All For Liberty: The Charleston Workhouse Slave Rebellion of 1849 by Jeff Strickland

Abstract

In this brief, fast-paced volume, Strickland offers a much-needed comprehensive account of the under-studied Charleston Workhouse Rebellion of 1849. This slave-led uprising and eventual escape of more than three-dozen slaves triggered new rounds of public debate about control of the city’s enslaved population. The Workhouse facility served multiple purposes—as a place for punishment and short-term imprisonment of the enslaved, as a holding facility for the enslaved craftsmen who hired out, and as a place for slaves to lodge while awaiting sale. The incident, commonly called a “riot” by presiding Charleston authorities, occurred at a critical moment: At that time, Christian paternalists in the Lowcountry were attempting to establish separate worship facilities for slaves, and a large in-migration of Irish workers had recently arrived, creating a white majority in the city. Moreover, Congress and the Charleston press were engaged in ongoing national and local debates about the expansion of slavery.Strickland weaves these several complicated narratives together through the story of Nicholas (Kelly), a skilled enslaved plasterer who became the rebellion’s unquestioned leader, and William Kelly, his owner, who allowed Nicholas to hire out in return for a handsome percentage of his earnings. In 1845, however, William took Nicholas to New Orleans, a booming center of the international cotton trade, in hopes of generating even more profit from his artisanal skill. Strickland contends that Nicholas preferred life in New Orleans, where he converted to Catholicism. Unquestionably, Nicholas grew more defiant after his return to Charleston, where he continued to speak of his faith in a just God and his willingness to face death. When William, suspecting Nicholas of withholding money, asked employment agents to search Nicholas for cash, Nicholas attacked and injured two white men working for the agency, for which he was charged. Though represented by able legal counsel, Nicholas was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. But after the state appeals court overturned the verdict, Nicholas was retried and given a lesser sentence—confinement in the Workhouse for three years of hard labor and monthly whippings.In July 1849, when an owner came to remove his female slave from the Workhouse (her connection to Nicholas, if any, remains unclear), Nicholas resisted authorities forcefully and led the escape of thirty-seven slaves into the streets of Charleston. Authorities regrouped and quickly captured Nicholas and two other ringleaders. Nicholas was tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang with his two chief accomplices exactly one week after the incident. Other escapees sought refuge in and around Charleston, but only six remained at large by the time of Nicholas’ execution. The Workhouse rebellion and the escape of three-dozen slaves set Charleston on edge until well after the rebellion had been suppressed. A large hostile crowd threatened to tear down the new Episcopal church building (Calvary) constructed for separate slave worship. The protest forced a nearly four-month delay while a “Committee of Fifty,” appointed by the mayor, collected information from elsewhere in the South before recommending that the expanded mission to the enslaved be allowed to proceed.Strickland’s engaging narrative sheds new light on issues that challenged both Charleston and the lower South during the late antebellum era. His meticulous research in newspapers (both local and national), public records, and manuscripts tells the story of the Workhouse rebellion and its aftermath more fully than any previous account.Despite his prodigious research, however, his citations leave more than a few direct quotations unattributed in the notes. More consequentially, Strickland’s interpretation is self-contradictory on key points. He portrays slave discipline in Charleston as severe and the city as living constantly in fear of slave resistance. Yet he also gives the impression that the slaves had considerable leeway in the city: Enslaved artisans who lived in the workhouse frequently hired out, and other slaves hired out around the city, having only occasional contact with their owners and much free time on their hands. This comparative laxity of control doubtless facilitated the smooth flow of work and commerce in Charleston, but it hardly suggested a city under siege.Finally, the naming of the incident also highlights the ambiguity of the motive behind it. White contemporaries knew it as the “Workhouse riot” (paralleling modern prison riots), but it was also a rebellion of prisoners who were slaves. Escape from the Workhouse stood as its first goal. It stopped short (or authorities stopped it short) of a full-fledged insurrection. Once the enslaved prisoners escaped, however, their chief aim was to avoid recapture rather than to foment a full-scale revolt. Nonetheless, the Workhouse rebellion brought key issues regarding the future of slavery and white safety to the forefront of public life in Charleston, where they would remain for more than a decade.