by Bill Kleppel

In 1824, John Bolding was born enslaved in South Carolina. On August 24, 1851, he was a free man working as a tailor in Poughkeepsie. On August 29, 1851, John Bolding was held before a Federal Law Commissioner in New York City.

This commissioner would determine if Bolding was free to live his life with his family, or if he was the property of Robert C. Anderson of Columbia, South Carolina.

The concept of time is occasionally confounding and unfathomable. The Emancipation Proclamation was enacted into law 160 years ago in 1863. This vast period of time encapsulates the Wright Brothers first flight off the ground, as well as Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon.  It also includes the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and our present burgeoning Information Age.

There were people born during the Civil War that were still alive in the early 1970’s. If you were born during or before this period, you were breathing the same air as those seniors. These same seniors, as children, once breathed the same air as people who were enslaved by law in this country.

It’s not as long ago as you think.

John Bolding escaped from his Southern captors in 1846. When he arrived in Poughkeepsie, John attained employment as a tailor in a shop on Main Street near what was to become the Windsor Hotel.  By 1851, he was married and living on Pine Street.

In the previous year of 1850, a new Fugitive Slave Bill was signed into law by President Millard Fillmore. California was admitted into the Union as a free state, and slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia, both as concessions to the Northern States. The South was given enhanced laws to utilize the Federal Government’s role in returning “escaped” slaves from the North. New commissioners were put in place by federal judges to issue warrants to slave owners, slave catchers, and U.S. Marshals, to arrest suspected fugitive slaves.

US citizens were subjugated to help. They were also threatened with being fined up to $1,000 and incarceration if they interfered with the arrest and capture of a fugitive slave.

Others were incentivized by the aggressive nature of the slave catchers. People were given large sums of money, usually directly from the pockets of the slave owner, for any information on the whereabouts of the formerly enslaved.

Mrs. Dickinson was a citizen of Poughkeepsie who was born in South Carolina. She noticed John Bolding and reported his presence in the city to his former owner, Robert C. Anderson.  It was later found that Anderson paid Mrs. Dickinson $800 for her information.

Anderson was able to garner the services of US Marshall Henry F. Talmadge in order to kidnap Bolding after he left work on the night of August 25. The Marshall forcibly pushed Bolding into a waiting horse drawn carriage, and set off for the Poughkeepsie Railroad Station.  They boarded a train bound for New York City where Bolding would be detained.

This series of events infuriated many citizens of Poughkeepsie. Meetings and immediate action for Bolding’s return commenced soon after his abduction, including direct deliberations behind the scenes with Anderson and his business partner, James Barnett of Newark, New Jersey.

On August 29, John Bolding was brought before US Commissioner Nelson in lower Manhattan for a hearing to prove whether he was the property of Robert C. Anderson. Representatives for Anderson confirmed who Bolding was, and another date was set for the judge’s decision.  

On September 1, at 11am in front of a packed courtroom (with John Bolding’s wife and mother-in-law in attendance) the judge decided that “…satisfactory proof had been made” that the defendant “owed services” to Anderson. Bolding was to be removed from the court and returned to South Carolina with the plaintiff.

From the time of the court ruling to September 10, 1851, a financial deal was set in place between Anderson and a group of Poughkeepsie residents. A sum of $2,000 was to be raised to “redeem” Mr. Bolding from his enslavement.

A document was donated to Adriance Memorial Library by John B. Grubb in 1935. It’s a list that was gleaned from a leather bound notebook titled “Memorandum of Purchase of Jno. Bolding,” once owned by Mr. Grubb’s grandfather.  The list contains 176 names of local residents who made donations for the release of Bolding.

John Bolding was able to return to Poughkeepsie and to freedom. He lived and worked in the City until his death on April 30, 1876 at the age of 52. He was interred in an unmarked grave at the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery.

On May 16, 1998, the Dutchess County Historical Society’s Black History Project Committee honored Bolding by finally placing a grave marker where he’d been buried. Many were in attendance for the dedication. A religious ceremony was conducted with an invocation by the Reverend Debra Gause. The Poughkeepsie High School Color Guard performed. The mayor of Poughkeepsie, Collette LaFuente, was in attendance and gave a solemn and poignant speech. In her words, “This ceremony is a moment of dignity and nobility… … John Bolding has achieved a lasting place in our history”.*

References

“John A. Bolding, Fugitive Slave – Dutchess County Historical Society.” Dutchess County Historical Society –, 24 July 2022, dchsny.org/bolding/.

Maryland State Archives: Fugitive Slave Law and Its Victims, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1861, msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5300/sc5339/000094/000000/000002/unrestricted/The_Fugitive_Slave_Law_and_Its_Victims_ocr_web.pdf.

“Civil War; John Bolding: Escaped and Ransomed.” Vassar Encyclopedia, 2004, vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/vassar-in-wartime/civil-war/.

Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 – Constitutional Rights Foundation, www.crf-usa.org/images/pdf/Fugitive-Slave-Law-1850.pdf. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.

“Afternoon Report.” Newspapers.Com, Buffalo Courier Express, 27 Aug. 1851, newscomny.newspapers.com/image/343314508/?terms=%22John%20Bolding%22&pqsid=YcAS5ewQIvvrCh1PPHy4jQ%3A32507%3A606752114&match=1.

“Fugitive Bolding Before The Commissioner.” Newspapers.Com, The Evening Post, 29 Aug. 1851, newscomny.newspapers.com/image/32696338/?terms=%22John%20Bolding%22&pqsid=YcAS5ewQIvvrCh1PPHy4jQ%3A32507%3A606752114&match=1.

“City Intelligence: Fugitive Slave Case Decision.” Newspapers.Com, The Evening Post, 1 Sept. 1851, newscomny.newspapers.com/image/32696346/?terms=%22John%20Bolding%22&pqsid=YcAS5ewQIvvrCh1PPHy4jQ%3A32507%3A606752114&match=1.

“The Slave Redeemed.” Newspapers.Com, The Buffalo Daily Republic, 10 Sept. 1851, newscomny.newspapers.com/image/255008443/?terms=%22John%20Bolding%22&pqsid=YcAS5ewQIvvrCh1PPHy4jQ%3A32507%3A606752114&match=1.

Reynolds, Helen Wilkinson. “John A. Bolding, Fugitive Slave.” Dchsny.Org, Dutchess County Historical Society, 2015, dchsny.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/DCHS-YB-2015-V94.pdf.

Mylod Hayden, Eileen. “John A. Bolding: The Rest of The Story.” Dchsny.Org, Dutchess County Historical Society, 2015, dchsny.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/DCHS-YB-2015-V94.pdf.