Richard Dillingham
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Richard Dillingham (June 18, 1823 – June 30, 1850) was a
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
school teacher from Peru Township in what is now
Morrow County, Ohio Morrow County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 34,950. Its county seat is Mount Gilead. The county was organized in 1848 from parts of four neighboring counties a ...
, U.S., who was arrested in
Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
on December 5, 1848, while aiding the attempted escape of three slaves. Tried April 12, 1849, he was sentenced to three years in the
Tennessee State Penitentiary Tennessee State Prison is a former correctional facility located six miles west of downtown Nashville, Tennessee on Cockrill Bend. It opened in 1898 and has been closed since 1992 because of overcrowding concerns. The mothballed facility was seve ...
in
Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
. He died there of
cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
. Dillingham was celebrated as a
martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
to the
abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...
cause by novelist
Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1852), which depicts the harsh ...
, fellow Quaker
Levi Coffin Levi Coffin (October 28, 1798 – September 16, 1877) was an American Quaker, Republican, abolitionist, farmer, businessman and humanitarian. An active leader of the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio, some unofficially called Coffin the " ...
and the poet
John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the fireside poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet ...
, who wrote the poem ''The Cross'' in Dillingham's honor. In his ''Memoir of Richard Dillingham'', Levi Coffin describes Dillingham's arrest:
In December, 1848, being then in Cincinnati, he was earnestly solicited by some colored people to go to Nashville, Tennessee, and bring away their relations who were slaves there, under a hard master. He undertook the project, though fully conscious that he encountered great danger. Reaching Nashville, he made himself known to the slaves whom he had come to rescue, and made private arrangements with them about escaping. At the appointed time the party left the city, the three slaves being in a hack, which Dillingham had hired, with a free colored man who acted as driver. Dillingham himself was on horseback. The way to freedom and safety seemed open, but treachery thwarted all their plans. A colored man in whom Dillingham had confided, betrayed him–through what motive, it is not known--and the whole party were arrested when they reached the bridge across the Cumberland river.
Tried and convicted for "Negro stealing," Dillingham was given the minimum sentence of three years. Levi Coffin's ''Memoir'' relates what happened next:
Richard Dillingham was transferred from the county jail to the penitentiary, and put to hard labor, namely, sawing rock. He was allowed to write to his friends but once in three months, and his letters were inspected by the warden. His health suffered, and he became despondent. After nine months' imprisonment he was made steward of the penitentiary hospital, a post which he filled to the satisfaction of the prison officials. In the summer of 1850, the cholera broke out among the inmates of the penitentiary, and many died. Richard Dillingham dealt out medicines, and was unwearied in his attentions to his fellow prisoners, many of whom he saw die and be buried in one day. At last the solemn message came to him. One Sabbath morning he was attacked with cholera; he died at two o'clock, p. m., and was buried at half past three.Coffin, p. 718.
The exact location of Dillingham's grave is not known. He was buried in a cemetery on the prison grounds. The site was built over in the course of Nashville's later urban development.


Notes and references


''The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin'' by Harriet Beecher Stowe
(''See'' pp. 101–108.)
A.L. Benedict, ''Memoir of Richard Dillingham'', Philadelphia: Merrihew and Thompson, Printers, 1852.
(Full text facsimile from Hathi Trust Digital Library)
Full text facsimile from Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection, Cornell University
(Cornell University Library Digital Collections reprint)
Wilbur H. Seibert, ''The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom'', New York: Macmillan Co., 1898, pp. 174-175.


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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dillingham, Richard 1823 births 1850 deaths Activists from Ohio American Quakers American people who died in prison custody Quaker abolitionists Deaths from cholera Infectious disease deaths in Tennessee People from Morrow County, Ohio Underground Railroad people Prisoners who died in Tennessee detention