Also, he was fortunate to have at least one wonderful diary source.
Now to the history. This story placed in Washington City (D.C.) simply fascinated me. I thought Morley did a good job presenting as unbiased a portrait of Andrew Jackson as could be hoped for. I'm not so sure if he was a successful at this with Frances Scott Key. Perhaps it's just that I hadn't known Key's role in D.C. during Jackson's presidency. The writer of the American national anthem was a scoundrel!! He paved the way for twisted law within Jackson’s administration. This included banks and money, favors for individuals, mob rule, and the treatment of African slaves and free men.
Though the stories of two black men, one free and one a slave, are the focus (cause celeb) of this book, there are many peripheral characters, and their roles and importance were very clear.
Other signs that this is a good book: the other stuff. Notes, appendixes, map, etc.
And Morley does what any good historian does - he lays out parallels of contemporary America. Yes! This is why historians become historians.
Thank you Mr. Morley.
Now to the history. This story placed in Washington City (D.C.) simply fascinated me. I thought Morley did a good job presenting as unbiased a portrait of Andrew Jackson as could be hoped for. I'm not so sure if he was a successful at this with Frances Scott Key. Perhaps it's just that I hadn't known Key's role in D.C. during Jackson's presidency. The writer of the American national anthem was a scoundrel!! He paved the way for twisted law within Jackson’s administration. This included banks and money, favors for individuals, mob rule, and the treatment of African slaves and free men.
Though the stories of two black men, one free and one a slave, are the focus (cause celeb) of this book, there are many peripheral characters, and their roles and importance were very clear.
Other signs that this is a good book: the other stuff. Notes, appendixes, map, etc.
And Morley does what any good historian does - he lays out parallels of contemporary America. Yes! This is why historians become historians.
Thank you Mr. Morley.
November 17, 2013
I almost gave up on this book because the first 100 pages had too much Francis Scott Key, but the second half moves much faster, focuses more on the more interesting historical figures, and basically becomes a legal thriller. It still boggles my mind that DC was a slave city and the book draws much of its power from laying out the incredible hypocrisies and moral compromises this created for the city and the republic it represented. Also, as a Washington resident, part of the appeal is definitely learning about the people and places that used to populate familiar streets, and all the ways DC has changed since it was a backwater swamp.
March 23, 2019
This is an interesting depiction of Washington DC in the 1830s, and a good narrative interweaving the tales of several characters: a freed black man who moves to the city and opens a successful restaurant, city district attorney Francis Scott Key, an enslaved young man accused of attempted murder of his mistress, and an abolitionist newcomer to the city. They all get caught up in the local hysteria that leads to white-led rioting and the near lynching of several of the main characters. I'd give this 4 stars for content, but Jefferson Morley has a few stylistic tics that I found annoying, so I'll knock off a star for that.
May 28, 2018
Morley has written an outstanding history of a time sometimes ignored. Focusing on the little-remembered 1835 race riot in Washington City, he presents characters who are usually known for other events in history. The portrait of Francis Scott Key is superb. Forget for a while that he wrote a famous song, and focus on the career he pursued in a contentious time.
Washington hasn't changed all that much: politics are still king, deals are made, lawyers interpret the law, people make stupid assumptions, business tries to be successful. The echelons of Washington society are a ridiculous group, but they have a huge influence on life around them. I was intrigued to read the descriptions of everyday life in the City, and how everyday people tried to make a living.
Very interesting.
Washington hasn't changed all that much: politics are still king, deals are made, lawyers interpret the law, people make stupid assumptions, business tries to be successful. The echelons of Washington society are a ridiculous group, but they have a huge influence on life around them. I was intrigued to read the descriptions of everyday life in the City, and how everyday people tried to make a living.
Very interesting.
August 17, 2017
I really enjoyed reading this book. I was not really aware of the free black people who were living and working in Washington at this time in history. The story of Beverly Snow was very surprising to me. I also wasn't familiar with Francis Scott Key other than the national anthem. It has actually made me want to learn more about these times. Watching kkk Nazis and white supremacists marching in Charlottesville is all the more daunting after reading this. It's a really sad state of affairs!
January 23, 2013
There are so many great aspects of this book - history of Washington DC, history of American abolishionist movement, slight history of Canadian abolishionist movement, history of American leadership such as President Jackson and Francis Scott Key, history of free speech and right against unlawful search and seizure and more. It is eye opening and made me feel ED-U-CATED.
February 22, 2018
4.5 Stars
The synopsis gives you the gist of the "snow-storm" portion of this book, the largely forgotten 1835 race riot in Washington D.C., primarily between white lawmakers / defenders and former slaves, a key (if unintended) player being the bi-racial (male) chef & restaurateur Beverly Snow. Snow not only suffers attacks on his business but also has his home vandalized and the safety of his family threatened.
That story alone would be powerful enough but Morley's work here -- an expansion on his 2005 Washington Post article -- offers readers so much more. We also get an education in the early development stages of our nation's capital, then known simply as Washington City. Morley also gets into the topic of colonization and which of D.C.'s bigwigs were on what side. You might be surprised to learn how it pans out!
Some of my takeaways from this book:
RE: DEVELOPMENT OF WASHINGTON D.C.:
* Where to set up shop for the nation's capital? Hmmm. Well, the U.S. had racked up a mountain of debt after the War of Independence. Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton wanted to set up the capital in Pennsylvania but Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson countered, saying he had a debt plan but Southern members of Congress would never go for it unless Congress' Northerners agreed to set up the capital in a more southern region. Pennsylvania was also largely anti-slavery, had a strong Quaker (recognized abolitionists) population. Jefferson recommended putting the capital along Virginia-Maryland territory, where there were good banking options and slavery was still legal. Hamilton appeared to have no objection.
* The design for D.C. was modeled after Paris -- the canals, boulevards, stately buildings -- so much so that George Washington even hired French engineer Pierre L'Enfant to oversee the project. Prior to this Parisian design, author Charles Dickens had had a visit to the city and likened it to a wild, western frontier town. Morley adds, " 'The whole affair,' said another visitor, ' looked as if some giant had scattered a box of his child's toys at random on the ground.'
* D.C.'s Capitol Bldg was designed by William Thornton, a slaveholder who pushed for colonization. In one story in this book, Thornton came to the aid of the battered wife of a French diplomat, proclaiming, "I know the laws of humanity and I mean to uphold them." Thornton was also rumored to be the father of Arthur Bowen, son of Maria, house servant to Anna Thornton (William's wife).
Personally, I was left with mixed feelings on Thornton. Morley describes him as having "a thirst for liberty but a weak will", creative dreamer type, high ideals, distracted easily but highly personable... but he also seemed to lack much of a backbone, often going with majority rule.
COLONIZATION
* The Commonwealth of Virginia had an 1806 law on the books that basically said that freed slaves must leave the state within a year or they could be apprehended and sold back into slavery, only being allowed to stay within the Commonwealth area past that first year IF they could get a signed endorsement from a white citizen, petitioning the state legislature to allow the freed person in question to stay.
* By the 1830s, colonization had become quite the divisive topic around Washington. Colonization was the suggested idea that freed slaves could be sent back to Africa to set up a new colony of freed people. There were supporters for this idea in both white and black communities. White racists saw it as a way to get rid of those they deemed second-class citizens, while some black communities saw it as an ideal opportunity to distance themselves from said racists and slaveholders who seemed determined to make free life miserable for them. But colonization was sort of an all or nothing proposition... the intent was that if some went, everyone had to go... and some, as in the case with Beverly Snow, had a perfectly good life in DC that they didn't want to give up. There was quite a large group of supporters for the idea though, including some of Snow's white friends!
RE: BEVERLY SNOW
* By the 1830s, Washington D.C. had developed a solid horse racing community. Even President Andrew Jackson was said to make a big show of placing bets (though it seems his luck wasn't so good lol). Beverly Snow first developed clientele in the city as a street vendor outside racing arenas. After developing some success on that front, he went on to open an oyster house, becoming the first restaurateur to offer fine dining experiences in D.C. Pity that a cholera outbreak in 1832 ended up wiping out nearly 500 citizens, putting a bit of a dent in his business! But he hangs in there, and once the first restaurant does well, he moves on to open a second, even more upscale establishment.
* Snow was pretty innovative for his time when it came to the restaurant business! He became well known for his turtle soup, which he would offer only periodically, advertising that the soup was "restorative"... see? promo-ing health benefits, whether they're proven or not! By the way, consider yourself warned here, vegans/ vegetarians: Morley includes a play-by-play of how this turtle soup was prepared.
AND THEN THERE'S THE WHOLE FRANCIS SCOTT KEY BIT
* Famously penned the poem that would later turn into the U.S. national anthem... many years after it was set to the music of a drinking song we stole from our British cousins ;-) The popularity of that poem turned out to be a much needed reputation restorer for Key after an embarrassing display of turn-tail-and-run during the War of 1812. Key had the poem published in papers, later got the idea to set it to music. Also, weirdly, barely mentioned any of this to his wife but thoroughly discussed with his brother-in-law, Roger Taney. Taney was a racist lawyer famous for the Dred Scott case as well as his backing of a South Carolina law allowing black seamen to be arrested once they stepped off their in-port ships.
* Supporter of colonization and, it seems, not quite so anti-slavery as you might have been taught in school. Key had a public persona for being an ally for black citizens, periodically defending them in court (at least at the beginning of his legal career), but his actions in his off-time suggested opposite leanings.
* Key, who served as D.C. district attorney for 8 years, was called in as prosecuting attorney for both the Snow case and that of Arthur Bowen, (see Thornton sect. above). Bowen was said to have been found in the bedroom of Anna Thornton one night, holding an ax over her head as she slept. Arthur's mother was also in the room (asleep) at the time, once awakened was able to usher Arthur out of the room, tried to get him out of the house but police had already been summoned. Key sought capital punishment for Bowen.
> Anna Thornton tried to fight for Arthur's freedom. For his protection, she tried to get him resold before his trial date but everyone she appealed to declined to help her. Anna went directly to Key, even requested a meeting with President Jackson himself, after writing him an 18 page letter (which she got in a carriage, rode to WH and hand delivered herself!) pleading Arthur's case, this letter including a petition sheet full of signatures from others also begging for the man's freedom. Bombarded with all this, Jackson eventually instructed Key to go along with the request.
>Two days after Arthur's arrest, abolitionist Reuben Crandall was arrested for being suspected of distributing anti-slavery periodicals / pamphlets (Good laugh over the bit that discusses Key's own words being turned on him during this trial!). A white mob developed shortly after and since they couldn't get to Crandall, they went after Beverly Snow (after a rumor got around that Snow was liberally tossing around "coarse or derogatory remarks" regarding white women of Washington. Snow's professional successes combined with his perceived cockiness had already made him the enemy of many white men in town.
> Snow escaped harm to himself but the mob did trash his home & establishment, though they were instructed not to break any of the furniture, as Snow had it on loan from a white man.
Though it does take a bit of time (approx. 120 pages) to get into the bulk of the race riot topic, the "snow-storm" as it's termed, the history here is fascinating. BTW, also mentioned in this book: the bungled / thwarted assassination attempt on Andrew Jackson.
It doesn't leave you with the most glowing image of some of our country's most notable names in history, but it is history that is vitally important to be aware of just the same. Morley also includes an inset of pages featuring photographs, paintings, and news articles of the period showcasing some of the key players in this unsavory bit of history.
The synopsis gives you the gist of the "snow-storm" portion of this book, the largely forgotten 1835 race riot in Washington D.C., primarily between white lawmakers / defenders and former slaves, a key (if unintended) player being the bi-racial (male) chef & restaurateur Beverly Snow. Snow not only suffers attacks on his business but also has his home vandalized and the safety of his family threatened.
That story alone would be powerful enough but Morley's work here -- an expansion on his 2005 Washington Post article -- offers readers so much more. We also get an education in the early development stages of our nation's capital, then known simply as Washington City. Morley also gets into the topic of colonization and which of D.C.'s bigwigs were on what side. You might be surprised to learn how it pans out!
Some of my takeaways from this book:
RE: DEVELOPMENT OF WASHINGTON D.C.:
* Where to set up shop for the nation's capital? Hmmm. Well, the U.S. had racked up a mountain of debt after the War of Independence. Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton wanted to set up the capital in Pennsylvania but Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson countered, saying he had a debt plan but Southern members of Congress would never go for it unless Congress' Northerners agreed to set up the capital in a more southern region. Pennsylvania was also largely anti-slavery, had a strong Quaker (recognized abolitionists) population. Jefferson recommended putting the capital along Virginia-Maryland territory, where there were good banking options and slavery was still legal. Hamilton appeared to have no objection.
* The design for D.C. was modeled after Paris -- the canals, boulevards, stately buildings -- so much so that George Washington even hired French engineer Pierre L'Enfant to oversee the project. Prior to this Parisian design, author Charles Dickens had had a visit to the city and likened it to a wild, western frontier town. Morley adds, " 'The whole affair,' said another visitor, ' looked as if some giant had scattered a box of his child's toys at random on the ground.'
* D.C.'s Capitol Bldg was designed by William Thornton, a slaveholder who pushed for colonization. In one story in this book, Thornton came to the aid of the battered wife of a French diplomat, proclaiming, "I know the laws of humanity and I mean to uphold them." Thornton was also rumored to be the father of Arthur Bowen, son of Maria, house servant to Anna Thornton (William's wife).
Personally, I was left with mixed feelings on Thornton. Morley describes him as having "a thirst for liberty but a weak will", creative dreamer type, high ideals, distracted easily but highly personable... but he also seemed to lack much of a backbone, often going with majority rule.
COLONIZATION
* The Commonwealth of Virginia had an 1806 law on the books that basically said that freed slaves must leave the state within a year or they could be apprehended and sold back into slavery, only being allowed to stay within the Commonwealth area past that first year IF they could get a signed endorsement from a white citizen, petitioning the state legislature to allow the freed person in question to stay.
* By the 1830s, colonization had become quite the divisive topic around Washington. Colonization was the suggested idea that freed slaves could be sent back to Africa to set up a new colony of freed people. There were supporters for this idea in both white and black communities. White racists saw it as a way to get rid of those they deemed second-class citizens, while some black communities saw it as an ideal opportunity to distance themselves from said racists and slaveholders who seemed determined to make free life miserable for them. But colonization was sort of an all or nothing proposition... the intent was that if some went, everyone had to go... and some, as in the case with Beverly Snow, had a perfectly good life in DC that they didn't want to give up. There was quite a large group of supporters for the idea though, including some of Snow's white friends!
RE: BEVERLY SNOW
* By the 1830s, Washington D.C. had developed a solid horse racing community. Even President Andrew Jackson was said to make a big show of placing bets (though it seems his luck wasn't so good lol). Beverly Snow first developed clientele in the city as a street vendor outside racing arenas. After developing some success on that front, he went on to open an oyster house, becoming the first restaurateur to offer fine dining experiences in D.C. Pity that a cholera outbreak in 1832 ended up wiping out nearly 500 citizens, putting a bit of a dent in his business! But he hangs in there, and once the first restaurant does well, he moves on to open a second, even more upscale establishment.
* Snow was pretty innovative for his time when it came to the restaurant business! He became well known for his turtle soup, which he would offer only periodically, advertising that the soup was "restorative"... see? promo-ing health benefits, whether they're proven or not! By the way, consider yourself warned here, vegans/ vegetarians: Morley includes a play-by-play of how this turtle soup was prepared.
AND THEN THERE'S THE WHOLE FRANCIS SCOTT KEY BIT
* Famously penned the poem that would later turn into the U.S. national anthem... many years after it was set to the music of a drinking song we stole from our British cousins ;-) The popularity of that poem turned out to be a much needed reputation restorer for Key after an embarrassing display of turn-tail-and-run during the War of 1812. Key had the poem published in papers, later got the idea to set it to music. Also, weirdly, barely mentioned any of this to his wife but thoroughly discussed with his brother-in-law, Roger Taney. Taney was a racist lawyer famous for the Dred Scott case as well as his backing of a South Carolina law allowing black seamen to be arrested once they stepped off their in-port ships.
* Supporter of colonization and, it seems, not quite so anti-slavery as you might have been taught in school. Key had a public persona for being an ally for black citizens, periodically defending them in court (at least at the beginning of his legal career), but his actions in his off-time suggested opposite leanings.
* Key, who served as D.C. district attorney for 8 years, was called in as prosecuting attorney for both the Snow case and that of Arthur Bowen, (see Thornton sect. above). Bowen was said to have been found in the bedroom of Anna Thornton one night, holding an ax over her head as she slept. Arthur's mother was also in the room (asleep) at the time, once awakened was able to usher Arthur out of the room, tried to get him out of the house but police had already been summoned. Key sought capital punishment for Bowen.
> Anna Thornton tried to fight for Arthur's freedom. For his protection, she tried to get him resold before his trial date but everyone she appealed to declined to help her. Anna went directly to Key, even requested a meeting with President Jackson himself, after writing him an 18 page letter (which she got in a carriage, rode to WH and hand delivered herself!) pleading Arthur's case, this letter including a petition sheet full of signatures from others also begging for the man's freedom. Bombarded with all this, Jackson eventually instructed Key to go along with the request.
>Two days after Arthur's arrest, abolitionist Reuben Crandall was arrested for being suspected of distributing anti-slavery periodicals / pamphlets (Good laugh over the bit that discusses Key's own words being turned on him during this trial!). A white mob developed shortly after and since they couldn't get to Crandall, they went after Beverly Snow (after a rumor got around that Snow was liberally tossing around "coarse or derogatory remarks" regarding white women of Washington. Snow's professional successes combined with his perceived cockiness had already made him the enemy of many white men in town.
> Snow escaped harm to himself but the mob did trash his home & establishment, though they were instructed not to break any of the furniture, as Snow had it on loan from a white man.
Though it does take a bit of time (approx. 120 pages) to get into the bulk of the race riot topic, the "snow-storm" as it's termed, the history here is fascinating. BTW, also mentioned in this book: the bungled / thwarted assassination attempt on Andrew Jackson.
It doesn't leave you with the most glowing image of some of our country's most notable names in history, but it is history that is vitally important to be aware of just the same. Morley also includes an inset of pages featuring photographs, paintings, and news articles of the period showcasing some of the key players in this unsavory bit of history.
November 17, 2017
One of the biggest mistakes critics of the NFL anthem protestors make is assuming that players are protesting the national anthem when they kneel. They aren't. But, boy howdy, if they ever read the third stanza, which promises to wash the pollution of British invaders with the blood of slaves fighting for their freedom, they probably would be protesting the anthem. (Yes, it should be "This Land is Your Land"' or at least "God Bless America." And as long as I'm temporary King of America, let's get rid of daylight savings time!) Ahem. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
"Snow-Storm in August" focuses on post "Star Spangled Banner" Francis Key, in his role as a prosecutor in Washington City, and a black restaurateur named Beverly Snow driven out of town by the race riots of 1835. An 18 year old slave named Arthur Bowen entered the house of his owner carrying an axe. He was blind drunk and non-aggressive, but authorities were called and he was charged with attempted murder. At the time there had been some recent slave rebellions, and people were anxious. Abolitionists were subject to lynching. Snow and other successful free blacks fled white lynching mobs.
"Snow-Storm in August" gives a glimpse of life in pre-civil war America-what it meant to be a free black, what it meant to own slaves, and how these conditions and attendant beliefs led to war and the Jim Crow era. Not a definitive history, but a really valuable addition to history of antebellum Washington.
"Snow-Storm in August" focuses on post "Star Spangled Banner" Francis Key, in his role as a prosecutor in Washington City, and a black restaurateur named Beverly Snow driven out of town by the race riots of 1835. An 18 year old slave named Arthur Bowen entered the house of his owner carrying an axe. He was blind drunk and non-aggressive, but authorities were called and he was charged with attempted murder. At the time there had been some recent slave rebellions, and people were anxious. Abolitionists were subject to lynching. Snow and other successful free blacks fled white lynching mobs.
"Snow-Storm in August" gives a glimpse of life in pre-civil war America-what it meant to be a free black, what it meant to own slaves, and how these conditions and attendant beliefs led to war and the Jim Crow era. Not a definitive history, but a really valuable addition to history of antebellum Washington.
Read
August 9, 2021Excellent. I learned so much!
August 9, 2013
With Snow-Storm in August: Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the Forgotten Race Riot of 1835 journalist and historian Jefferson Morley has crafted an excellent tale that effectively pulls together the various lives and experiences of Washington DC’s residents in the age of Jackson. He expertly captures all of the nuances of black (both slave and free), white (slave owners, ‘mechanics’, abolitionist and ‘fence sitters’ of all types) and mixed race communities as they sorted out the parameters of how they would live together in one new city; that this ‘sorting out’ led to riots and outrage by disgruntled whites against successful blacks and their abolitionist friends should come as no surprise to anyone with even a passing familiarity with the era. Where Morley’s work shines is in his use of restaurateur and free black Beverly Snow and Francis Scott Key (yes, that Francis Scott Key) to follow the changes that came to – and came over – the “capital city” as it grew. This work is well researched and well written. In my opinion the only drawback to this work, and what prevents me from giving it five stars (I wish there was a 4.5 stars option) is Morley’s insistence on trying to make the events of nineteenth century Washington conform to his twenty-first century understanding of ‘blue and red’ politics. I found his efforts at this disruptive to the otherwise engaging narrative he put together and, for all practical purposes, unnecessary as the story otherwise stood well on its own – without the infusion of the author’s politics.
February 17, 2020
Quotable:
[African colonization] was the popular scheme of the day that proposed to end the blight of chattel slavery in the United States of America by freeing the enslaved and sending them to settle the western coast of Africa. While supporters of colonization prided themselves on their humanitarianism toward Negroes, theirs was a benevolence wrapped in a prejudice that Henry Clay voiced as well as any man. Clay especially reviled those Africans in America who managed to gain their legal freedom. “Of all classes of our population, the most vicious is that of the free colored,” Clay liked to say. “Contaminated themselves, they extend their vices to all around them.”
“If forgetful of her past,” [Francis Scott Key] declared, “our country shall cease to be the land of the free and the home of the brave and become the purchased possession of a company of stock-jobbers and speculators.”
“Four [men], who were objects of greatest indignation, have fled the city.” [Margaret Baynard] Smith did not identify the four offenders but noted they posed no threat to public safety, only to white people’s feelings of superiority.
The violent summer of 1835 had diverse and subtle causes, but one stood out. Amidst the disorder, it was clear that the burgeoning antislavery movement had forced Americans to consider its core message: that democracy could not coexist with the right to property in people.
[African colonization] was the popular scheme of the day that proposed to end the blight of chattel slavery in the United States of America by freeing the enslaved and sending them to settle the western coast of Africa. While supporters of colonization prided themselves on their humanitarianism toward Negroes, theirs was a benevolence wrapped in a prejudice that Henry Clay voiced as well as any man. Clay especially reviled those Africans in America who managed to gain their legal freedom. “Of all classes of our population, the most vicious is that of the free colored,” Clay liked to say. “Contaminated themselves, they extend their vices to all around them.”
“If forgetful of her past,” [Francis Scott Key] declared, “our country shall cease to be the land of the free and the home of the brave and become the purchased possession of a company of stock-jobbers and speculators.”
“Four [men], who were objects of greatest indignation, have fled the city.” [Margaret Baynard] Smith did not identify the four offenders but noted they posed no threat to public safety, only to white people’s feelings of superiority.
The violent summer of 1835 had diverse and subtle causes, but one stood out. Amidst the disorder, it was clear that the burgeoning antislavery movement had forced Americans to consider its core message: that democracy could not coexist with the right to property in people.
November 14, 2012
This was an interesting look at the characters and incidents surrounding a little-known event - the 1835 race riots in Washington, D.C. Morley includes details about pivotal figures of the era - President Andrew Jackson and his circle of advisors and Francis Scott Key, the writer of the Star Spangled Banner that most history books gloss over or omit completely. As the district attorney for the capital city, F. Scott Key was an ardent defender of slavery and a personal proponent of colonization for the slaves (i.e. sending them back to Africa to establish their own free land.)
Morley relies on diaries and newspaper accounts of the era, providing detailed description and analysis of the conflicting personalities and opinions. The roots of our current political divisions can be seen in this incident in the beliefs characters and groups held regarding personal property and states rights. This book was another reminder to me of the complexities of issues that have divided people in the past and continue to do so.
Morley relies on diaries and newspaper accounts of the era, providing detailed description and analysis of the conflicting personalities and opinions. The roots of our current political divisions can be seen in this incident in the beliefs characters and groups held regarding personal property and states rights. This book was another reminder to me of the complexities of issues that have divided people in the past and continue to do so.
September 1, 2014
Interesting points in fascinating book on DC´s 1st race riot:
Moreley, in his important book
Snow-storm in August : Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the forgotten race riot of 1835
(available via DC Public Library, but most certainly worth buying...) not only puts together a sound context for the Snow Riots, but also draws together strands which began then, and still define, he claims, our politics today. I found most striking his juxtaposing of property rights and individual vs. community as well as freedom of speech, and whether free speech is applied best for owners (elites) vs. the people (the 99%). Excellent book.
Link here:
http://www.worldcat.org/title/snow-st...
Shira Destinie
MEOW Date: Monday, April 23, 12014 H.E. (Holocene Era)
Moreley, in his important book
Snow-storm in August : Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the forgotten race riot of 1835
(available via DC Public Library, but most certainly worth buying...) not only puts together a sound context for the Snow Riots, but also draws together strands which began then, and still define, he claims, our politics today. I found most striking his juxtaposing of property rights and individual vs. community as well as freedom of speech, and whether free speech is applied best for owners (elites) vs. the people (the 99%). Excellent book.
Link here:
http://www.worldcat.org/title/snow-st...
Shira Destinie
MEOW Date: Monday, April 23, 12014 H.E. (Holocene Era)
February 29, 2016
Interesting, concise book about a time in American history that doesn't get a lot of coverage - the slow burn leading up to the Civil War, specifically 1835. President Jackson and Nicholas Biddle clash over the National Bank. Disgruntled whites and abolitionists clash over the growing number of free blacks in the Capital, particularly the flamboyant restauranteur Beverly Snow. And Francis Scott Key, District Attorney and legendary creator of our national anthem, rushes to the defense of slavery (and Jackson) in fervently seeking to prosecute a noted abolitionist and touch off a race riot in the process. If, like most of us, all you knew about Francis Key was the Banner, you'll come away with a much different take on the man.
August 1, 2013
DC is now my home, and this slice of the city's history delighted me. During this era the city had roughly an equal number of free blacks and slaves. In a city that today loves its restaurants, Morley has demonstrated that a free black man, Beverly Snow, established the first. Most whites in DC still viewed slavery as acceptable, even if many found it abhorrent. Those whites opposed to slavery tended, like Francis Scott Key, to favor their return to colonies in Africa. Abolitionists were viewed as a dangerous, radical minority. Morley's work is scholarly and accurate, but his narrative makes the book a joy to read.
June 23, 2014
This is the best history I have read in a long time. I rarely rate 5 stars. Morley has well captured the pre-civil war generation of anti/pro slavery with historical accuracy, while not sacrificing human interest to historical fiction. I learned a lot about Francis Scott Key and Andrew Jackson and much more. Thoroughly enjoyable and informative.
September 2, 2012
Here is my review of "Snow-Storm in August," by Jefferson Morley from my book blog, Endpaper Review.
Book Review: "Snow-Storm in August"
by Dick Loftin.
“On Wednesday, August 12, 1835, Washington City went crazy… As a result, not many people of color were seen on the streets. The bondsmen sat tight in the company of their owners. The free Negroes went to visit kin in the country. The president was on vacation, and the white man was running wild.”
– Jefferson Morley, “Snow-Storm in August”
Beverly Snow wanted success. In Washington City in the 1830s, he was determined to make his way. Having won his freedom, he came to Washington City from Virginia to open an upscale restaurant with an impressive menu of turtle soup and oysters, among other specialties. His eatery, the “Epicurean Eating House” (the name coming from the Greek philosopher, Epicurus), thrived, serving the upper crust of Washington at a time when slavery was still the norm, but freed blacks outnumbered slaves for the first time.
Slavery was big business in Washington City in the 1830’s, but the forces of freedom were drawing near and it was only a matter of time before the force had to be reckoned with. Still, there were opportunities for free blacks in Washington—more than any other time—more than any other city outside of New Orleans, and Beverly Snow had the skill and determination to take full advantage of it.
He wanted customers in his restaurant, and advertised to get them, realizing that slave holder or not, a customer was a customer and they all had to eat. “No matter what words came out of the white man’s mouth, some food had to go in,” he liked to say. Like hospitality pioneer Fred Harvey, Beverly Snow recognized that a quality meal, with quality service, would bring customers back again and again.
At a time when people would dine at a common table, in a group, with meals served only a couple of times a day and service a variable depending on where you sat at the table, Snow brought a French style and presentation to his restaurant. He offered private seating with single servings, and a menu of choices. The price was right, the food was good and repeat customers were common at the Epicurean Eating House. Beverly’s restaurant was a hit and people liked him, no matter what color they were.
But despite Snow’s success and fortitude, slavery remained a cloud over Washington City. Blacks took the words of the framers literally; that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness included them, and that all men–all men—are created equal. Black dissent was growing. Disturbing accounts of uprisings in Virginia, with rebels taking to the streets, murdering white families in their homes, were being published in newspapers. White slave owners were getting nervous, and for good reason.
William Thornton and his wife Anna lived in a home on one of Washington City’s toniest addresses. Their Negro servants lived with them, were treated well, and kept the home running after William’s death in 1828. Dr. Thornton was a highly respected designer. His design of the U.S. Capitol building introduced him and Anna to powerful political figures of the period. They were neighbors of John Quincy Adams and his wife, and they were friends of George Washington.
Anna Thornton was skilled in business and it was the various property holdings that she and her husband owned and managed that kept her going after William’s death. One of her slaves, Maria Bowen, was particularly close to Anna and her mother, Ann Brodeau, who also lived at the Thornton home. Maria was the second-generation of Bowens to work for the Thornton’s. Maria’s mother worked as the Thornton’s servant when they came to Washington City in 1795. Maria had given birth to a boy, John Arthur, meaning now, a third generation of Bowens would work in the Thornton home. It is possible that Thornton was John’s father. Arthur, as the youth was called, was smart, learned to read and write, had a quick wit, and was soft-spoken, but would often run away to satisfy his taste for horse racing; a passion he shared with Dr. Thornton. Arthur was a free-spirit, hard to control, and was often fired when hired out to perform work for others. It was during this rowdy time that Arthur met John Cook. Cook introduced Arthur to the Philomathean Talking Society, a group that discussed slavery with passion and distributed newspapers on the subject. Arthur absorbed every word. One night at a Society meeting, Cook gave a talk meant to steel itself in the minds of young men like Arthur, saying, “[W]e are thrown into a revolution where the contest [is] not for landed territory, but for freedom… Let no man remove from his native country, for our principles are drawn from the book of Divine Revelation, and are incorporated into the Declaration of Independence, that all men are born equal.” It was a point difficult to argue, or deny young men like Arthur.
On the night of August 4, 1835, Arthur returns home from a night of meeting with Cook at the Society. Arthur and a friend talked and drank well past the curfew—10pm. Authorities were well-aware of recent disturbances from newspaper accounts, but did not notice Arthur lingering around until well past 1am.
He finally makes it to the Thornton house and upon climbing the stairs, picks up an axe, holding it under his arm. In the darkened home, with the floor rocking back and forth from his inebriated condition, he approaches two doors. He opens one—to Anna Thornton’s room, which included Arthur’s mother and Anna’s mother, Mrs. Brodeau.
The opening door awakened Anna and Arthur’s mother right away. There Arthur stood, drunk, with an axe in his hand, his intentions unknown. They could only assume the worst after hearing of stories of families being murdered by rampaging blacks in Southampton and Mississippi.
Maria Bowen goes straight for her son, pushing him out of the room. Anna runs out of the house, screaming for help, thinking certainly someone—her mother, perhaps—had been killed. Two neighbors appear and find Anna’s mother and Maria safe, but Arthur was gone—a runaway. A runaway with an axe. A black runaway with an axe. He most certainly would be captured and immediately hanged by a mob.
Rumors were flying about Arthur Bowen and mobs were forming, incensed by the incident at Anna Thornton’s home, and the activities of Reuben Crandall, for “exhibiting and circulating dangerous and insurrectionary writings … attempting to excite an insurrection.” Crandall was wanted for distributing anti-slavery pamphlets. He had a trunk full: The Emancipator, The Anti-Slavery Reporter, a sheet called Human Rights, and others. Crandall denied distributing the pamphlets, but held his position that he was “in favor of immediate emancipation” of the slaves. Happening days after the Thornton incident, authorities arrest Crandall. Between Arthur Bowen and his axe and Reuben Crandall and his pamphlets, crowds formed, hangings demanded.
In this environment, Beverly Snow found himself in yet another controversy. An off the cuff, unlikely, and “coarse” remark about white women, the “ladies of Washington,” attributed to Snow set the town’s excitement to a hard-to-imagine level. No one knew exactly what Beverly “said,” but no matter, they believed he said something, and that was good enough. A mob heads toward the direction of the Epicurean Eating House. Here is a man with a successful business, with regular clientele—white clientele—he was friendly, hospitable, his only concern was to provide hospitality and a great meal in his restaurant. The best restaurant in town. Why on earth would someone in Beverly’s position, being a black man, say something that would insult the ladies, his customers, everyone? Hard to say, but no matter. Beverly escaped the mob. But the hunt was on. A hunt involving pistols—and ropes.
These events, which lead to the “Snow Riot,” or “Snow-Storm,” are the intriguing and fascinating triangle of this book. Francis Scott Key, the author of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” is the District Attorney in Washington City during the period. But even Key, the author of the most beloved song in American history, isn’t the shining figure in the book. It is Beverly Snow. At a time when freed blacks are numerous, while others remain slaves with only a hope of being free, the issue of emancipation is a touchy one. Many people, even Key, seriously favored colonization; gathering up the slaves and shipping them off to Africa. Preposterous. And even though Snow is eventually captured and expected to be hanged, he perseveres, even challenging his accusers to investigate him. “What is life without character?” he asks. “It is worth nothing; it is a burden to me.” Snow’s character is well-defined in the book.
Beverly Snow is the hero of “Snow-Storm in August.” He eventually moves to Canada, setting up another Epicurean restaurant in Toronto. When it burns in a fire, he builds yet another. He prospers. He endures. People with talent, spirit and gumption always do. If I could meet Beverly Snow—and I wish I could—I would gladly shake his hand. And treat him to a nice meal.
-DL
*** For source material and more information, please visit Endpaper Review. www.endpaperreview.com.
Endpaper Review: Celebrating Books, Reading and Writing. Endpaper Review is a website and blog featuring book reviews and commentary on books, reading and the writing life. Please visit the website and join us on Facebook and Twitter.
Book Review: "Snow-Storm in August"
by Dick Loftin.
“On Wednesday, August 12, 1835, Washington City went crazy… As a result, not many people of color were seen on the streets. The bondsmen sat tight in the company of their owners. The free Negroes went to visit kin in the country. The president was on vacation, and the white man was running wild.”
– Jefferson Morley, “Snow-Storm in August”
Beverly Snow wanted success. In Washington City in the 1830s, he was determined to make his way. Having won his freedom, he came to Washington City from Virginia to open an upscale restaurant with an impressive menu of turtle soup and oysters, among other specialties. His eatery, the “Epicurean Eating House” (the name coming from the Greek philosopher, Epicurus), thrived, serving the upper crust of Washington at a time when slavery was still the norm, but freed blacks outnumbered slaves for the first time.
Slavery was big business in Washington City in the 1830’s, but the forces of freedom were drawing near and it was only a matter of time before the force had to be reckoned with. Still, there were opportunities for free blacks in Washington—more than any other time—more than any other city outside of New Orleans, and Beverly Snow had the skill and determination to take full advantage of it.
He wanted customers in his restaurant, and advertised to get them, realizing that slave holder or not, a customer was a customer and they all had to eat. “No matter what words came out of the white man’s mouth, some food had to go in,” he liked to say. Like hospitality pioneer Fred Harvey, Beverly Snow recognized that a quality meal, with quality service, would bring customers back again and again.
At a time when people would dine at a common table, in a group, with meals served only a couple of times a day and service a variable depending on where you sat at the table, Snow brought a French style and presentation to his restaurant. He offered private seating with single servings, and a menu of choices. The price was right, the food was good and repeat customers were common at the Epicurean Eating House. Beverly’s restaurant was a hit and people liked him, no matter what color they were.
But despite Snow’s success and fortitude, slavery remained a cloud over Washington City. Blacks took the words of the framers literally; that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness included them, and that all men–all men—are created equal. Black dissent was growing. Disturbing accounts of uprisings in Virginia, with rebels taking to the streets, murdering white families in their homes, were being published in newspapers. White slave owners were getting nervous, and for good reason.
William Thornton and his wife Anna lived in a home on one of Washington City’s toniest addresses. Their Negro servants lived with them, were treated well, and kept the home running after William’s death in 1828. Dr. Thornton was a highly respected designer. His design of the U.S. Capitol building introduced him and Anna to powerful political figures of the period. They were neighbors of John Quincy Adams and his wife, and they were friends of George Washington.
Anna Thornton was skilled in business and it was the various property holdings that she and her husband owned and managed that kept her going after William’s death. One of her slaves, Maria Bowen, was particularly close to Anna and her mother, Ann Brodeau, who also lived at the Thornton home. Maria was the second-generation of Bowens to work for the Thornton’s. Maria’s mother worked as the Thornton’s servant when they came to Washington City in 1795. Maria had given birth to a boy, John Arthur, meaning now, a third generation of Bowens would work in the Thornton home. It is possible that Thornton was John’s father. Arthur, as the youth was called, was smart, learned to read and write, had a quick wit, and was soft-spoken, but would often run away to satisfy his taste for horse racing; a passion he shared with Dr. Thornton. Arthur was a free-spirit, hard to control, and was often fired when hired out to perform work for others. It was during this rowdy time that Arthur met John Cook. Cook introduced Arthur to the Philomathean Talking Society, a group that discussed slavery with passion and distributed newspapers on the subject. Arthur absorbed every word. One night at a Society meeting, Cook gave a talk meant to steel itself in the minds of young men like Arthur, saying, “[W]e are thrown into a revolution where the contest [is] not for landed territory, but for freedom… Let no man remove from his native country, for our principles are drawn from the book of Divine Revelation, and are incorporated into the Declaration of Independence, that all men are born equal.” It was a point difficult to argue, or deny young men like Arthur.
On the night of August 4, 1835, Arthur returns home from a night of meeting with Cook at the Society. Arthur and a friend talked and drank well past the curfew—10pm. Authorities were well-aware of recent disturbances from newspaper accounts, but did not notice Arthur lingering around until well past 1am.
He finally makes it to the Thornton house and upon climbing the stairs, picks up an axe, holding it under his arm. In the darkened home, with the floor rocking back and forth from his inebriated condition, he approaches two doors. He opens one—to Anna Thornton’s room, which included Arthur’s mother and Anna’s mother, Mrs. Brodeau.
The opening door awakened Anna and Arthur’s mother right away. There Arthur stood, drunk, with an axe in his hand, his intentions unknown. They could only assume the worst after hearing of stories of families being murdered by rampaging blacks in Southampton and Mississippi.
Maria Bowen goes straight for her son, pushing him out of the room. Anna runs out of the house, screaming for help, thinking certainly someone—her mother, perhaps—had been killed. Two neighbors appear and find Anna’s mother and Maria safe, but Arthur was gone—a runaway. A runaway with an axe. A black runaway with an axe. He most certainly would be captured and immediately hanged by a mob.
Rumors were flying about Arthur Bowen and mobs were forming, incensed by the incident at Anna Thornton’s home, and the activities of Reuben Crandall, for “exhibiting and circulating dangerous and insurrectionary writings … attempting to excite an insurrection.” Crandall was wanted for distributing anti-slavery pamphlets. He had a trunk full: The Emancipator, The Anti-Slavery Reporter, a sheet called Human Rights, and others. Crandall denied distributing the pamphlets, but held his position that he was “in favor of immediate emancipation” of the slaves. Happening days after the Thornton incident, authorities arrest Crandall. Between Arthur Bowen and his axe and Reuben Crandall and his pamphlets, crowds formed, hangings demanded.
In this environment, Beverly Snow found himself in yet another controversy. An off the cuff, unlikely, and “coarse” remark about white women, the “ladies of Washington,” attributed to Snow set the town’s excitement to a hard-to-imagine level. No one knew exactly what Beverly “said,” but no matter, they believed he said something, and that was good enough. A mob heads toward the direction of the Epicurean Eating House. Here is a man with a successful business, with regular clientele—white clientele—he was friendly, hospitable, his only concern was to provide hospitality and a great meal in his restaurant. The best restaurant in town. Why on earth would someone in Beverly’s position, being a black man, say something that would insult the ladies, his customers, everyone? Hard to say, but no matter. Beverly escaped the mob. But the hunt was on. A hunt involving pistols—and ropes.
These events, which lead to the “Snow Riot,” or “Snow-Storm,” are the intriguing and fascinating triangle of this book. Francis Scott Key, the author of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” is the District Attorney in Washington City during the period. But even Key, the author of the most beloved song in American history, isn’t the shining figure in the book. It is Beverly Snow. At a time when freed blacks are numerous, while others remain slaves with only a hope of being free, the issue of emancipation is a touchy one. Many people, even Key, seriously favored colonization; gathering up the slaves and shipping them off to Africa. Preposterous. And even though Snow is eventually captured and expected to be hanged, he perseveres, even challenging his accusers to investigate him. “What is life without character?” he asks. “It is worth nothing; it is a burden to me.” Snow’s character is well-defined in the book.
Beverly Snow is the hero of “Snow-Storm in August.” He eventually moves to Canada, setting up another Epicurean restaurant in Toronto. When it burns in a fire, he builds yet another. He prospers. He endures. People with talent, spirit and gumption always do. If I could meet Beverly Snow—and I wish I could—I would gladly shake his hand. And treat him to a nice meal.
-DL
*** For source material and more information, please visit Endpaper Review. www.endpaperreview.com.
Endpaper Review: Celebrating Books, Reading and Writing. Endpaper Review is a website and blog featuring book reviews and commentary on books, reading and the writing life. Please visit the website and join us on Facebook and Twitter.
May 16, 2017
Interesting account of the circa 1830s events in Washington City during the Andrew Jackson administration, including a nice overview of the lives of free blacks and an account of a race riot sparked by a court case involving a young slave, Arthur Bowen, who drunkenly raised an ax in his mistress's bedroom (where the mistress, her mother, and Arthur's mother were sleeping).
These events, occurring during Andrew Jackson's presidency, resulted in a capital prosecution against Bowen by Francis Scott Key, then the Washington City prosecutor. Bowen's mistress, convinced of Bowen's innocence, mounted a vigorous defense to spare his life. Key, known for his authorship of The Star-Spangled Banner, was a well-known lawyer and legal figure in the Washington area, and became a confidante and advisor to Jackson. He was instrumental in the president's appointment of Roger Taney as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Taney is remembered today as the author of the 1857 Dred Scott decision, a decision that helped bring to a crisis the country's polarization over slavery and contributed to the Civil War. The book provides a good overview of slavery and freedom for African-Americans as it existed in the US Capital at that time.
I read this book shortly after Trump made his comments about the seventh president, and how he would have successfully avoided the Civil War. Indeed, if Jackson had remained president for another 25 years, we may not have had a Civil War, but instead have had slavery as a universally legal phenomenon. It is willful blindness to imagine Andrew Jackson being able to peacefully resolve the country's divisions over this terrible aspect of our history.
These events, occurring during Andrew Jackson's presidency, resulted in a capital prosecution against Bowen by Francis Scott Key, then the Washington City prosecutor. Bowen's mistress, convinced of Bowen's innocence, mounted a vigorous defense to spare his life. Key, known for his authorship of The Star-Spangled Banner, was a well-known lawyer and legal figure in the Washington area, and became a confidante and advisor to Jackson. He was instrumental in the president's appointment of Roger Taney as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Taney is remembered today as the author of the 1857 Dred Scott decision, a decision that helped bring to a crisis the country's polarization over slavery and contributed to the Civil War. The book provides a good overview of slavery and freedom for African-Americans as it existed in the US Capital at that time.
I read this book shortly after Trump made his comments about the seventh president, and how he would have successfully avoided the Civil War. Indeed, if Jackson had remained president for another 25 years, we may not have had a Civil War, but instead have had slavery as a universally legal phenomenon. It is willful blindness to imagine Andrew Jackson being able to peacefully resolve the country's divisions over this terrible aspect of our history.
August 13, 2025
A history of Washington, DC around 1835 and especially the tensions around slavery in the US's capital city. Andrew Jackson was president and disliked eastern institutions. Following some biased advise, he did not continue the US bank that guaranteed so many loans and businesses causing economic troubles. Then a young slave Arthur Bowen, probably the son of his then deceased white master, gets drunk and wanders into his mistresses' bedroom at night with an axe. When asked, he made claims that he was owed freedom but was too inebriated to remember anything the next day. In response the white workers in the city decide on mob justice to destroy any abolitionists and any black people that they feel have more success than they ought to have as black men, especially Beverly Snow, causing a "snow-storm" riot in DC. The history provides context for the riot and continues the story of Arthur Bowen, Francis Scott Key who prosecuted the black men and abolitionists and the trials during the tensions.
The research done was impressive and extensive and tells an interesting story. Morley could have possible edited out some of the detours in his research which were not as relevant but it was an interesting snapshot of DC and the US with the racial tensions and the "need" by the white mob to serve their version of justice. I really appreciated the lawmakers who stood up to the mob and insisted on trials and rule of law. It was interesting to read and make comparisons with today's politics.
The research done was impressive and extensive and tells an interesting story. Morley could have possible edited out some of the detours in his research which were not as relevant but it was an interesting snapshot of DC and the US with the racial tensions and the "need" by the white mob to serve their version of justice. I really appreciated the lawmakers who stood up to the mob and insisted on trials and rule of law. It was interesting to read and make comparisons with today's politics.
June 30, 2025
Some History, if told truthfully, is horrific.
Based on the bibliography alone, I followed along the trail of occurrences and atrocities shared in this book. I found it painful to read but felt I needed to finish it.
This issue, this story is being repeated today, here in our same country where we once enslaved fellow humans. It is happening again. This book is a reminder of cruelty from one human to another.
Based on the bibliography alone, I followed along the trail of occurrences and atrocities shared in this book. I found it painful to read but felt I needed to finish it.
This issue, this story is being repeated today, here in our same country where we once enslaved fellow humans. It is happening again. This book is a reminder of cruelty from one human to another.
May 11, 2017
Quickly paced and written with a lively eye to period detail, this is a very readable account of a formative event in DC history that no one remembers. The persons are well described and the biography is kept to the things necessary to the story. In all an excellent account of race relations in Jacksonian Washington.
October 10, 2017
I read enough of this book to learn that Francis Scott Key got lucky when he wrote the "Star Spangled Banner". With the current flap about the NFL and the anthem, I think this bit of history should be revisited by Sports Illustrated or Time magazine. It's time to change the anthem of the United States to something that everyone can believe in,
March 1, 2023
I learned a lot about Washington in the 1830s, early restauranteurs, Francis Scott Key, and the perils of being an abolitionist in the federal city. Putting Snow, a "mulatto" gourmet cook in the title seemed more about creating a clever title than about his central role in the race riot, but Jefferson Morley explored and illuminated a part of DC's history that our residents should read about.
February 15, 2021
I really liked this book when I first read it years ago. Having just re-read it and hearing the author speak—WOW. It illustrates DC’s first race riot and, on the heels of January 6, the more things change......
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