DOCSLIB.ORG

The Long American Revolution: Black Abolitionists and Their

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Long American Revolution: Black Abolitionists and Their Gordon S. Barker. Fugitive Slaves and the Unfinished American Revolution: Eight Cases, 1848-1856. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2013. 232 pp. $45.00, paper, ISBN 978-0-7864-6987-1. Reviewed by Emily Margolis Published on H-Law (January, 2014) Commissioned by Craig Scott U.S. historians tend to mark the end of the their Revolution was the war against slavery and American Revolution as George Bancroft did, in their quest was to create a “more perfect union.” the early 1780s when military action with the Therefore, he claims their Revolution ended--at British ceased (upon either the surrender of Corn‐ the very earliest date--with the ratification of the wallis at Yorktown in 1781 or the Treaty of Paris Thirteenth Amendment. in 1783). As Gordon Barker rightly points out, in Using black and white abolitionist lectures, the 1980s, American and Atlantic social historians correspondence, annual reports, newspapers, di‐ began to produce a new body of scholarship that aries, and memoirs, as well as Northern and challenged this periodization as they found ordi‐ Southern newspapers, fugitive slave trials, and nary men, women, and African Americans em‐ lawyers’ papers, Barker employs a sociopolitical ploying the principles of the Declaration of Inde‐ approach to illustrate African Americans’ contin‐ pendence in their battle to gain freedom from dif‐ ued battle against the tyranny of slavery. To show ferent types of tyranny long after the end of the their continued Revolution, he centers his book eighteenth century. In fact, some argue that the on the late 1840s and 1850s and chronicles eight battle, for these groups, continues today. In Fugi‐ cases of feeing bondsmen pursued by their own‐ tive Slaves and the Unfinished American Revolu‐ ers, their owner’s agents, and sometimes federal tion: Eight Cases, 1848-1856 Barker contributes to allies under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Bark‐ the work of these later American and Atlantic er reframes these well-known fugitives and their Revolutionary historians as he joins the call for a abolitionist allies, such as Lewis Hayden, reimagining and re-periodization of what he iden‐ Theodore Parker, Samuel Joseph May, Wendell tifies as George Bancroft’s “grand American narra‐ Phillips, and Frederick Douglas, as new Revolu‐ tive” of the U.S. Revolution. Focusing specifically tionary war heroes who believed in the principles on African Americans, he argues that for blacks, of the Declaration of Independence and whose H-Net Reviews dramas went far beyond their immediate person‐ Southerners, and newspaper editors throughout al conflicts as they captured the nation’s attention the country. Barker does use legal sources and and fueled social and political tensions between chronicles the rendition court cases of his subjects anti- and proslavery states. Barker writes eight as part of a larger narrative about their struggle chapters and moves chronologically, beginning for freedom. It is not, however, a legal history in with a narrative of William and Ellen Craft and the sense that works like Steven Lubet’s Fugitive then moving to the stories of Shadrach Minkins, Justice: Runaways, Rescuers, and Slavery on Trial Thomas Sims, William Parker, Jerry (also known (2010) or Earl Maltz’s Fugitive Slave on Trial: The as William Henry), Joshua Glover, Anthony Burns, Anthony Burns Case and Abolitionist Outrage and ending with the wrenching tale of the Garner (2010) are as both Lubet and Maltz provide a family, in which the apprehended Margaret Gar‐ more in-depth picture of legal precedents and le‐ ner killed one of her daughters to prevent her en‐ gal reasoning that shaped their selected fugitive slavement. slave trials. But this is not Barker’s mission. H-Law readers might read these eight narra‐ Rather, Barker is more interested in both a public tive chapters as battles in a revolution. These mi‐ memory and historiographical project of remak‐ crohistories build on one another to show a pro‐ ing the narrative of the Revolution, one that incor‐ tracted and sublimated Revolutionary War in porates the battles of abolitionists, especially which radical principles were espoused, popular African American abolitionists. Barker explains uprisings ensued, and battles were won and lost. that he wrote this book for both public historians In this work, the war is one against slavery and it and academics and therefore is more concerned focuses on slaves who were made fugitives by the with illustrating the political and social conse‐ incredibly contentious Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. quences for slaves, free blacks, and the abolition‐ Within this abolitionist framework, battles were ist movement. won if local communities sheltered fugitives, rose Although it is a social history with supple‐ up in popular resistance against slave-hunters mentary legal aspects, Barker’s eight narratives and their federal allies, and ensured that a pur‐ are so rich in detail both inside and outside of the sued fugitive avoided reenslavement, even if that courts that they allow legal scholars to see how meant seeking permanent refuge outside of the antislavery activists’ used state criminal laws to United States. Battles were lost if communities challenge slave-hunters and the Fugitive Slave failed to effectively rise up and protect a fugitive Law of 1850. Sometimes, they found success in slave. challenging the slave-catchers acting under the Although the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 plays Fugitive Slave Law rather than the law itself. In a role in Barker’s selected narratives because it chapter 1, after the passage of the Fugitive Slave made his chosen subjects “fugitives” who owed Act of 1850, William and Ellen Craft’s former own‐ custody to their owners even in free states, criti‐ ers sent slave-hunters to Boston, where the Crafts cal examination of the law itself or its legal histo‐ resided, to reclaim their human property, who ry is not a central to this work. In fact, Barker had become active radical abolitionists. Black and does not describe the Fugitive Slave Law until white Bostonian radical abolitionists threw up chapter 2, and even then, offers little detail. H- strong walls of resistance. The Boston Vigilance Law readers will notice that this is primarily a so‐ Committee led a campaign against the slave- ciopolitical work that focuses on the ideology and hunters. Barker contends that the campaigns’ re‐ personal reactions of its many subjects to conflicts lentless efforts led to the arrest of the slave- between black and white abolitionists, proslavery hunters for “slander” and hurting William Craft’s business. After posting a $10,000 bail, the slave- 2 H-Net Reviews hunters were released from jail, only to be arrest‐ able, in-depth chronicling of individual narratives ed once again for “attempting to kidnap Craft and makes it useful for undergraduate courses on U.S. wife” (p. 32). After being released a second time, history or legal history, as it could be easily cou‐ the slave-hunters fled Boston. pled with the corresponding case records to pre‐ H-Law readers can also see that abolitionists’ pare students for a discussion of the Fugitive creative efforts to use state criminal law to chal‐ Slave Law’s social and political consequences and lenge the effects of the Fugitive Slave Law, proved how pro- and antislavery activists interpreted the less successful when they challenged the law it‐ law. Its narratives provide material to illustrate self. As recounted in chapter 8, an Ohio state coro‐ how on-the-ground tensions arose from the inter‐ ners’ jury charged Margaret Garner with frst-de‐ play of state and federal laws, mob law, black let‐ gree murder of her daughter Mary, and Garner’s ter law, and American principles, as put forth in husband, Robert, and his father, Simon, as acces‐ the Declaration of Independence and positivist sories to the murder. The Garners’ attorney, John federal constitutional law. Chapter 1, on the Joliffe, argued that the criminal indictments un‐ Crafts, and chapter 7, on Anthony Burns, could be der state law should supersede federal proceed‐ juxtaposed to highlight the militancy of radical ings under the Fugitive Slave Law. This maneuver abolitionists (which included a proposed North‐ would at least prevent the Garners from being im‐ ern succession from the Union and several upris‐ mediately returned to slavery and provide vigi‐ ings to free detained fugitives), federal reaction to lante abolitionists time to formulate a plan to help antislavery resistance (which included President the Garners escape. Joliffe’s argument was Franklin Pierce’s deployment of “the largest twofold. First, he argued that because slavery was American military show of force ever seen in outlawed in Ohio and the Garners’ master had peacetime,” pp. 147-148), and the transnational in‐ previously brought them to Ohio, they were no terest in slavery. Moreover, these chapters ex‐ longer slaves but free persons. Second, he argued plore the varied ways both abolitionists and that the Tenth Amendment granted Ohio the ex‐ judges interpreted and used the law to both fght clusive right to enforce state criminal laws. Yet and defend the rendition of slaves made possible the presiding judge ruled that the Fugitive Slave by the Fugitive Slave Law. Examining the complex Law had supervening authority over Ohio law. factors at play in the background of Barker’s eight The judge also rejected Joliffe’s argument that narratives will provide students with a more so‐ Garners were freed as a result of having previous‐ phisticated understanding of the American Revo‐ ly been taken to Ohio by their owners. The judge lution. cited Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney’s opinions in Strader et al. v. Graham (1850) and United States v. The Ship Garonne (1837) as sup‐ port for his ruling that because the Garners had returned to Kentucky voluntarily, they had relin‐ quished their right to freedom.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Tarring and Feathering of Thomas Paul Smith: Common Schools, Revolutionary Memory, and the Crisis of Black Citizenship in Antebellum Boston
    The Tarring and Feathering of Thomas Paul Smith: Common Schools, Revolutionary Memory, and the Crisis of Black Citizenship in Antebellum Boston hilary j. moss N 7 May 1851, Thomas Paul Smith, a twenty-four-year- O old black Bostonian, closed the door of his used clothing shop and set out for home. His journey took him from the city’s center to its westerly edge, where tightly packed tene- ments pressed against the banks of the Charles River. As Smith strolled along Second Street, “some half-dozen” men grabbed, bound, and gagged him before he could cry out. They “beat and bruised” him and covered his mouth with a “plaster made of tar and other substances.” Before night’s end, Smith would be bat- tered so severely that, according to one witness, his antagonists must have wanted to kill him. Smith apparently reached the same conclusion. As the hands of the clock neared midnight, he broke free of his captors and sprinted down Second Street shouting “murder!”1 The author appreciates the generous insights of Jacqueline Jones, Jane Kamensky, James Brewer Stewart, Benjamin Irvin, Jeffrey Ferguson, David Wills, Jack Dougherty, Elizabeth Bouvier, J. M. Opal, Lindsay Silver, Emily Straus, Mitch Kachun, Robert Gross, Shane White, her colleagues in the departments of History and Black Studies at Amherst College, and the anonymous reviewers and editors of the NEQ. She is also grateful to Amherst College, Brandeis University, the Spencer Foundation, and the Rose and Irving Crown Family for financial support. 1Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Julian McCrea, Benjamin F. Roberts, and William J.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter I: the Supremacy of Equal Rights
    DIVISION OF THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91125 CHAPTER I: THE SUPREMACY OF EQUAL RIGHTS J. Morgan Kousser SOCIAL SCIENCE WORKING PAPER 620 March 1987 ABSTRACT The black and white abolitionist agitation of the school integ ration issue in Massachusetts from 1840 to 1855 gave us the fi rst school integ ration case filed in Ame rica, the fi rst state sup reme cou rt decision re po rted on the issue, and the fi rst state-wide law banning ra cial disc rimination in admission to educational institutions. Wh o favo red and who opposed school integ ration, and what arguments did each side make? We re the types of arguments that they offe re d diffe rent in diffe re nt fo ru ms? We re they diffe rent from 20th centu ry arguments? Wh y did the movement triumph, and why did it take so long to do so? Wh at light does the st ruggle th row on views on ra ce re lations held by membe rs of the antebellum black and white communities, on the cha racte r of the abolitionist movement, and on the development of legal doct rines about ra cial equality? Pe rhaps mo re gene rally, how should histo ri ans go about assessing the weight of diffe rent re asons that policymake rs adduced fo r thei r actions, and how flawed is a legal histo ry that confines itself to st rictly legal mate ri als? How can social scientific theo ry and statistical techniques be profitably applied to politico-legal histo ry? Pa rt of a la rge r project on the histo ry of cou rt cases and state and local provisions on ra cial disc rimination in schools, this pape r int roduces many of the main themes, issues, and methods to be employed in the re st of the book.
    [Show full text]
  • National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form
    NPSForm10-900-b OMB No. 1024-0018 (Revised March 1992) . ^ ;- j> United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form This form is used for documenting multiple property groups relating to one or several historic contexts. See instructions in How to Complete the Multiple Property Documentation Form (National Register Bulletin 16B). Complete each item by entering the requested information. For additional space, use continuation sheets (Form 10-900-a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer, to complete all items. _X_New Submission _ Amended Submission A. Name of Multiple Property Listing__________________________________ The Underground Railroad in Massachusetts 1783-1865______________________________ B. Associated Historic Contexts (Name each associated historic context, identifying theme, geographical area, and chronological period for each.) C. Form Prepared by_________________________________________ name/title Kathrvn Grover and Neil Larson. Preservation Consultants, with Betsy Friedberg and Michael Steinitz. MHC. Paul Weinbaum and Tara Morrison. NFS organization Massachusetts Historical Commission________ date July 2005 street & number 220 Morhssey Boulevard________ telephone 617-727-8470_____________ city or town Boston____ state MA______ zip code 02125___________________________ D. Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, I hereby certify that this documentation form meets the National
    [Show full text]
  • Black Abolitionists Used the Terms “African,” “Colored,” Commanding Officer Benjamin F
    $2 SUGGESTED DONATION The initiative of black presented to the provincial legislature by enslaved WHAT’S IN A NAME? Black people transformed a war men across greater Boston. Finally, in the early 1780s, Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman (Image 1) to restore the Union into of Sheffield and Quock Walker of Framingham Throughout American history, people Abolitionists a movement for liberty prevailed in court. Although a handful of people of African descent have demanded and citizenship for all. of color in the Bay State still remained in bondage, the right to define their racial identity (1700s–1800s) slavery was on its way to extinction. Massachusetts through terms that reflect their In May 1861, three enslaved black men sought reported no slaves in the first census in 1790. proud and complex history. African refuge at Union-controlled Fort Monroe, Virginia. Americans across greater Boston Rather than return the fugitives to the enemy, Throughout the early Republic, black abolitionists used the terms “African,” “colored,” Commanding Officer Benjamin F. Butler claimed pushed the limits of white antislavery activists and “negro” to define themselves the men as “contrabands of war” and put them to who advocated the colonization of people of color. before emancipation, while African work as scouts and laborers. Soon hundreds of In 1816, a group of whites organized the American Americans in the early 1900s used black men, women, and children were streaming Colonization Society (ACS) for the purpose of into the Union stronghold. Congress authorized emancipating slaves and resettling freedmen and the terms “black,” “colored,” “negro,” the confiscation of Confederate property, freedwomen in a white-run colony in West Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • Wendell Phillips Wendell Phillips
    “THE CHINAMAN WORKS CHEAP BECAUSE HE IS A BARBARIAN AND SEEKS GRATIFICATION OF ONLY THE LOWEST, THE MOST INEVITABLE WANTS.”1 For the white abolitionists, this was a class struggle rather than a race struggle. It would be quite mistaken for us to infer, now that the civil war is over and the political landscape has 1. Here is what was said of the Phillips family in Nathaniel Morton’s NEW ENGLAND’S MEMORIAL (and this was while that illustrious family was still FOB!): HDT WHAT? INDEX WENDELL PHILLIPS WENDELL PHILLIPS shifted, that the stereotypical antebellum white abolitionist in general had any great love for the welfare of black Americans. White abolitionist leaders knew very well what was the source of their support, in class conflict, and hence Wendell Phillips warned of the political danger from a successful alliance between the “slaveocracy” of the South and the Cotton Whigs of the North, an alliance which he termed “the Lords of the Lash and the Lords of the Loom.” The statement used as the title for this file, above, was attributed to Phillips by the news cartoonist and reformer Thomas Nast, in a cartoon of Columbia facing off a mob of “pure white” Americans armed with pistols, rocks, and sticks, on behalf of an immigrant with a pigtail, that was published in Harper’s Weekly on February 18, 1871. There is no reason to suppose that the cartoonist Nast was failing here to reflect accurately the attitudes of this Boston Brahman — as we are well aware how intensely uncomfortable this man was around any person of color.
    [Show full text]
  • William Leonard, “'Black and Irish Relations in 19Th Century Boston
    William Leonard, “’Black and irish Relations in 19th Century Boston: The Interesting Case Lawyer Robert Morris” Historical Journal of Massachusetts Volume 37, No. 1 (Spring 2009). Published by: Institute for Massachusetts Studies and Westfield State University You may use content in this archive for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the Historical Journal of Massachusetts regarding any further use of this work: [email protected] Funding for digitization of issues was provided through a generous grant from MassHumanities. Some digitized versions of the articles have been reformatted from their original, published appearance. When citing, please give the original print source (volume/ number/ date) but add "retrieved from HJM's online archive at http://www.westfield.ma.edu/mhj. Robert Morris (1823-82) was the second African Amer- ican to pass the bar exam in the United States. An ardent abolitionist, during the 1840s he was the only practicing black lawyer in Boston. In 1849 he represented Ben- jamin Roberts, whose daughter had been denied entry to the white public schools. Charles Sumner eventu- ally argued this case before the Massachusetts Supreme Court. During the 1850s Morris participated in three daring rescues of fugitive slaves who were being held in custody for return to the South. After the Civil War he converted to Catholicism, which was then dominated by the Irish. Both before and after the war a majority of Morris’ clients were Irish. (Photo courtesy of the Social Law Library, Boston) Black and Irish Relations in Nineteenth Century Boston: The Interesting Case of Lawyer Robert Morris WILLIAM LEONARD Abstract: This article examines the life of Robert Morris (1823-82), Boston’s first African American lawyer and a noted abolitionist.
    [Show full text]
  • William Cooper Nell. the Colored Patriots of the American Revolution
    William Cooper Nell. The Colored Patriots of the American ... http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/nell/nell.html About | Collections | Authors | Titles | Subjects | Geographic | K-12 | Facebook | Buy DocSouth Books The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons: To Which Is Added a Brief Survey of the Condition And Prospects of Colored Americans: Electronic Edition. Nell, William Cooper Funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities supported the electronic publication of this title. Text scanned (OCR) by Fiona Mills and Sarah Reuning Images scanned by Fiona Mills and Sarah Reuning Text encoded by Carlene Hempel and Natalia Smith First edition, 1999 ca. 800K Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1999. © This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. Call number E 269 N3 N4 (Winston-Salem State University) The electronic edition is a part of the UNC-CH digitization project, Documenting the American South. All footnotes are moved to the end of paragraphs in which the reference occurs. Any hyphens occurring in line breaks have been removed, and the trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line. All quotation marks, em dashes and ampersand have been transcribed as entity references. All double right and left quotation marks are encoded as " and " respectively. All single right and left quotation marks are encoded as ' and ' respectively.
    [Show full text]
  • The Fugitive Slave Act Resources
    Essential Civil War Curriculum | H. Robert Baker, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 | September 2015 The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 By H. Robert Baker, Georgia State University Resources If you can read only one book Author Title. City: Publisher, Year. Lubet, Steven Fugitive Justice: Runaways, Rescuers, and Slavery on Trial. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. Books and Articles Author Title. City: Publisher, Year. Baker, H. Robert The Rescue of Joshua Glover: A Fugitive Slave, the Constitution, and the Coming of the Civil War. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2006, 26-57. ———. Prigg v. Pennsylvania: Slavery, the Supreme Court, and the Ambivalent Constitution. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2012. Brandt, Nat The Town That Started the Civil War. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1990. Campbell, Stanley The Slave-Catchers: Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850-1860. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1970. Finkelman, Paul An Imperfect Union: Slavery, Federalism, and Comity. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980, 236-84. Fehrenbacher, Don The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government’s Relations to Slavery. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001, 205-52. Essential Civil War Curriculum | Copyright 2015 Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech Page 1 of 4 Essential Civil War Curriculum | H. Robert Baker, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 | September 2015 Foner, Eric Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad. New York: W. W. Norton, 2015. Harrold, Stanley Border War: Fighting Over Slavery Before the Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Morris: Lawyer & Activist
    1 ROBERT MORRIS: LAWYER & ACTIVIST Boston College Law Library Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room SPRING 2017 Curated by: Mary Sarah Bilder, Founders Professor of Law Laurel Davis, Curator of Rare Books 3 We would like to offer a special thanks to everyone at Boston College’s John J. Burns Library for their support of this exhibit and for the loan of almost three dozen titles. In particular, a huge thank you goes to Christian Dupont, Katherine Fox, Shelley Barber, and, last but certainly not least, Barbara Adams Hebard, for her conservation work, advice, and generous help in mounting some of the more fragile items. Also, about two years ago, Barbara encouraged her lab assistant at the time, James Heffernan (BC, Class of 2015), to explore and write about the Morris collection at the Burns Library. It was through James’s wonderful blog post that we discovered the collection. We also are deeply thankful for the Boston Athenaeum’s willingness to loan us items from the Robert Morris papers. Curator Stanley Cushing was an encouraging shepherd for that loan, and the exhibit is richer for it. As always, many thanks to all of our colleagues and supporters in the BC Law Library. Much gratitude in particular to Lily Olson, Access Services Librarian, for her extraordinary work on the catalog cover, as well as the exhibit bookmark and webpage. We would also like to thank Ritika Bhakhri (BC Law, Class of 2018) and Lauren Koster (BC Law, Class of 2019) for their research assistance. Additionally, we are very grateful to our friends at the Social Law Library for sharing the image of Morris used in the exhibit and catalog.
    [Show full text]
  • Resisting the Slavocracy: the Boston Vigilance Committee's Role in the Creation of the Republican Party, 1846-1860
    RESISTING THE SLAVOCRACY: THE BOSTON VIGILANCE COMMITTEE’S ROLE IN THE CREATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, 1846-1860 by Yasmin K. McGee A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL May 2020 Copyright 2020 by Yasmin K. McGee ii RESISTING THE SLAVOCRACY: THE BOSTON VIGILANCE COMMITTEE'S ROLE IN THE CREATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, 1846-1860 April 16th, 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I’d like to put a spin on the familiar proverb “it takes a village,” for me it “took a village” to write this thesis. The village chief, Dr. Stephen Engle, guided me throughout the MA program and as my thesis advisor, with great leadership, insight, understanding, and impressive, yet humble, expertise. I thank Dr. Engle for introducing me to the Boston Vigilance Committee and for encouraging me to undertake this work. Dr. Engle’s love for 19th century American history, depicted through his enthusiasm for teaching, has inspired me to continuously improve my writing and understanding of history. His inspiration and confidence in my work has fostered clear convictions about my own capabilities, yet he has set an example of how to remain modest and strive for further knowledge. My gratitude to Dr. Engle goes beyond words and I am grateful for having been able to learn from him. Dr. Norman has been especially positive and helpful throughout my time in the program. While taking her graduate seminar, she introduced me to the wonders of public and oral history and encouraged me to obtain valuable experience as an intern in a local South Florida museum.
    [Show full text]
  • FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW of 1850 Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia
    THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW OF 1850 Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky introducing the Compromise of 1850 in the United States Senate. In 1850, Southerners succeeded in getting a new federal law South to guide about 70 slaves to freedom. “I was free, passed to return fugitive slaves who had escaped to the North. and they should be free,” she said. The U.S. government enforced this law, but some Northern Abolitionists argued that once slaves touched states passed laws to resist it. Sometimes, free blacks and sym- pathetic whites joined to rescue captured fugitive slaves. the soil of a non-slave state, they were free. Some Northern states prohibited county sheriffs from as- The idea of returning fugitive slaves to their own- sisting slave hunters or allowing county jails to hold ers originated at the Constitutional Convention in their captives. 1787. At that time, the Constitution stated: In 1842, the U.S. Supreme Court in Prigg v. No Person held to Service or Labor in one State, Pennsylvania found the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, constitutional. However, enforcement of the law was shall, in Consequence of any Law of Regulation the responsibility of the federal government, held the therein, be discharged from such Service or Labor, court, not the states. The Supreme Court also decided but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to that slave holders had “the complete right and title of whom such Service or Labor may be due. (U.S. ownership in their slaves, as property, in every state Const.
    [Show full text]
  • 2А–Аwho Claims
    2 – Who Claims Me? By Gary Collison 1851: Boston becomes the center of the abolitionist movement From the beginning of the slave trade in the colonies, Black women and men rebelled against the brutal institution. In the fields, slaves engaged in passive resistance by refusing to work. Some organized armed uprisings. Many followed the abolitionist advice to "vote for freedom with their feet" by fleeing their masters. By the mid­19th century, thousands of slaves were escaping each year on the legendary Underground Railroad. To appease Southern slaveholders, Congress passed a harsh new Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. The measure obligated all citizens to aid federal agents in recapturing runaways and imposed severe penalties on anyone assisting escaped slaves. Black abolitionists ­ many of whom were former slaves themselves ­ joined with their White allies to vehemently denounce the measure. In Boston, widely regarded as the center of the abolition movement, Black leaders called on citizens "to trample this law underfoot" and "to make Massachusetts a battlefield in defense of liberty." It wouldn't take long before they had a chance to act on their pledge of resistance. In Boston, the 15th of February, 1851, was a dreary, rain­drenched day in the middle of a winter thaw. At the Cornhill Coffee House in the heart of downtown, young Shadrach Minkins bent over his early morning customers as they sipped their coffee. A fugitive slave from Norfolk, Va., Minkins had escaped to Boston only nine months before. He had been lucky to find this job as a waiter at one of the city's most popular restaurants soon after arriving.
    [Show full text]