Rose Butler

Rose Butler (November 1799 – July 9, 1819) was an enslaved domestic worker in New York City. In 1819, she was hanged for arson. At the time, the only capital crimes in New York State were first degree arson and murder. Butler was the penultimate person executed in New York State for arson. The last person to be executed for arson in the state was a white man named Horace Conkling in 1851.

Early life

Butler was born in November 1799, in Mount Pleasant, New York. She was described as intelligent and having had "the benefit of instruction". She was enslaved by a one Colonel Straing in Mount Pleasant, before being sold as a slave to various other households. She was later enslaved by Abraham Child at his home in New York City. In 1817, she was sold to 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, after an appeal, ruled that what she did constituted first degree arson. After incarceration at the Bridewell prison, she was hanged near present-day Washington Square Park, from a gallows in the city's potter's field, on the eastern side of Minetta Creek, about 500 feet (150 m) from the Hangman's Elm. The hanging attracted an estimated 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

Archival material

The New-York Historical Society 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

  1. ↑ Schlossberg, Tatiana (2015-11-18). "New York Today: Nature, Preserved". New York Times.
  2. ↑ Jansen, Benjamin G. (2006). "An Authentic statement of the case and conduct of Rose Butler : who was tried, convicted, and executed for the crime of arson (1819)". In Smith, Sidonie A.; Watson, Julia (eds.). Before They Could Vote: American Women's Autobiographical Writing, 1819–1919. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 23–36 – via Project MUSE.
  3. ↑ "Capital Punishment in the County of New York". Buffalo Courier (Buffalo, New York). July 24, 1857. p. 2.
  4. ↑ "Horace Conkling, 1851 November 21". archives.albany.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-12.
  5. ↑ Smith, Sidonie A.; Watson, Julia, eds. (2006). Before they could vote : American women's autobiographical writing, 1819–1919. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 27. ISBN 9780299220532.
  6. ↑ "A Shift in the Village". Washington Square Park Conservancy. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  7. ↑ Smith, Edwin Burritt; Court, New York (State) Supreme; Hitchcock, Ernest (1883). Reports of Cases Adjudged and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature and Court for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors of the State of New York. Lawyer's co-operative publishing Company. p. 112. rose butler arson.
  8. ↑ "The Life and Death of Rose Butler". Washington Square Park. 2025-02-01. Retrieved 2025-12-12.
  9. ↑ Morowitz, Matthew (2015-07-09). "Slavery, Gentrification, and the Last Execution in Washington Square". Village Preservation Blog. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  10. ↑ Warner, Laceye C. (March 3, 2017). Saving Women: Retrieving Evangelistic Theology and Practice. Baylor University Press. ISBN 9781932792263.
  11. ↑ Harris, Leslie M. (2004-08-01). In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226317755.
  12. ↑ Baker, David V. (2015-11-23). Women and Capital Punishment in the United States: An Analytical History. McFarland. ISBN 9780786499502.
  13. ↑ Weed, Thurlow (February 18, 1866). "Recollections of New-York from Fifty Years Ago". New York Times. p. 6.
  14. ↑ Rose Butler statements, 1819. OCLC 900098643.