The Problem of Slavery in Christian America: An Ethical-Judicial History of American Slavery and Racism

by Joel McDurmon

In an 1833 case, for example, a group of free blacks assembled for a party after carefully applying, paying for, and receiving the required permit. Despite the compliance, after the party had well ensued, around 11 p.m., a group of Key’s constables surrounded the building with “guns, pistols, and clubs,” closed in, and proceeded to rob their victims of all their money and watches. Around the same time, a constable attempted to nab a free black woman while crossing a bridge. In her attempt to flee—likely from being sold into slavery—she ended up over the bridge and in the Potomac and drowned. The matter would likely have passed in silence, as many did, had not William Lloyd Garrison’s early compatriot Benjamin Lundy used their paper to expose it and call for federal action, implicating Key’s administration: “There is neither mercy nor justice for colored people in this district.” Instead of denouncing the police corruptions, Key blasted the abolitionist papers who dared criticize them.