Rose Butler (November 1799 – 1819) was an enslaved domestic worker in New York City. In July 1819, she was hanged for

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

. At the time, the only capital crimes in New York State were first-degree arson and murder. 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.

Early life

Butler was born in November 1799, in

Mount Pleasant, New York Mount Pleasant is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town population was 44,436. The hamlet (N ...

. She was described as intelligent and having had "the benefit of instruction". 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 moved 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. The

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

, after an appeal, ruled that what she did constituted first-degree arson. After incarceration at Bridewell Prison she was hanged near present-day

Washington Square Park Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...

, from a

gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

in the city's

potter's field A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning ''field of blood'' in Aramaic), stated to have been pu ...

, on the eastern side of

Minetta Creek Minetta Creek was one of the largest natural watercourses in Manhattan, New York City, United States. Minetta Creek was fed from two tributaries, one originating at Fifth Avenue and 21st Street, and the other originating at Sixth Avenue and 16th ...

, about from the

Hangman's Elm Hangman's Elm, or simply "The Hanging Tree", is an English Elm located at the northwest corner in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. It stood at tall when last measured nearly 35 years ago, and has a diameter o ...

. The hanging attracted 10,000 spectators. 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.

Media

* ''Rose Dies Friday'' (2019) by Annette Daniels Taylor, a short film (8:21) whose creator calls it a "cinematic poem".

Archival material

The

New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. ...

holds "a confession, statements, and an affidavit", a total of seven items. Included is a statement of Eliza Duell, a white woman placed in the apartment holding Butler during her arrest.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Rose 1799 births 1819 deaths American people convicted of arson American rebel slaves American freedmen People executed by New York (state) by hanging 19th-century American slaves People from Mount Pleasant, New York People from New York City