Rose Butler was a teenager performing domestic services for the Morris family of Manhattan when early one morning a small fire broke out. Though no one was injured, and the fire was quickly extinguished, the family accused Rose of intentionally setting it. A capital crime in New York, she was executed, making her the last person hanged for arson in the state. But her story involves something much deeper than a book of matches. Let's talk about what really brought Rose to the gallows.
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Rose Butler was born in Mount Pleasant in Westchester County, New York, in November of seventeen ninety nine, and at the age of nineteen, she was executed by hanging in Potter's Field, located in what is now Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. She was the last person hanged for arson in the state of New York, and the event attracted thousands of spectators. Let's talk about how she got to the gallows. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarky.
And I'm Holly Fryme. Starting when she was a teenager, Rose performed domestic services for the Morris family in Manhattan that would have included things like cleaning, cooking, serving meals, and caring for children. She had been in their home for only a few years when early one morning, a small fire broke out, damaging just a couple of wooden steps in the kitchen. Though members of the family were home at the time asleep in the upper level of the house, no one was injured and the fire was quickly extinguished. The family blamed Rose, and not just for the fire.
The Morris family, specifically Missus Morris, accused Rose of stealing and accused her of arson. Missus Morris called her quote resentful. Rose went on trial for her alleged crime in the Case of the People against Rose Butler. She was charged with arson, detailed as quote, setting fire to a dwelling house inhabited at the time, by which only a part of it was consumed. She was indicted and stood not before a jury, but before the Honorable Smith Thompson and his honor CD Colden, as well as one of the aldermen. In addition to murder and tree reason, the state of New York had added arson to its list of capital crimes in eighteen oh eight, about ten years before Rose found herself accused, and that meant Rose could be sentenced to death if she was found guilty.
Rose initially took full blame for the act of arson in the Morris home, claiming that she had placed combustible materials on the third step in the kitchen staircase. She stated, quote, my mistress was always finding fault with my work and scolding me. I never did like her. The most impactful part of her trial came not from Rose, but from her defense team. The defense focused on what was and what was not an inhabited dwelling, and the argument went along these lines. In New York, prior to eighteen oh eight, the crime of intentionally burning any dwelling, a house, or a barn was punished by life in prison. In eighteen oh eight, that law changed, the act of intentionally setting fire to an inhabited dwelling became punishable by death. If the structure was an uninhabited dwelling or a house of worship or public building, the crime carried a sentence of imprisonment not to exceed fourteen years. The law was revised once again in eighteen thirteen, and the defense insisted the revision was to distinguish that some personal injuries should be caused or expected if the dwelling was to be considered inhabited at the time of the crime. So, if you follow, their point was Rose didn't commit arson on an inhabited dwelling because nobody got hurt, and that meant that even if she was guilty of intentionally setting that kitchen fire, she would be incarcerated and not executed. The defense also argued that two to three kitchen steps that were partially damaged by fire was just not sufficient enough damage to be considered a capital offense.
The judges, though, felt differently and determined Rose to be guilty of arson. They stated, quote, the facts in this case show the malicious and criminal intent of the prisoner as much as if the whole house had been consumed. She was sentenced to be executed by hanging, but with the definition of an inhabited dwelling left unanswered, or at least left kind of fuzzy. Rose's case was heard on appeal by the Supreme Court of the State of New York that may was Ros's fire just a common law crime punishable with imprisonment or was it actually a capital offense. It's reported that Attorney David Graham ably and eloquently argued that Rose's case was not a capital crime, but he wasn't convincing enough. Chief Justice Spencer delivered the court's unanimous decision, stating, quote, the burning fire in this case was sufficient to bring it within the meaning of the statute, which constituted it a capital offense and punishable by death. Rose's appeal had failed, and she was arraigned by the court clerk. She had no final statement to make.
Judge Woodworth then delivered Rose's sentence, speaking directly to her in the courtroom. He had quite a lot to say, and we're going to share a good piece of it with you. So here we go, quote Rose Butler. The crime for which you are to suffer is justly considered among the most atrocious of human offenses in all civilized countries. Its punishment has been marked with severity. At this time the legislature distinguished the case of burning an inhabited dwelling house by declaring that every person convicted of this offense should suffer death for the same. Under this law, you have been tried and convicted. You had the benefit of counsel to advise with you and assist you on the trial. The evidence of your guilt was clear and satisfactory. Your case has been submitted to this court and ingeniously argued after the most mature deliberation. We are of opinion that it falls within the statute under which you have been convicted.
He continued, stating, your crime is originated in a wicked and depraved heart. You a servant in the family. Confidence was placed in you. You owed fidelity and obedience. Their lives and property were in some measure placed within your power. You selected a time best calculated to affect your purpose. You were offended with one of them for having reprimanded you, and for this cause determined on revenge. The remainder of the family had never injured you or given you provocation, and yet you intended to involve all in one common destruction. You appear to be young. I understand you are quite intelligent and have had the benefit of instruction. Yet it is necessary that you be cut off from society by an ignominious death. May God have mercy on your soul.
And with that, we're going to take a break here for a word from our sponsors, and when we're back, we will hear about the night of the fire in Rose's own words.
Welcome back to Criminalia. Rose's version of events included a few surprising details, so let's talk about them.
While she waited for her execution date, Rose was incarcerated briefly at Bridewell Prison, on the site now occupied by City Hall Park in Manhattan. There, Rose dictated her side of the story to the Reverend John Stanford, the chaplain who counseled her in the world weeks before her death. In turn, Stanford published what was considered her authentic story in Rosa's own words. She described her involvement as such quote, when missus Morris I had frequent disputes and was determined to be revenged on her On Monday, the fourth of March a year ago, she came down in the kitchen and we had some high words together. She then asked me why I did not clean up the kitchen and the wooden things. I told her it was impossible to do so and get dinner in time. But all these I cleared up against night. I went to bed about half past ten. There was not any fire in the kitchen. It had all went out. Mister Morris was the last person that was up in the house. At one o'clock in the morning, he went down into the kitchen and everything was right. He went upstairs again and did not go to bed till two o'clock. Shortly after this, the alarm of fire was made in the house. They went down and found the staircase on fire, and two pails, a washing machine, and the broom all on fire placed on the third step from the kitchen floor.
Rose continued, quote, A great many persons came in and among the others, the two men who had set the place on fire. Like us, you probably just thought what two men. Rose continues quote About three weeks before the fire, two white men followed me to the pump. It was very dark. They asked me many questions about Missus Morris, but I did not choose to answer them. They advised me to burn the house, and I refused. The men said if I told their conversation, they would take my life. The day before the fire, they passed the window several times, but did not speak to me. After that night, the two men asked mister Morris if he knew the girl who lived with him. He said, yes, she has lived with me a great while. They then turned about and went off. Next day morning, I was accused of having set fire to the house, to which I said I had not, but I did not say who did it or who did not do it. Missus Morris inquired after a fortune teller, and she told Missus Morris that it was I that did it, and none but me. She sent a watchman for me. Watchmen provided law enforcement and public safety in the city at that time, and this would have been Rose's arrest. She told much of the same story to authorities in the courtroom and to those who visited her in Bridewell.
Rose also stated that the two mysterious men had again contacted her, this time while she was in prison, claiming, quote, a letter was sent to me in a loaf of bread which told me that they had done it. It was something like this, we are going away and we shall come back again. You are in no danger. You will be cleared. We have consumed the house pretty near down. Do not tell what we have said to you. Not being able to read some of the poor writing, I requested it to be read to me. It was, and then I burnt it. So it's actually true. The Morris family home was consumed by fire after Rose had been jailed, but the timeline is a little bit hard to nail down. Some reports suggested that two unknown men should be investigated because the second act of arson on the home occurred shortly after the prime suspect arrived at Bridewell and was awaiting her execution. Others questioned Rose, reporting that the timeline did not line up and her story of the two men just couldn't be true. Some local papers, including the New York Evening Post, reported that the second case of arson must have been the two men from Rose's testimony, the men that she said she met at the pump, and though the governor delayed her sentence to give her time to name those men, Rose still refused. There's nothing in the historical records suggesting that two men were ever brought to trial or even questioned about the fire that destroyed the Morris home.
Let's talk about an interesting detail in this story. When an enslaved or indentured person committed a minor offense in the United States during the time when the institution of slavery was legal, punishment was typically handled informally by those who enslaved them. But arson was not a minor offense in the state of New York. Many tend to think of southern plantations during the American institution of slavery, but New Yorkers too were enslavers. This matters in the story of Rose Butler because she was a black woman and she was not a free woman. In sixteen twenty six, the Dutch West India Company trafficked enslaved Africans to New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement that would become New York City by sixteen sixty. It was a critical port, and between sixteen fifty one and seventeen seventy five, more than seven thousand enslaved Africans disembarked there. They cleared and cut the road that is now Broadway, They laid the infrastructure that expanded the city uptown. They grew crops in Brooklyn that went on to feed their enslavers, and they were also domestic workers. In seventeen o three, forty two percent of New York's households had enslaved labor, which was more than Philadelphia and Boston combined. In fact, only Charleston, South Carolina, had higher numbers. According to the first federal census of seventeen ninety six percent of the population of Westchester County that's where Rose was born, was enslaved, and fourteen percent of families there enslaved at least one person. A little farther north, the city of Albany had a population of about thirty five hundred people, of which five hundred and seventy two were enslaved and twenty six were quote three persons of color, says Tony Alpalka, the official historian of the city of Albany. Quote this wasn't a plantation economy, but urban slaves wouldn't move around. Most were house servants. Jumped to eighteen thirty, after slavery was illegal in the state, the census still counted seventy five enslaved persons in New York.
Among those enslaved in the United States, arson, according to many historians, was often predetermined and coordinated. Sometimes it was a step toward a larger scale revolt, but sometimes it was an individual and independent act. An enslaved woman named Maria was the first person executed for arson in the state of Massachusetts. I was all the way back in sixteen eighty one after a fire she intentionally set killed a child in a house next door to her enslaver's home. In colonial times, the punishment for an enslaved person caught committing the crime of arson was almost always execution. Today, historians describe it as having been used as a tool of rebellion. White enslavers feared the consequences of arson attacks by United enslaved populations, both in the southern and the Northern States.
We're going to take a break for a word from our sponsors. When we return, we'll talk about New York's Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, What it meant to be enslaved versus inventured, and how Rose fell through the cracks.
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk more about the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery and of course Rose's day of execution.
This was a time of shifting ideologies on race and status, not only in New York but in America. Revolts had featured prominently in the news in the seventeen nineties and featured stories of arson committed by those enslaved on plantations as well as those living in cities. Arson was historically associated with uprisings in New York, and between sixteen eighty seven and seventeen forty one, plots to commit the crime were uncovered on average every two and a half years. Jump ahead to the eighteen hundreds, for example, we find a letter from a plantation mistress to her husband describing an alleged massive conspiracy among local enslaved persons. She wrote that she worried they would arm themselves and quote, set fire to the houses and murder the people as they rushed out. According to Karema Lewis, who teaches history, at Massasot Community College, Quincy College, and Emerson College, all in Massachusetts. The act of arson among enslaved people was a way for them to oppose their enslavers and the unjust laws and abuses that, as she explains, quote controlled their every movement.
The context surrounding Rose's crime and death sentence highlight its anxieties rampant in the white community in nineteenth century New York. Her story also gives us a peek into slavery in the state at that time. So here's what was going on legally. In seventeen ninety nine, the year that Rose was born, the State of New York passed a law called the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery. And this Act allowed the state to end its institution of slavery, but it allowed them to do so very slowly. It gave freedom to future generations who would have otherwise been born into the institution. Historically, in America, enslavement was reinforced as a hereditary status, meaning if your mother was enslaved, so were you. The Act declared children born to enslaved mothers after July fourth, seventeen ninety nine, to be free. Black persons there was a caveat in this act. Though Rose may have been born technically free in the state of New York, but while freedom was promised to children like her, that freedom didn't actually come until much much later in adulthood. No one was freed immediately. These children were expected to be indentured servants to work unpaid for their mother's enslaver until the age of twenty five for women or twenty eight for men. Unlike people who were enslaved, indentured servants, according to the law, could not be sold. On March thirty first, eighteen seventeen, the state legislature officially set July fourth, eighteen twenty seven as the date of final emancipation. In her position, Rose would have been denied any civil rights, but she would have been subject to criminal law and its harsh punishments, like the death penalty for committing arson.
Born to an enslaved woman and because of her post July seventeen ninety nine birth date, Rose was legally required to serve an indenture for twenty five years with a man named Colonel Strang and his family, but in eighteen oh nine, the colonel sold her indenture to a man named Abraham Child of New York City. A few years later, Child then sold her indenture to a man named William L. Morris, Esquire, also of New York City. And yes, we did just say that those who were indentured could not be sold. There are more problems here than we can even count. But according to the law, Rose should have technically been living out twenty five years of indentured servitude with Colonel Strang, and under the law it would have been illegal for her to have been sold to Abraham Child or then to William Morris. But as we can all see, that is not what happened.
What we know about Rose's time with these households come straight from her own narrative. Rose was known to chat with the women assigned to care for her in prison, and she did talk a lot regarding her domestic work in both the Child and the Morris households. According to Leslie Harris, author of the book In the Shadow of Slavery African Americans in New York City sixteen twenty six to eighteen sixty three, Rose stated of Abraham Child, quote, I was in the constant practice of stealing in giving the articles to a black woman in the neighborhood who sold them for me. From mister Child, she claimed that she had stolen silk from his store, as well as cash, clothing, and other items from his home. She said that she felt quote emboldened because she never got caught. She also confessed to having stolen cash and items from the Morris family and quote Pilford, whatever she could lay her hands on, including one theft of three hundred dollars worth of silver. She shared her spoils with lower class people, both black and white, and she also used some of it to have fun with her friends, stated Rose, on the fourth of July, I went with some girls on board the steamboat on a party of pleasure and paid the charges, and fifteen dollars of it I spent on a frolic. It was in this manner I squandered away the money I had stolen in frolicking and rioting in the dance houses. Rose claimed no one she shared that money with knew where she had gotten it from.
On June second, eighteen nineteen, closing in on her execution, Rose talked not about theft, but about arson and made the following confession to the Reverend Stanford. Quote the statement I made in the police office was true. I did set the house on fire myself, but I was advised to do it by two men. They gave me the matches and advised me when and how to set the house on fire. The evening previous to the fire, to string to the outside of the front kitchen door to prevent the family escaping the flames in that way, and also cut the door a little with an old knife that the family might think some person had broken in and not suspect anyone in the house. Quaker and anti death penalty activist Dorothy Ripley visited Rose several times, including the evening before her execution. She reported Rose was quote sorrowful and repentant and begged for God's forgiveness.
The New York Evening Post reported that with the approaching execution quote, we hear that threatening letters of the rising of black people have lately been sent to the mayor if the execution should be carried into effect, but there's little evidence indicating there were actually any letters of protest or threat Another local paper reported the opposite that quote, black people of this city, being convinced of the enormity of the crime, are generally reconciled to the fate of Rose Butler, that's quite a wide spread of possibilities, and the truth of the way that New Yorkers felt probably sits somewhere between those two accounts. Four unnamed black ministers, all of whom were free men, were vocal about their concerns regarding how Rose's actions might affect the emancipation era and the ongoing case for black equality.
On July ninth, eighteen nineteen, the day of her execution, Rose was brought to the yard and the chaplain addressed the crowd. The novelty of a woman being publicly executed made for an event, and it drew upwards of ten thousand spectators. Rose is described as having been composed during the procession to the gallows, and that it appeared she had reconciled to her fate. When asked by an onsite physician how she felt, Rose replied, quote, my head feels wild. She was given water and part of an orange. We do not know her final words, but we do know she was assisted by two deputy sheriffs to the scaffold. The gallows stood roughly where the arch stands in Washington Square Park today. Prayers were offered by those in the crowd and hymns were sung. According to a first hand account from newspaper publisher and politician Thurler Weed, not only did thousands of people show up for the hanging that day, the vibe of the crowd was such that a racist poem was in heavy circulation, both shouted and chalked onto buildings.
Rose was buried where she was executed, in Potter's Field. In eighteen twenty seven, Washington Square opened as a public park on that same location, one of New York's most popular parks. Today. We know that below its ten acres are an estimated twenty thousand corpses. Most were never disinterred and remain on site. And when it comes to the crime of arson in New York State today, it carries different penalties according to the level of severity. Punishment ranges from a misdemeanor to a Class A one felony charge, which carries a minimum sentence of fifteen to twenty five years up to life. It's time for lighter fluid and I thought about a few things while prepping this. Listen, some of this is going to be exactly as predictable as you think it is, but I promise it's a very delicious drink. I kept thinking about, and this is the thing that always catches in my heart when I think about people in someone like Rose's position, which is that she was clearly very smart, She had a zest for life, and had her circumstances been different, who knows what she could have.
Become, Who knows what her story could have been.
She had so much potential that she never even got to explore. So I wanted to focus on that July fourth when she went out with her friends. I love this and think about what she might like and also something that reckons to her namesake. So this is a drink that I'm calling Roses Frolic. It also references that last meal that she had before the gallows. So it starts with an ounce and a half of orange juice, and then you're gonna add a half ounce, of course of rose syrup, my favorite. But then you will also add a half ounce of Saint Germain and an ounce of a really clean vodka with no appreciable taste. Shake that with ice. You're going to strain it into a glass with fresh ice, and then you're going to top it with Apricot sparkling water. If you can get it.
Oh my god, that sounds delicious.
It's so lovely, and it's the kind of drink that has sort of a feminine feel because there is that floral node in those light fruit notes. The OJ doesn't become overpowering, which I don't like a lot of fruit juice in a drink because it can be really heavy and sickly sweet. I didn't want something that was like heavy and felt very sugary. It feels very light, delicious, delicious. If you can't get apricot sparkling water, you could get another fruit that you think is delightful. Most of them are going to work. If you can get something with a pear note, that would be amazing. I almost want to try it with one of the brands that I drink has a cherry blossom flavor right now, and I think that would be amazing. Yeah, don't sleep on flavored sparkling water. The mocktail for this is really easy. All you're going to do is leave out the vodka. You'll just have more sparkling water after you do your shake, and in lieu of Saint Germain, you're just gonna get an elderflower syrup. That's it, and Honestly, that drink is also so delicious. This might this is another one that I can already tell us.
Is this going to be a contender for you at the end of the season.
It's a big one for sure. At this point, I.
Don't want to talk about it before I actually.
But you never know. Left on the board because.
True often I do last minute.
You never know. But that is Rose's frolic, which I hope anyone who tries it enjoys as much as I did.
I love that that's what you picked from her story because as she is talking about that fun that she had, that frolic, that rioting, that being on the steamboat, you could tell she was a teenager. She was having a good time.
Yep, she was a kid.
Yeah. And it's the only time that we were able to talk about her having a good time as a kid.
Yes, in a very brief way. I wish she'd had a lot more of that nineteen. So hopefully we raise this glass to Rose and think of if you believe in multiple lives, I hope that she came back and had everything a human could want. We will be right back next week with another drink and another story, and we hope you join us here on criminal Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.