Episode 3: The United States v. Reuben Crandall
In 1835, Washington D.C. was a city on edge: tensions over race and slavery were nearing a boiling point. District Attorney Francis Scott Key (author of the national anthem!) was tasked with maintaining order in the city. But when Key charged a man named Reuben Crandall with distributing anti-slavery pamphlets, he unwittingly set off an explosive chain of events...
Episode Resources
Episode Transcript
Works Cited/
Referenced
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“Alien and Sedition Acts (1798),” National Archives.
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“American Colonization Society: 1816-1865,” Africans in America, PBS.
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Herbert Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts (New York: International Publishers, 1974).
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Mark Clague, “Separating fact from fiction about ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’” National Constitution Center, 14 September 2016.
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“District of Columbia Law,” Justia.
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Nicholas Guyatt, “The American Colonization Society: 200 Years of the ‘Colonizing Trick,’ Black Perspectives, African American Intellectual History Society, 22 December 2016.
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Neil S. Kramer, “The Trial of Reuben Crandall,” in Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C., vol. 50 (1980).
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Jennifer L. Larson, “A Rebellion to Remember: The Legacy of Nat Turner,” Documenting the American South digital publishing initiative at the University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Douglas E. Lee, “Seditious Libel,” Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, last updated December 2, 2023.
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Debra Michals, “Prudence Crandall,” National Women’s History Museum, 2015.
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Jefferson Morley, Snow-storm in August: Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the Forgotten Race Riot of 1835 (New York: Doubleday, 2012).
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Jefferson Morley, “The ‘Snow Riot,’” Washington Post, 6 February 2005.
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“Star-Spangled Banner,” The Star-Spangled Banner Project at the National Museum of American History.
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Roger Taney, The Dred Scott Decision: Opinion of Chief Justice Taney (New York: Van Evrie, Horton, & Co., 1860).
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The Trial of Reuben Crandall, M.D. Charged with Publishing and Circulating Seditious and Incendiary Papers, &c. In the District of Columbia, with the Intent of Exciting Servile Insurrection. Carefully Reported, and Compiled from the Written Statements of the Court and the Counsel (Washington, D.C.: 1836).
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The trial of Reuben Crandall, M.D. : charged with publishing seditious libels, by circulating the publications of the American Anti-Slavery Society, before the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia, held at Washington, in April, 1836, occupying the court the period of ten days (New York: 1837).
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Matthew Wells, "The Bank War," in Econ Focus (Richmond, VA: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond), Second Quarter, 2023.