Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory

First Slaves

1 First Slaves There are two versions of how Robin and Polly Holmes, both Missouri slaves, came to Oregon. One, told by Robin Holmes, is that his owner, Nathaniel Ford, persuaded him to come in exchange for his freedom. The other, told by Ford descendants, is that Holmes begged to come and Ford brought Holmes— and Holmes’ wife and children—against his better judgment. Whichever version is correct, and Holmes’ version is certainly the most believable, the family of slaves joined a wagon train of fifty-four wagons in 1844 for an eight-month journey along the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri. It was among the first emigrant wagon trains to leave for Oregon, and Robin and Polly Holmes would be among the first African Americans to live in Oregon.1 They brought their three small children, and settled with the Ford family in what is now Polk County. Years later, Holmes and Ford would face each other in a landmark court case that would help shape Oregon’s policy toward slavery and slaves. The case was a habeas corpus suit brought by Holmes against Ford in 1852 seeking custody of his children, whom Ford tried to keep. A remarkable feature of the case is that it provides a rare written record of the relationship between a slave owner and a slave—from the slave’s point of view. Just as remarkable is the fact that a former slave managed to hold his own in a fourteen-month legal battle, which no judge seemed to want to decide. Holmes patiently stood his ground as the proceedings plodded through several Oregon courts before four different judges, at least one of whom appeared biased in favor of Ford. Holmes would demonstrate during the court battle— and also in his later life in Salem—a determination to struggle for personal justice in the face of overwhelming odds. Like most slaves, Holmes was unable to read or write—it was against public policy in Missouri and throughout the South to educate a slave.2 Nevertheless, aided by sympathetic attorneys, Holmes mounted a credible case against Ford, who was prominent in Oregon politics. Ford served in the territorial legislature and was appointed the region’s chief judge in 1845, although he declined the office. Moreover, Holmes faced the added burden of taking on a slave owner in a farming community known to be sympathetic to slavery, and at a time when Oregon’s own position on slavery, while technically outlawed, was still in flux. 2 d D Breaking Chains To say Oregon came close to becoming a slave state would be an exaggeration. But not a wild one. There were influential leaders who wanted Oregon open to slavery. And there were those like Ford who wanted to, and did, keep slaves. An early nineteenth century historian, Walter Carleton Woodward, concluded that slavery posed “an actual menace to Oregon’’ prior to the Civil War. Writing in a 1911 issue of Oregon Historical Quarterly, Woodward said: At this distance it may seem almost inconceivable that there was any basis for such agitation [for slavery]; that there was any danger of Oregon’s (sic) becoming a slave state. Whatever may be the mature conclusions on this point after the lapse of a half century, the fact remains that there was apparently very serious danger at the time.3 The writer of a 1970 thesis, citing newspaper coverage, was led to remark: “The pro-slavery element was sufficiently vocal that the impression was gained in the territory and throughout the nation that Oregon was about to apply for admission to the Union as a slave state.’’4 There were probably never more than fifty slaves in Oregon, a number that pales in comparison with Missouri’s total of 114,965 slaves in 1860, and the national total of 3,949,557.5 And, in Oregon, slaves had an opportunity to gain their freedom, an opportunity denied them in slave states. Still, many may be surprised to learn that there were slaves in Oregon at all. Trading in slaves was practiced in the Oregon Country long before the first wagon trains arrived. The earliest slaveholders and slaves were Native Americans. Some tribes captured members of other tribes for slaves, traded slaves among themselves, and, in later years, sold slaves to whites. “Hereditary slavery’’ was common among tribes around Puget Sound.6 A brief article in the Oregon Journal newspaper on January 8, 1920, said, “the principal slave market of the...