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 na-
tional abolitionist leader and activist in the struggle 
against slavery in the United States. 
Whereas Thomas Garrett, a devout Quaker and noted aboli-
tionist, was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, on Au-
gust 21, 1789, and died on January 25, 1871; 
Whereas Thomas Garrett became an abolitionist when he res-
cued 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 con-
tinue 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 Under-
ground 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 eman-
cipation 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 Un-
derground 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, there-
fore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that— 
(1) Thomas Garrett was unjustly convicted 
under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793; 
(2) Thomas Garrett was and should be recog-
nized as a national abolitionist leader and activist in 
the struggle against slavery in the United States; 
and 
(3) the President should take appropriate meas-
ures within his power to honor Thomas Garrett’s 
service to the United States and to his fellow citi-
zens. 
Æ 
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