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Notable people · Abolitionist · Congressman

Joshua Reed Giddings

Jefferson lawyer who represented the Western Reserve in Congress from 1838 to 1859 as its loudest antislavery voice, and who was censured in 1842 and re-elected by his district within weeks.

Born October 6, 1795, Tioga Point (now Athens), Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Died May 27, 1864, Montreal, Canada

Joshua Reed Giddings
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born
October 6, 1795, Tioga Point (now Athens), Bradford County, Pennsylvania source
Died
May 27, 1864, Montreal, Canada source
Buried
Oakdale Cemetery, Jefferson (Ashtabula County) source
Also known as
Joshua R. Giddings, J. R. Giddings
Education
Self-taught; read law under Elisha Whittlesey, Ohio, admitted to bar 1821
Known as
Abolitionist, Congressman
Organizations
Ashtabula County Historical Society

Life story

Joshua Giddings was born in Pennsylvania in 1795 and moved with his family to Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1806. He had little formal schooling and studied on his own.

He served five months in the militia in the War of 1812, taught school, then read law with Elisha Whittlesey and became a lawyer in 1821. In Jefferson he partnered with Benjamin Wade.

Elected to Congress in 1838, he spent twenty years there as one of the House's loudest antislavery voices. In 1842 the House censured him over resolutions about the Creole case; he resigned, ran again, and won overwhelmingly.

He helped found the Republican Party in 1854-55. Lincoln appointed him consul general in Canada in 1861, and he died in Montreal in 1864. He is buried in Jefferson.

Ohio ties

  • Ashtabula County (Western Reserve) (1806-1864)
    family farm from 1806; home county for the rest of his life Ashtabula County · source
  • Jefferson (1821-1864)
    law practice; partnership with Benjamin Wade formed in 1831; home on North Chestnut Street; burial Ashtabula County · source
  • Columbus (1826-1827)
    member of the Ohio House of Representatives Franklin County · source
  • Cleveland (1843-1853; 1894)
    in his congressional district 1843-1853; depicted on the Emancipation panel of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Cuyahoga County · source

Timeline

  1. 1795 Born on 6 October at Tioga Point (now Athens), Bradford County, Pennsylvania; the family moved to Canandaigua, New York, the same year. source
  2. 1806 Moved with his parents to Ashtabula County on Ohio's Western Reserve. source
  3. 1812 At 17 joined a militia regiment and served five months in the War of 1812. source
  4. 1819 Married Laura Waters. source
  5. 1821 Admitted to the Ohio bar in February after reading law with Elisha Whittlesey, and began practising in Jefferson. source
  6. 1823 The one-story frame building that became his law office was built in Jefferson. source
  7. 1826 Elected to one term in the Ohio House of Representatives. source
  8. 1831 Formed a law partnership in Jefferson with Benjamin Wade, a future U.S. senator, lasting until 1837. source
  9. 1838 Took his seat in Congress on 3 December as a Whig, filling the vacancy left by Elisha Whittlesey. source
  10. 1841 On 9 February argued in the House that the Seminole War in Florida was being waged for slavery. source
  11. 1842 On 22 March the House censured him, by 125 votes to 69, for resolutions defending the Creole mutineers. He resigned the same day. source
  12. 1842 His district re-elected him in a special election, reported as 7,469 votes to 383, and he was back in his seat on 5 December. source
  13. 1848 Broke with the Whigs over Zachary Taylor's nomination and joined the Free Soil Party. source
  14. 1854 Angered by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, became a Republican and spoke for the party's radical wing; he helped write the 1856 platform. source
  15. 1858 Published The Exiles of Florida, about maroons who fled slavery to Spanish Florida. source
  16. 1859 Left Congress on 3 March after more than 20 years. source
  17. 1861 Appointed consul general to the British North American Provinces by Abraham Lincoln on 25 March. source
  18. 1864 Died in Montreal on 27 May; his body was returned to Jefferson for burial in Oakdale Cemetery. source
  19. 1867 Congress bought Caroline Ransom's portrait of him for $1,000 and hung it in Statuary Hall, the old House chamber where he had served. source
  20. 1894 The Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument on Cleveland's Public Square was dedicated on 4 July, with Giddings among the Ohioans on its Emancipation panel. source
  21. 1936 The Historic American Buildings Survey photographed and measured the law office (HABS OH-268). source
  22. 1974 The Joshua Reed Giddings Law Office was designated a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register on 30 May. source
  23. 2013 The law office was moved from beside his house on North Chestnut Street to 102 East Jefferson Street, where the Ashtabula County Historical Society opens it as a museum by appointment. source

What Joshua is known for

  • US Representative 1838-1859
  • Censured 1842, re-elected 7,469 to 383

Stories

Censured, resigned, re-elected

In 1841 slaves aboard the American brig Creole rose up and sailed into Nassau, where British law freed them, and Southern members demanded their return. On 21 March 1842 Giddings offered resolutions that the mutineers had broken no American law by taking back their natural liberty. The House censured him the next day, 125 to 69, without letting him speak in his own defence. He resigned and went home to the Western Reserve, which re-elected him within weeks, reportedly by 7,469 votes to 383. The House did not try to discipline him again, and the gag rule on slavery petitions was repealed in December 1844.

Source

The boarding house committee

For the 1841 session Giddings, Seth Gates of New York, William Slade of Vermont, Sherlock Andrews of Ohio and others formed an unofficial 'Select Committee on Slavery', meant to drive slavery to extinction by every parliamentary means. Because it was not an official committee, its members paid the costs themselves. These included room and board for the abolitionist lecturer Theodore Dwight Weld, who researched the speeches they used to stir public opinion. Their headquarters was Mrs. Sprigg's boarding house, directly across from the Capitol, where Gates, Slade, Giddings, Weld and the Rev. Joshua Leavitt lived during sessions. John Quincy Adams was not a member but acted as a powerful ally. When the House censured Giddings in 1842 and his district sent him straight back, the other members learned that they too were safe from discipline.

Source

A price on his head

Giddings did not soften his language. He spoke of the justice of slave insurrection, opposed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and advised people escaping slavery to shoot at those who tried to capture them. On the eve of the Civil War a Virginia newspaper offered $10,000 for anyone who would seize him and ship him to Richmond, or $5,000 for his head alone. He spent the war years as Lincoln's consul general in Canada, and died in Montreal in 1864 without seeing slavery abolished.

Source

Honors and things named for them

  • Joshua R. Giddings Elementary School, Washington, D.C. (1887)
  • Law office preserved as a National Historic Landmark, Jefferson, OH
  • Figure on the Emancipation relief panel, Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, Cleveland

Named for Joshua Reed Giddings

  • Fort Giddings, Civil War training camp on the site of today's Ashtabula County Fairgrounds (Jefferson, Ashtabula County) source
  • Giddings Park, beside the relocated law office (Jefferson, Ashtabula County) source
  • Joshua R. Giddings Elementary School (built 1887, closed in the 1990s) (Washington, D.C.) source

Family

  • wife: Laura Waters
  • son: Grotius Reed Giddings
  • daughter: Lura Maria Giddings
  • law partner: Benjamin Wade

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

123
  • 1 Joshua Reed Giddings Law Office (National Historic Landmark, NRHP 74001396), museum of the Ashtabula County Historical Society
    102 East Jefferson Street, Jefferson Ashtabula County · source
  • 2 Original site of the law office beside the Giddings house (NRHP address until the 2013 move) (unknown)
    112 North Chestnut Street, Jefferson Ashtabula County · source
  • Giddings grave, Oakdale Cemetery
    Jefferson Ashtabula County · source
  • 3 Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument (Emancipation panel showing Giddings with Lincoln, Wade, Chase and Sherman)
    Public Square, Cleveland Cuyahoga County · source

Places in Ohio to see

Ohio places

Where Joshua Reed Giddings was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Joshua Reed Giddings, and what the record shows.

Often said The Giddings Law Office stands at 112 North Chestnut Street, its National Register address.

The record The 1973 nomination and the NRHP list place it at 112 North Chestnut Street, beside Giddings's house. In 2013 the building was moved to 102 East Jefferson Street, next to Giddings Park, so the Register address and coordinates now mark only the original site. source

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

  • Joshua Reed Giddings
    No known restrictions
  • Joshua Reed Giddings
    No known restrictions
  • Portrait drawing of United States statesman Joshua Reed Giddings.
    Portrait drawing of United States statesman Joshua Reed Giddings.
    Public domain
  • Joshua Reed Giddings
    No known restrictions
  • Joshua Reed Giddings
    Public domain
  • Joshua Reed Giddings
    Public domain
  • Joshua Reed Giddings. Library of Congress description: "Hon. Joshua Reed Giddings of Ohio"
    Joshua Reed Giddings. Library of Congress description: "Hon. Joshua Reed Giddings of Ohio"
    Public domain
  • Joshua Reed Giddings, congressman from Ashtabula County, Ohio. From (1859) McClees' gallery of photographic portraits of
    Joshua Reed Giddings, congressman from Ashtabula County, Ohio. From (1859) McClees' gallery of photographic po...
    Public domain
  • Title: Joshua R. Giddings, Representative from Ohio, Thirty-fifth Congress, half-length portrait Abstract/medium: 1 phot
    Title: Joshua R. Giddings, Representative from Ohio, Thirty-fifth Congress, half-length portrait Abstract/medi...
    Public domain
  • Joshua Reed Giddings
    Public domain
  • Bust black-and-white photograph of Joshua R. Giddings, antislavery member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio
    Bust black-and-white photograph of Joshua R. Giddings, antislavery member of the U.S. House of Representatives...
    Public domain
  • Portrait Painting of Joshua Reed Giddings from The Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives Dimensions 40 1/2 × 3
    Portrait Painting of Joshua Reed Giddings from The Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives Dimensions ...
    Public domain

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.

Every link goes to the original source. Profile researched 2026-10-15.

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