Changes for Mrs. Thornton’s Arthur: Patterns of Domestic Service in Washington, DC, 1800–1835

Abstract

Several hours before dawn on 5 August 1835, a Washington slave slipped into his mistress’s bedroom, axe in hand. Anna Maria Thornton awoke to see a drunken Arthur, her longtime house slave and the son of her trusted cook and maid, Maria, threatening her with, she believed, murder. Luckily for Mrs. Thornton, Maria was in the room and, “being fortunately awake, seized him & got him out” while her mistress sounded the alarm to the neighbors. Shocked and horrified, Mrs. Thornton recorded in her diary the attack and Arthur’s escape, subsequent capture, and criminal indictment (Thornton, Aug.—Oct. 1835). Some of Washington’s less reputable citizens reacted with hate and violence. In the ensuing days, out-of-work white mechanics gathered at the steps of the city hall, looking for a scapegoat for the disorder Arthur represented. On 12 August the mob turned its wrath on the vulnerable free black community. The “Snow Storm,” named for a victim of its destruction, free black Beverly Snow, was Washington’s most infamous riot. The crowd burned Snow’s restaurant, along with several other symbols of free black success (Werner 1986: 243–45; Curry 1981: 99–100).