Key West, Florida, late 1840’s.
You’re going through your daily routine. Grocery lists. Your wife’s to do list. You’re trying to keep up with everything going on in town. You’ve got a hundred things on your mind. Well, one day a bunch of strange men start chasing you?! You’re like what do these people want with me!?!?! These men know that you are a freedman, but they want to claim you as their slave anyway. Even Freedmen, who were no longer, slaves had to fight for their freedom in America.
Sandy Cornish was born during a time that American citizens spoke daily about the value of human freedom. In the Declaration of Independence, the nation declared that human rights were given by God and that no man has a right to alienate a man from his God-given Rights. The founders, however, were unable to guarantee god given human rights to slaves. Despite being born in America just three years after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Sandy Cornish was born a slave in Maryland in 1793. He remained enslaved, with no rights, for 46 years.
His master hired him out to work in Florida and there, in 1839, he was allowed to purchase his own freedom. Slaves often worked regular jobs, but their paychecks were sent to the slave masters.
In 1839, Florida was a territory. It had been a Spanish colony for many years, but Andrew Jackson led an invasion called the Seminole Wars to bring Florida under American control. Unlike Americans, The Spanish allowed slaves to work for their freedom. Many Americans, however, intended blacks to be slaves for life. Florida joined the Union as a slave State in 1845.
Sandy Cornish worked hard and saved enough money to buy freedom for himself in 1839.
He also bought freedom for his wife, Lillah Cornish.
Many people today compare marriage to slavery. They say that traditional marriage is intently patriarchal and oppressive. Freedom for Lillah Cornish did not come from Congress, the Underground Railroad, or Civil Rights Activists. For her, freedom came from her husband’s diligent labor, beyond what was required by his slavery.
One unfortunate day, he lost everything in a house fire, including his freedom papers.
Six men attempted to
kidnap him and sell him back into slavery. Kidnapping was a significant
fear for free black men during slavery. Olaudah Equiano was also nearly
kidnapped by lawless men in America.
This episode’s “would you rather” question… Would you
rather be handicapped or enslaved?
In Port Leon, Key West in the late 1840s, Sandy Cornish was running to the public town square. In front of everyone, he pulled a knife and cut the muscles in his ankles, he stabbed himself in the hip, and he cut off several fingers on his left hand. He would never fully recover from those injuries, but he was also worthless as a slave to the kidnappers. They left him alone and free.
Conservative culture wars claim that capitalism is inherently good. It is not. There is good capitalism and bad capitalism. Good capitalism is demonstrated by Sandy Cornish as he worked diligently on his own farm to do business in his community. Bad capitalism is when people attacked him in an attempt to sell him as a slave. This bad capitalism directly contradicts Exodus 21:16. Jesus said that you should love your neighbor as yourself, but if your view of capitalism is unloving to your neighbor, then you shouldn’t do it.
Most Southerners didn’t own slaves. That’s true. It’s also true that most Southerners were poor and couldn’t afford slaves, but many wished that they could. Slaves were expensive. Congress abolished the transatlantic slave trade in 1808 and that was a good thing, but it made existing slaves even more valuable. So, the attempt to kidnap Sandy Cornish was some thirty years after the ban on importing slaves from Africa. At the time, he would have been around fifty years old!
How much could you get for a fifty-year-old male slave in 1850? Probably more than $20,000 today.
Again, many Southerners didn’t own slaves, but many also wished that they were wealthy enough to own slaves
This kidnapping attempt was during the build-up to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
He became a prosperous farmer and one of the richest men in Key West.
What’s does it mean to be a man, a real man? One of my favorite preachers, Dr. Voddie Baucham, once said that people often judge manhood by three B’s, not Nannie Helen Burrough’s three B’s either. (If you’re not sure what I’m talking about Google it, but we’ll come back to that later. ) The three B’s in the culture that he was talking about are the billfold, the ballcourt, and the bedroom. As if being awesome at those three things makes you a real man. No. You can be poor and still be a real man. Sandy Cornish could play sports with his injuries from the kidnapping attempt, but he was definitely a real man.
A real man loves God and loves his neighbor.
Accordingly, Sandy Cornish became a prominent leader in the Freedmen’s town of Bahama Village in Key West AND he established Cornish AME Church which served the community and provided shelter during hurricanes. I’ll A real man takes care of his wife’s freedom and provided for her. Freedmen make men free. A real man isn’t so connected to his hometown of Maryland that he couldn’t move to another state to be free.
Lessons from the Freedmen:
- Like Sandy Cornish, we should work hard to keep our families together.
- Like Sandy Cornish, we should work hard for the economic freedom for our families.
- Like Sandy Cornish, we should get out of our comfort zones and relocate, if necessary, for the success of our families.
- Like Sandy Cornish, we should use our freedom to be a blessing to others and build up our communities.
WHAT IS FREEDMEN’S UNIVERSITY PODCAST?
We explore Black Christian History through the life, views, and experiences of the Freedmen.
