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William Henry Harrison had the shortest presidential term in office, dying a month after inauguration.
His career, however, reflects the various incarnations and dichotomies slavery could take for public figures.
Harrison’s father and grandfather owned many slaves; he took seven of them to the Northwest Territory in 1800 where slavery was illegal. They then became indentured servants on terms, an action followed by many conflicted slave owners. The average term for indenture was 10 years, and many felt it indistinguishable from slavery as some terms ran to 90 years. Harrison purchased a runaway, freed him and kept him on as a servant for many years.
Harrison was appointed governor of “free soil” (no new slaves allowed) Indiana. He attempted to have slavery legalized but had to continue with an 1805 act allowing slaveowners to convert (illegal) slaves to indentured servants. Negroes under fifteen could be kept in service until 35; women until 32. Offspring of such stayed in service until 30 (male) or 28 (female). He led a convention that petitioned Congress to repeal the ban on slavery for 10 years. Five years later he signed a bill to repeal the indenture law.
By 1819 as an Ohio congressman Harrison claimed to be against slavery, but consistently voted against bills that would have kept slavery from spreading. As an Ohio state senator, he voted for a bill which allowed petty thieves (of any race) to be sold into a term of service if they were unable to pay their fines.
In 1833 Harrison declared he was in favor of emancipation only if the slaves were sent back to Africa. And in 1835 “Am I wrong, fellow-citizens, in applying the terms weak, presumptuous and unconstitutional, to the measures of the emancipators? Some of the emancipators propose immediate abolition. What is the proposition then, as it regards the states and parts of states (where Blacks are in the majority) but the alternatives of amalgamation with the blacks, or an exchange of situations with them? Is there any man of common sense who does not believe that the emancipated blacks, being a majority, will not insist upon a full participation of political rights with the whites; and when possessed of these, they will not contend for a full share of social rights also?”
By 1836 presidential candidate Harrison declared that Congress had no power to eliminate slavery in the states or the District of Columbia.
Again a candidate in 1840, Harrison swore he had never been an abolitionist and that the organization he had joined at age 17 was simply a “humane society.”
William Harry Harrison died March 4, 1841, just as the first organized wagon train embarked across Nevada.
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For the years 2012-2013, Our Story, Inc. will be be celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Project and its legacy in Nevada. This article is part of a series to be published during that time. The first part of the series covers the presidencies leading up to Lincoln in order to review national policy and experience leading to emancipation. Please feel free to circulate and share (credited), comment or submit your own articles.
