[citation needed] Turner's uprising had spread panic and fear across the slave states and the District of Columbia.

Abolitionists were flooding Congress with petitions to end slavery in the nation's capital, so many that the House adopted a series of gag rules to automatically table them.

Bowen was ultimately taken into custody without harm; instead, proslavery advocates went after Reuben Crandall, the man they believed was leading the distribution of abolitionist material in Washington.

Among them was District Attorney Francis Scott Key, writer of the United States' national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner", who pushed for the arrest and prosecution of Crandall.

[7] The Washington Navy Yard labor strike began on July 29, 1835, after Commodore Isaac Hull responded to thefts by limiting workers' lunch privileges.

The strike, which eventually grew to 175 white mechanics and workers,[9] immediately exposed longstanding racial discord in the Yard.

[10] In an undated diary entry for August 1835, African-American diarist Michael Shiner confirmed intimidation by white workers and their demand that the black caulkers stop work.

"[1] "White mechanics and carpenters on strike at the Navy Yard caught wind of a vicious rumor that further inflamed their anger and resentment.

Unfortunately, several hundred mechanics of the navy yard are out of employment, who, aided and abetted by their sympathizers, create the mob, — the first I have ever seen, not recollecting those of Sheffield, and it is truly alarming.

"[17][18] Seaton was one of the few observers to see that the strike revealed the corrosive effects of racism on the Navy Yard workforce, as white workers sought to blame their own precarious economic situation on both free and enslaved African Americans.

He and Julia left Virginia, which had harsh restrictions on free blacks, and moved into the District of Columbia, Washington City.

In Washington, D.C., Snow opened a popular restaurant, the Epicurean Eating House, located on the corner of 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue SE, next door to the Indian Queen Hotel.

Snow's restaurant placed emphasis on sophisticated and healthy food cleverly advertised, with the practical message of "Health Bought Cheap.

"[26] In August 1835, large mobs of white mechanics and laborers rampaged through the District, seeking to destroy property and terrorize free blacks.

The mob, composed of mechanics on strike from the Washington Navy Yard, had heard a rumor that Snow had insulted their wives.