Six years before the onset of the Civil War, two courageous figures
- one a free white man and one an enslaved black woman - risked
personal liberty to ensure each other's freedom in an explosive
episode that captured the attention of a nation on the brink of
cataclysmic change. In this deeply researched account of the rescue
of the slave Jane Johnson by the Philadelphia Quaker and fervent
abolitionist Passmore Williamson, of the federal court case that
followed, and of Johnson's selfless efforts to free the jailed
Williamson, veteran journalist Nat Brandt and Emmy-winning
filmmaker Yanna Kroyt Brandt capture the heroism and humanity at
the heart of this important moment in American history. In July
1855 Williamson and his colleague, William Still, responded to a
written plea from Johnson and rushed to the Camden ferry dock to
liberate her and her two children from their master in a daring
confrontation. Unbeknownst to the abolitionists, Johnson's owner,
Col. John Hill Wheeler, was connected to the highest levels of
government and was a personal friend of President Franklin Pierce.
As a result, Wheeler was able to have Williamson arrested and
confined to Moyamensing Prison, an institution notorious for
harboring Philadelphia's worst criminals. The case and Williamson's
imprisonment became an international cause celebre with famous
leaders of the abolitionist movement, black and white, visiting the
prisoner. In one of the episode's most dramatic moments, Johnson
returned to Philadelphia, risking her own freedom, to testify on
Williamson's behalf. There were petitions in many states to impeach
Judge John Kintzing Kane, who stubbornly refused to release
Williamson. The case became a battle of wills between a man who was
unwavering in his defiance of slavery and another determined to
defend the so-called rights of the slave owner. Williamson's
martyrdom spotlighted Philadelphia as one northern city where the
growing rifts between states' rights, federal mandates, and
personal liberties had come to the fore. Encompassing acts of
brazen defiance, heroic self-sacrifice, high courtroom drama, and
the rise of a cult of celebrity, the Brandts' brisk narrative takes
readers into the lives of the central participants in this complex
episode. Passmore Williamson, Jane Johnson, William Still, Colonel
Wheeler, and Judge Kane are brought vibrantly to life as fully
developed and flawed characters drawn unexpectedly into the annals
of history. ""In the Shadow of the Civil War"" chronicles events
that presage the divisive national conflict that followed and that
underscore the passionate views on freedom and justice that
continue to define the American experience.
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