IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 180 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Thomas Garrett 

was and should be recognized as a national abolitionist leader and activist 

in the struggle against slavery in the United States. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 28, 2023 

Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER submitted the following resolution; which was 

referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 

Thomas Garrett was and should be recognized as a national abolitionist leader and activist in the struggle 

against slavery in the United States. 

Whereas Thomas Garrett, a devout Quaker and noted abolitionist, was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, on August 21, 1789, and died on January 25, 1871; 

Whereas Thomas Garrett became an abolitionist when he rescued a free Black woman who worked for his parents and 

was kidnapped by slave traders; 

Whereas Thomas Garrett moved his family to Wilmington, 

Delaware, in 1822, to start his own business and continue his activism in the struggle against slavery; 


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•HRES 180 IH 

Whereas Thomas Garrett boycotted goods made by enslaved 

labor, supported abolitionist petitions, authored opinion 

pieces in local newspapers, and organized with antislavery 

societies; 

Whereas Thomas Garrett established a station of the Underground Railroad at his home and business on 227 Shipley 

Street, Wilmington, Delaware; 

Whereas Thomas Garrett helped his friend and noted civil 

rights heroine, Harriet Tubman, rescue her parents from 

arrest for helping enslaved people escape to freedom; 

Whereas Thomas Garrett helped over 2,400 people escape to 

freedom; 

Whereas Thomas Garrett, in 1848, was found guilty by 

United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. 

Taney for violating the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 for 

helping a family escape to freedom; 

Whereas Chief Justice Taney would later write the opinion 

for the court in the infamous Dred Scott decision; 

Whereas 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; 

Whereas the Maryland legislature proposed various exorbitant 

bounties for the arrest of Thomas Garrett due to his 

antislavery efforts; 

Whereas 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; 


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•HRES 180 IH 

Whereas President Abraham Lincoln started drafting the 

Emancipation Proclamation in July 1862; and 

Whereas 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 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that— 

3 (1) Thomas Garrett was unjustly convicted 

4 under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793; 

5 (2) Thomas Garrett was and should be recog6 nized as a national abolitionist leader and activist in 

7 the struggle against slavery in the United States; 

8 and 

9 (3) the President should take appropriate meas10 ures within his power to honor Thomas Garrett’s 

11 service to the United States and to his fellow citi12 zens. 

Æ 


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