Gilbert Horton

Gilbert Horton was a free-born black citizen who was captured with the intent on being sold into slavery.[1]

For the North Dakota architect, see Gilbert R. Horton.

Background

In August 1826, a local business owner in Croton Falls, New York, named John Owen noticed an advertisement in The National Intelligencer[2] describing Horton. Owen brought this to the attention of William Jay, who was the son of John Jay, in order to express concern over the capture of a free citizen.[3]

Relief from capture

Through the efforts of Jay and Owen, Governor DeWitt Clinton wrote[4] a letter on behalf of Horton's freedom, to then President John Quincy Adams.

The work of Governor Clinton and Senator Henry Clay[5] ultimately secured Horton's release.

References
  1. Wilson, Carol (2015). Freedom at Risk: The Kidnapping of Free Blacks in America, 1780-1865. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 73–74. ISBN 978-0813149790.
  2. William Jay and the constitutional movement for the abolition of slavery. 1894.
  3. William Cooper Nell (1855). The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution. pp. 331–333.
  4. An inquiry into the character and tendency of the American colonization, and American anti-slavery societies. 1835.
  5. The Papers of Henry Clay: Secretary of State 1826, Volume 5. 2015.
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