Rose Butler

Rose Butler (1799–1819) was an enslaved domestic worker in New York City.. In July 1819, she was hanged for arson.[1][2] At the time, the only capital crimes in New York State were first-degree arson and murder.[3] She was the last person executed in New York State for arson.

Rose Butler’s execution was a watershed in many respects. The context surrounding her crime and sentencing highlights community anxieties, shifting ideologies on race and status, and gives a glimpse of what the institution of slavery was like in New York City, a subject that is seldom discussed.[4]

Early life

Butler was born in November of 1799, in Mount Pleasant, New York. She was described as intelligent and having had "the benefit of instruction".[5]:27] She lived with a Colonel Straing, at Mount Pleasant, and was sold to various households later moved to New York City in order to live with Abraham Child. In 1817, she movedWas sold? to live with William L. Morris.

Arson conviction and death sentence

In 1819, Butler was arrested for arson. She was charged with attempting to burn down the family home with the family inside; the damage was minor, but she was convicted and sentenced to death..[6] The New York Supreme Court, after an appeal, ruled that what she did constituted first-degree arson.[7] After incarceration at Bridewell Prison she was hanged near present-day Washington Square Park, from a gallows in the city's potter's field, on the eastern side of Minetta Creek, about 500 feet from the Hangman's Elm.[4] The hanging attracted 10,000 spectators.[8][9][10]

The following doggerel lines were recalled 50 years later as having been "chalked about the fences":

Rose Butler sat upon a bench—
Down drop't the trap and hanged a negro wench.[11]

Media
  • Rose Dies Friday (2019) by Annette Daniels Taylor, a short film (8:21) whose creator calls it a "cinematic poem". Link to trailer of film.

Archival material

The New-York Historical Society holds "a confession, statements, and an affidavit", a total of 7 items. Included is a statement of Eliza Duell, a white woman placed in the apartment holding Butler during her arrest.[12]

References
  1. Schlossberg, Tatiana (2015-11-18). "New York Today: Nature, Preserved". New York Times.
  2. Jansen, Benjamin G. (2006). "An Authentic statement of the case and conduct of Rose Butler : who was tried, convicted, and executed for the crime of arson (1819)". In Smith, Sidonie A.; Watson, Julia (eds.). Before They Could Vote: American Women's Autobiographical Writing, 1819–1919. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 23–36 – via Project MUSE.
  3. "Capital Punishment in the County of New York". Buffalo Courier (Buffalo, New York). July 24, 1857. p. 2.
  4. Morowitz, Matthew (2015-07-09). "Slavery, Gentrification, and the Last Execution in Washington Square". Village Preservation Blog. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  6. "A Shift in the Village". Washington Square Park Conservancy. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  7. Smith, Edwin Burritt; Court, New York (State) Supreme; Hitchcock, Ernest (1883). Reports of Cases Adjudged and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature and Court for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors of the State of New York. Lawyer's co-operative publishing Company. p. 112. rose butler arson.
  8. Warner, Laceye C. (March 3, 2017). Saving Women: Retrieving Evangelistic Theology and Practice. Baylor University Press. ISBN 9781932792263.
  9. Harris, Leslie M. (2004-08-01). In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226317755.
  10. Baker, David V. (2015-11-23). Women and Capital Punishment in the United States: An Analytical History. McFarland. ISBN 9780786499502.
  11. Weed, Thurlow (February 18, 1866). "Recollections of New-York from Fifty Years Ago". New York Times. p. 6.
  12. Rose Butler statements, 1819. OCLC 900098643. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
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