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| John Jay |
In 1934 the NY Society Library found a discarded box in the basement of their building at 109 University Place. Inside was a long lost, deteriorating treasure: the library ledger from the 1700s.
As I read through the list of borrowed books, I noticed that John Jay was a particularly avid borrower and, as William J. Dean points out in his article, he was checked out books in many different subjects, with the exception of law. He checked out books by Johnathan Swift, a history of the Five Nations in Canada, Captain Cook’s story about his voyage to the South Pole, a book on Natural History and a book entitled Arabian Nights Entertainment. You can tell a lot about a person by reading their library history, which is why I keep mine private.
I vaguely remembered the name John Jay from 12th grade American History class. When I went back for a refresher course I was reminded that not only was he a founding father, but he was also the first Justice of the Supreme Court. In fact I learned that he was a classic colonial overachiever; his roles included President of the Continental Congress, Ambassador to France and Spain, negotiator of the Jay Treaty, co-writer of the Federalists Papers and Governor of New York. But none of those roles provided him with his enduring passion: abolishing slavery.
In 1785 owning slaves in New York was as common as having a profile on Facebook. Jay himself bought and owned slaves whom he freed when they became a “proper age”. According to an article by Jake Sudderth and included in the papers of John Jay at Columbia University, John Jay’s father, Peter, was one of the largest slave owners in New York. It would have been easy and acceptable for John to continue in his father’s footsteps and make things easy for himself while he was at it.
Instead he decided to fight for what he had come to believe was right. He got together some powerful friends and established the Manumission Society in 1785 to abolish slavery in New York. The Society set up boycotts, entered lawsuits on behalf of slaves and set up “African Free Schools”. In a 1785 letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush Jay wrote,
“I consider education to be the soul of the republic. I wish to see all unjust and all unnecessary discriminations everywhere abolished, and that the time may soon come when all our inhabitants of every colour and denomination shall be free and equal partakers of our political liberty”
Not to be picky but how about gender? While I’m glad that Jay can’t see the racial inequalities of education today, 225 years later, it would be something to see the look on his face when he discovered who the president was.
John Jay did not rest until he was Governor of New York and finally passed a law gradually abolishing slavery in 1799. Finally he had won his fifteen year fight. Jay passed his passion to his son, William, who was one of the most prominent abolitionists of his time (and a N.Y. Judge) and his grandson, John Jay II, also a part of the Anti-Slavery movement (and a founder of the Republican Party in NY).
John Jay should be remembered in American History classes, not because he was the first Supreme Court Justice or President of the Continental Congress or even as the Governor of NY. He should be remembered as an American Hero that stood up for his beliefs. He should be remembered as a hero because he showed Americans that values are worth standing up for, even when they make people around you uncomfortable. John Jay didn’t necessarily put his life at risk, like Harriet Tubman, but he did jeopardize his reputation and his ability to gain political power. It would have been a whole lot easier to keep his mouth shut and go with the flow.
I’m so glad he didn’t.
As I read through the list of borrowed books, I noticed that John Jay was a particularly avid borrower and, as William J. Dean points out in his article, he was checked out books in many different subjects, with the exception of law. He checked out books by Johnathan Swift, a history of the Five Nations in Canada, Captain Cook’s story about his voyage to the South Pole, a book on Natural History and a book entitled Arabian Nights Entertainment. You can tell a lot about a person by reading their library history, which is why I keep mine private.
I vaguely remembered the name John Jay from 12th grade American History class. When I went back for a refresher course I was reminded that not only was he a founding father, but he was also the first Justice of the Supreme Court. In fact I learned that he was a classic colonial overachiever; his roles included President of the Continental Congress, Ambassador to France and Spain, negotiator of the Jay Treaty, co-writer of the Federalists Papers and Governor of New York. But none of those roles provided him with his enduring passion: abolishing slavery.
In 1785 owning slaves in New York was as common as having a profile on Facebook. Jay himself bought and owned slaves whom he freed when they became a “proper age”. According to an article by Jake Sudderth and included in the papers of John Jay at Columbia University, John Jay’s father, Peter, was one of the largest slave owners in New York. It would have been easy and acceptable for John to continue in his father’s footsteps and make things easy for himself while he was at it.
Instead he decided to fight for what he had come to believe was right. He got together some powerful friends and established the Manumission Society in 1785 to abolish slavery in New York. The Society set up boycotts, entered lawsuits on behalf of slaves and set up “African Free Schools”. In a 1785 letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush Jay wrote,
“I consider education to be the soul of the republic. I wish to see all unjust and all unnecessary discriminations everywhere abolished, and that the time may soon come when all our inhabitants of every colour and denomination shall be free and equal partakers of our political liberty”
Not to be picky but how about gender? While I’m glad that Jay can’t see the racial inequalities of education today, 225 years later, it would be something to see the look on his face when he discovered who the president was.
John Jay did not rest until he was Governor of New York and finally passed a law gradually abolishing slavery in 1799. Finally he had won his fifteen year fight. Jay passed his passion to his son, William, who was one of the most prominent abolitionists of his time (and a N.Y. Judge) and his grandson, John Jay II, also a part of the Anti-Slavery movement (and a founder of the Republican Party in NY).
John Jay should be remembered in American History classes, not because he was the first Supreme Court Justice or President of the Continental Congress or even as the Governor of NY. He should be remembered as an American Hero that stood up for his beliefs. He should be remembered as a hero because he showed Americans that values are worth standing up for, even when they make people around you uncomfortable. John Jay didn’t necessarily put his life at risk, like Harriet Tubman, but he did jeopardize his reputation and his ability to gain political power. It would have been a whole lot easier to keep his mouth shut and go with the flow.
I’m so glad he didn’t.
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