Barney Corse

Barney Corse (November 2, 1799 – March 8, 1878) was an American abolitionist, and leather merchant in New York City. He worked with Isaac T. Hopper, and David Ruggles in the anti-slavery movement and to protect fugitive slaves and free Blacks from slave kidnappers.

Early life and family Barney Corse was born on November 2, 1799, in Camden, Delaware, to parents Lydia Troth and Israel Corse. His father remarried and Barney Corse had step-siblings.

Barney Corse married Mary Elizabeth Leggett in 1823, and they had three children. In 1830, Israel retired and Corse's brother in-law Jonathan Thorne joined the business; by 1832, Corse left the entire business to Thorne. In 1842, there was an issue with Israel Corse's land transfer the title of the land for the leather business, and it resulted in a lawsuit and his son Barney Corse filing for bankruptcy.

Corse was a member of the New York Manumission Society. Isaac T. Hopper, David Ruggles, and Corse had often worked together in abolition in New York City. Corse had planned and directed the forerunner of the Quaker-run Underground Railroad in North Carolina.

Darg case (1838) alt=The Disappointed Abolitionists (1838) by Edward Williams Clay and Henry R. Robinson The Disappointed Abolitionists (1838) by artist Edward Williams Clay and lithographer Henry R. Robinson On August 25, 1838, John P. Darg from Virginia had brought his chattel slave Thomas Hughes with him to New York City; and the state of New York had ended slavery a few years prior in 1827. The laws for bringing human chattel to a free state was not yet defined in 1838. Thomas Hughes went to Isaac Hopper’s house, seeking temporary settlement. Hopper initially was reluctant, and asked Hughes to leave. Corse made bail, but Ruggles was jailed for two days. It suggested the trio was more interested in the reward money and extortion, and was not in the business of freeing slaves. Local newspapers caused a furor for exposing the extreme dangers of abolitionist work.

Hughes served two years in prison for the money theft, and after his release he was a free man. Corse was tried as an accessory to the robbery of John P. Darg in the Court of Sessions in New York City on March 8, 1839. The jury couldn’t decide on the outcome of the case and a new trial was ordered.