Wars don't just break out. They brew.
Much of the Western New York region -- especially Niagara County and southern Ontario, Canada -- was a virtual hotbed of anti-slavery activism in the years before the Civil War.
Once it became clear in the consciences of a majority of good men and women that the inhumanity of slavery was doing more damage than good to the country, the gradual movement toward abolition began to grow beyond this area, spilling over into neighboring states and up into New England.
Others were motivated by their desire to preserve the Union at any cost. President Millard Fillmore was willing to compromise by enacting the Fugitive Slave Acts, which made it a federal crime to help escaped slaves.
It took too many years for the country to awaken to the fact that slavery is wrong. The enslavement of African captives began in this country as far back as the early 1600s, but tolerance for the filthy trade waned by the 1800s.
Organizations began cropping up around the state offering open support for the Underground Railroad's chief engineers, like Harriet Tubman and radical Quaker Rowland T. Robinson, founder of Vermont's Anti-Slavery Society.
One such man, Theodore Weld, clearly understood the importance of New York to the defeat of the evil institution. He wrote to Robinson in 1836, "New York is the Empire State. Its extent of territory, its position with reference to the South, its numerous population, its vast political sway, its commercial relations with the South ... all make it a matter of immediate moment that it should be abolitionised as speedily as possible. ... No state in the Union is now so ripe for lectures as this."
The response to his observation was nothing short of amazing. Dozens of agents spread across the state. Within a year, the Niagara County Anti-Slavery Society boasted more than 21,000 members, with branches in nine of the county's 12 townships.
By the time the Civil War started in 1861, the lines were drawn.
Lockport, like all other towns in the county, had a company of the state militia. The company gathered for a week of regimental drilling with the companies from other towns at one of the county military camps. Located on the escarpment between Transit and Prospect streets was Camp Riley.
Lockport was a beehive of military activity. William. H. Bush, who ran the Oyster Saloon under the Lockport Exchange Bank, learned of President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers, and tacked a poster seeking recruits to the wall of his saloon, volunteering his services as captain.
According to the Niagara County Historical Society, "he thus became and was later acknowledged to be the first volunteer for the Civil War. Soon, ten other recruiting stations appeared around the village and the 28th, 151st, and 129th (later the 8th Heavy Artillery) and one or two other Regiments, composed largely of Niagara County men camped and drilled on the Old Fairgrounds at Washburn and Willow Streets."
Niagara County's historically important role in bringing about an end to the savagery of slavery should be recognized and memorialized by our residents and our tourist guests, and deserves more attention from our tourism and economic development agencies.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 7 2006 |