Hope Butler by Cynthia Van Ness

The handwritten caption on the back of this striking ca. 1863 portrait reads, “Hope Butler, born a slave in Virginia in the family of Francis Ruffin of Richmond, VA in the year 1786. He purchased his freedom in 1823. Was allowed to remain in Virginia for saving the life of John Lord, Sergt. at Arms in the House of Assembly, while Butler was a slave in the family of Governor Preston of Virginia. Resided in Buffalo since 1843.” This is, as far as we know, the only photograph in our collection of a Buffalonian who survived being enslaved.

In 1833, Butler was self-employed in Virginia as a horse trainer, praised in the pages of American Turf and Sporting Magazine (Sept. 1833) as “Hope Butler, a free man of color… [is] skillful, sober, and industrious. He stands very well as a trainer, and has always received the highest wages. If any of your friends wish a trainer, you can recommend him.” And went on to say he was available to work in Maryland.

As a free man of color, however, living in Virginia was prohibited by law. In 1835, the General Assembly of Virginia (Chap. 214, p. 239) passed an act permitting Hope Butler to reside in the city of Richmond, unless he were to be convicted of any offense against the laws of Virginia. In 1839, he again had to petition the Virginia House of Delegates to be allowed to remain with his wife Emma and children. The Committee for the Courts of Justice recommended rejecting his petition.

The Maryland General Assembly passed a similar act on behalf of Butler in 1837, on the condition that he submit a bond of $2,000 (an estimated $75,000 in 2023 dollars) for 12 months “good behavior.” This enabled Butler to legally travel there for work.

When Butler arrived here in 1843 at age 57, he found lodgings at 17 Pine Street, making him a neighbor of author, abolitionist, and Underground Railroad agent William Wells Brown (1811-1884), who lived at 13 Pine Street. Pine Street was one of the centers of Black life in Buffalo. The city had almost 30,000 residents then, 823 of whom were colored, according to the language used in the 1845 New York State census.

Butler first appears in the 1844 Buffalo city directory, described as a laborer. Later, he worked as a private and city nurse. In 1851, he took out a classified ad in the Morning Express offering his services, endorsed by Drs. Alden S. Sprague, C.C. Wyckoff, J.S Trowbridge, and attorney Henry W. Rogers.

Neither Hope nor Emma were found in the 1850 federal census, though there were two young adults of color in Buffalo named Butler, born in Virginia and Maryland, who could be their children. The 1850 city directory indicates that Hope was now living at 280 Main St., corner of Swan. It is likely that he belonged to the Michigan Street Baptist Church. In 1860, Hope submitted a resolution on behalf of the congregation thanking author Thomas F. Marshall (1801-1864) for lecturing there. In the 1860 census, Hope was living on his own without Emma. Perhaps he was a widower.

Butler was literate and wrote letters to editors. In 1845, the Daily National Pilot in Buffalo published his letter praising the character and conduct of General (later president) Andrew Jackson during the battle of New Orleans in 1815 and describing a British sword presented to Butler by a colored veteran of the War of 1812. In 1849, Butler wrote a letter to the Morning Express complimenting W.D. Blain, the principal of the Vine St. colored school, and in 1856, Butler shared with the Buffalo Commercial a warm letter he received from former president John Tyler, reporting news of friends known to both of them. In 1862, he signed as one of 240 Black men a petition by Leonard Dugged and George A. Bailey to the U.S. House of Representatives, “praying Congress to provide means for…colonization to some country in which their color will not be a badge of degradation.”

When Butler died in August 1876 at the age of 90, he was described by the Buffalo Courier as “a genial old man, even in his old age, seeming young in spirit, and he will be remembered pleasantly by many of our people” and was credited with purchasing the freedom of his wife and three unnamed daughters. He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery.