Legislation Document

SPONSOR:

Sen. Lockman & Rep. Bolden & Rep. Dorsey Walker

Sens. Gay, Huxtable, Lawson, Mantzavinos, Pinkney, Sokola, Townsend, Walsh; Reps. Baumbach, Briggs King, Bush, Carson, Chukwuocha, Collins, Cooke, Dukes, Gray, Griffith, Harris, Heffernan, Hensley, Hilovsky, K. Johnson, Lambert, Longhurst, Lynn, Matthews, Minor-Brown, S. Moore, Morris, Morrison, Neal, Osienski, Parker Selby, Phillips, Postles, Ramone, Romer, Schwartzkopf, D. Short, Shupe, Michael Smith, Spiegelman, Vanderwende, K. Williams, Wilson-Anton, Yearick

DELAWARE STATE SENATE

152nd GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 57

SUPPORTING A FORTHCOMING FEDERAL RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING THOMAS GARRETT AS A HEROIC ABOLITIONIST.

WHEREAS, on February 28, 2023, United States Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester submitted House Resolution 180 to the United States House of Representatives recognizing Thomas Garrett as a national abolitionist leader and activist in the struggle against slavery in the United States; and

WHEREAS, House Resolution 180 identifies a number of exemplary deeds of service taken by Thomas Garrett, in support of the abolition of slavery in the United States, including that Thomas Garrett established a station of the Underground Railroad at his home and business on 227 Shipley Street, Wilmington, Delaware; and

WHEREAS, House Resolution 180 recognizes that Thomas Garrett helped his friend and noted civil rights heroine, Harriet Tubman, rescue her parents from arrest for helping enslaved people escape to freedom; and

WHEREAS, House Resolution 180 recognizes that Thomas Garrett helped over 2,400 people escape to freedom; and

WHEREAS, House Resolution 180 recognizes that in 1848, Thomas Garrett was found guilty by United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who would later write the opinion for the court in the infamous Dred Scott decision, for violating the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 for helping a family escape to freedom; and

WHEREAS, House Resolution 180 recognizes that Thomas Garrett vowed to continue his abolitionist activism despite the miscarriage of justice and a fine of $5,400 imposed by Chief Justice Taney which nearly bankrupted him, despite its reduction to $1,500; and

WHEREAS, House Resolution 180 recognizes that Thomas Garrett joined a 10-person delegation of abolitionists to meet with President Abraham Lincoln on June 20, 1862, to urge the President to decree the emancipation of the enslaved, and President Abraham Lincoln started drafting the Emancipation Proclamation in July 1862; and

WHEREAS, House Resolution 180 concludes that Thomas Garrett’s life and contributions to the Underground Railroad and the abolition of slavery in the United States should be recognized as exemplary deeds of service for his country and his fellow citizens.

NOW, THEREFORE:

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the 152nd General Assembly of the State of Delaware, the House of Representatives concurring therein, that the General Assembly expresses its strong support of House Resolution 180 for recognizing Thomas Garrett as a heroic abolitionist.