• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

NY-CT Border Disputes & The Kidnapping of Freedom-Seeker Peter John Lee

September 27, 2022 by Alan J. Singer 3 Comments

kidnapping of John Peter Lee courtesy Anti-Slavery AlmanacIf you’ve driven on U.S. 684 or Byram Road in Greenwich, CT you see signs notifying you that you are crisscrossing back and forth between New York and Connecticut. The border has been a sore point since the British colonies were founded in the 17th century.

In the 1680s Bedford and Rye were shifted from Connecticut to New York leading to a local taxpayers revolt. In 1857, a report by the New York State Senate noted, “Along the whole distance the greatest uncertainty existed, and a distrust and want of confidence in all the supposed lines.” The border was not finally clarified until 1879.

One person caught up in the border uncertainty was Peter John Lee, a freedom seeker who escaped from slavery in Virginia and was living in Greenwich, Connecticut. In Connecticut, a captured runaway could not be returned to slavery without a jury trial where he or she had the opportunity to dispute the claims of slave-catchers. In New York, however, an African American could be kidnapped by slave-catchers and sold into slavery in the South without recourse to due process and a chance to defend themselves.

Peter John Lee, who had escaped slavery in Virginia in 1830, was living and working in Greenwich, Connecticut on a farm owned by Seth Lyon, just east of the New York State border. At the time Lee was married and a father.

On November, 20th, 1836, an acquaintance of Lee was paid by slave-catchers to lure him across the border into Port Chester in New York State. Once over the border, Lee was apprehended by notorious “blackbirders” Tobias Boudinot and Daniel Nash of New York’s “Kidnapping Club.” They were joined by Sheriff Edward Waddy who brought Lee back to Virginia and enslavement.

An account in the New York Sun reported that Lee ” was immediately seized by ten or a dozen ruffians, bound, and thrown into a wagon, which was then driven at great speed for New York.” Although Boudinot had a valid warrant in New York State that was requested from Virginia for the arrest of Lee for stealing a boat during his escape, Nash was later charged and fined for the kidnapping of Lee.

David Ruggles, head of New York’s Vigilance Committee, enlisted prominent local white abolitionists and attorneys to defend Lee but the Vigilance Committee unable to prevent him from being returned to slavery. In a letter, William Johnston, secretary of the New York Vigilance Committee, described Lee as a man who “bore a good character for industry and became quite a favorite in the neighborhood.” Lee escaped to Canada from Virginia seven years after being recaptured using a boat to help a group of twelve freedom seekers reach Cape May in New Jersey.

Peter John Lee ‘s case received wide attention when it was featured in an 1839 issue of the Anti-Slavery Almanac. An image showed Northern whites capturing a free Black man with the inscription:

“November 20th, 1836, (Sunday,) Peter John Lee, a free colored man of Westchester Co., NY, was kidnapped by Tobias Boudinot, E. K. Waddy, John Lyon, and Daniel D. Nash, of N. Y., city, and hurried away from his wife and children into slavery. One went up to shake hands with him, while the others were ready to use the gag and chain.”

The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War by Jonathan Daniel Wells (New York: Hachette, 2020) is an important and very disturbing history of slavecatchers and Black resistance in New York.

Illustration: kidnapping of John Peter Lee courtesy Anti-Slavery Almanac.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Connecticut, Crime and Justice, Legal History, Slavery, Westchester County

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sean I. Ahern says

    September 28, 2022 at 12:42 PM

    Great information! Thanks for educating the educators!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Oct. rambling: total Latin dorks – Ramblin’ with Roger says:
    October 17, 2022 at 12:18 PM

    […] https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2022/09/ny-ct-border-disputes-freedom-seeker-peter-john-lee/ NY-CT Border Disputes and The Kidnapping of Freedom-Seeker Peter John Lee […]

    Reply
  2. Black History Article Archives (Updated November 20, 2022) – Keeper of Knowledge says:
    November 20, 2022 at 6:19 PM

    […] New York Almanack: NY-CT Border Disputes & The Kidnapping of Freedom-Seeker Peter John Lee […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Help Support The Almanack

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • James S. Kaplan on New York State Canals Bicentennial: Some History & Plans For Celebrations
  • M Raff on Deep Time: Lake Ontario’s Lucky Stones & Fossils
  • N. Couture on Iroquois and the Invention of the Empire State
  • Bob on Are Baby Boomers The Worst Generation?
  • Anonymous on Gymnastics History: The Legacy of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn’s Turnerism
  • Editorial Staff on Women at Seneca Knitting Mill in Seneca Falls
  • B cottingham-kleckner on Women at Seneca Knitting Mill in Seneca Falls
  • Landscaping By G. Pellegrino on Work Begins On Bayard Cutting Arboretum Visitors Center
  • Colette on Cornwall-on-Hudson Historian Colette Fulton Being Honored
  • Daniel RAPP on Former NY Central Adirondack Division Rails Being Removed

Recent New York Books

“The Amazing Iroquois” and the Invention of the Empire State
american inheritance
Norman Rockwell's Models
The 1947 Utica Blue Sox Book Cover
vanishing point
From the Battlefield to the Stage
field of corpses
Madison's Militia
in the adirondacks

Secondary Sidebar

Mohawk Valley Trading Company Honey, Honey Comb, Buckwheat Honey, Beeswax Candles, Maple Syrup, Maple Sugar
preservation league