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FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 289 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FUGITIVE SLAVE See also:

LAWS , a See also:term applied in the See also:United States to the Statutes passed by See also:Congress in 1793 and 185o to provide for the return of See also:negro slaves who escaped from one See also:state into another or into a public territory. A fugitive slave clause was inserted in the Articles of See also:Confederation of the New See also:England Confederation of 1643, providing for the return of the fugitive upon the certificate of one See also:magistrate in the See also:jurisdiction out of which the said servant fled—no trial by See also:jury being provided for. This seems to have been the only instance of an inter-colonial See also:provision for the return of fugitive slaves; there were, indeed, not infrequent escapes by slaves from one See also:colony to another, but it was not until after the growth of See also:anti-See also:slavery sentiment and the acquisition of western territory, that it became necessary to adopt a See also:uniform method for the return of fugitive slaves. Such provision was made in the See also:Ordinance .of 1787 (for the Northwest Territory), which in See also:Article VI. provided that in the See also:case of " any See also:person escaping into the same [the Northwest Territory] from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the See also:original states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid." An agreement of the sort was necessary to persuade the slave-holding states to See also:union, and in the Federal Constitution, Article IV., See also:Section II., it is provided that " no person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any See also:law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due." The first specific legislation on the subject was enacted on the 12th of See also:February 1793, and like the Ordinance for the Northwest Territory and the section of the Constitution quoted above, did not contain the word " slave "; by its provisions any Federal See also:district or See also:circuit See also:judge or any state magistrate was authorized to decide finally and without a jury trial the status of an alleged fugitive. The measure soon met with strong opposition in the See also:northern states, and See also:Personal See also:Liberty Laws were passed to hamper officials in the See also:execution of the law; See also:Indiana in 1824 and See also:Connecticut in 1828 providing jury trial for fugitives who appealed from an original decision against them. In 184o New See also:York and See also:Vermont extended the right of trial by jury to fugitives and provided them with attorneys. As See also:early as the first See also:decade of the r9th See also:century individual dissatisfaction with the law of 1793 had taken the See also:form of systematic assistance rendered to negroes escaping from the See also:South to See also:Canada or New England—the so-called " Underground Railroad."' The decision of the Supreme See also:Court of the United States in the case of Prigg v. See also:Pennsylvania in 1842 (16 See also:Peters 539), that state authorities could not be forced to See also:act in fugitive slave cases, but that See also:national authorities must carry out the national law, was followed by legislation in See also:Massachusetts (1843), Vermont (1843), Pennsylvania (1847) and Rhode See also:Island (1848), forbidding state officials to help enforce the law and refusing the use of state gaols for fugitive slaves. The demand from the South for more effective Federal legislation was voiced in the second fugitive slave law, drafted by Senator J. M. See also:Mason of See also:Virginia, and enacted on the 18th of See also:September 1850 as a See also:part of the See also:Compromise See also:Measures of that See also:year. See also:Special commissioners were to have concurrent jurisdiction with the U.S. circuit and district courts and the inferior courts of Territories in enforcing the law; fugitives could not testify in their own behalf; no trial by jury was provided; The precise amount of organization in the Underground Railroad cannot be definitely ascertained because of the exaggerated use of the figure of railroading in the documents of the " presidents " of the road, See also:Robert Purvis and See also:Levi See also:Coffin, and of its many " conductors,' and their discussion of the " packages " and " See also:freight " shipped by them.

The See also:

system reached from See also:Kentucky and Virginia across See also:Ohio, and from See also:Maryland across Pennsylvania and New York, to New England and Canada, and as early as 1817 a See also:group of anti-slavery men in See also:southern Ohio had helped to Canada as many as woo slaves. The See also:Quakers of Pennsylvania possibly began the See also:work of the mysterious Underground Railroad; the best known of them was See also:Thomas See also:Garrett (1789-1871), a native of Pennsylvania, who, in 1822, removed to See also:Wilmington, See also:Delaware, where he was convicted in 1848 on four See also:counts under the Fugitive Slave Law and was fined $8000; he is said to have helped 2700 slaves to freedom. The most picturesque figure of the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman (c. 182o), called by her friend, See also:John See also:Brown, " See also:General " Tubman, and by her See also:fellow negroes " See also:Moses." She made about a See also:score of trips into the South, bringing out with her 300 negroes altogether. At one See also:time a See also:reward of $40,000 was offered for her See also:capture. She was a mystic, with remarkable clairvoyant See also:powers, and did See also:great service as a See also:nurse, a See also:spy and a See also:scout in the See also:Civil See also:War. Levi Coffin (1798–1877), a native of See also:North Carolina (whose See also:cousin, Vestal Coffin, had established before 1819 a " station " of the Underground near what is now See also:Guilford See also:College, North Carolina), in 1826 settled in See also:Wayne See also:County, Ohio; his See also:home at New See also:Garden (now See also:Fountain See also:City) was the See also:meeting point of three " lines " from Kentucky; and in 1847 he removed to See also:Cincinnati, where his labours in bringing slaves out of the South were even more successful. It has been argued that the Underground Railroad delayed the final decision of the slavery question, inasmuch as it was a " safety See also:valve "; for, without it, the more intelligent and capable of the negro slaves would, it is asserted, have become the leaders of insurrections in the South, and would not have been removed from the places where they could have done most damage. Consult See also:William Still, The Underground Railroad (See also:Philadelphia, 1872), a collection of anecdotes by a negro See also:agent of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, and of the Philadelphia See also:branch of the Railroad; and the important and scholarly work of Wilbur H. Siebert, The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom (New York, 1898). XI. IOpenalties were imposed upon marshals who refused to enforce the law or from whom a fugitive should See also:escape, and upon individuals who aided negroes to escape; the See also:marshal might raise a posse comitatus; a See also:fee of $ro was paid to the See also:commissioner when his decision favoured the claimant and only $5 when it favoured the fugitive; and both the fact of the escape and the identity of the fugitive were to be determined on purely ex parte testimony.

The severity of this measure led to See also:

gross abuses and defeated its purpose; the number of abolitionists increased, the operations of the Underground Railroad became more efficient, and new Personal Liberty Laws were enacted in Vermont (185o), Connecticut (1854), Rhode Island (1854), Massachusetts (1855), See also:Michigan (1855), See also:Maine (1855 and 1857), See also:Kansas (1858) and See also:Wisconsin (1858). These Personal Liberty Laws forbade justices and See also:judges to take See also:cognizance of claims, extended the habeas corpus act and the See also:privilege of jury trial to fugitives, and punished false testimony severely. The supreme court of Wisconsin went so far (1859) as to declare the Fugitive Slave Law unconstitutional. These state laws were one of the grievances officially referred to by South Carolina (in Dec. 186o) as justifying her See also:secession from the Union. Attempts to carry into effect the law of 185o aroused much bitterness. The arrests of See also:Sims and of Shadrach in See also:Boston in 1851; of " See also:Jerry " M`See also:Henry, in See also:Syracuse, New York, in the same year; of See also:Anthony See also:Burns in 1854, in Boston; and of the two Garner families in 1856, in Cincinnati, with other cases arising under the Fugitive Slave Law of r85o, probably had as much to do with bringing on the Civil War as did the controversy over slavery in the Territories. With the beginning of the Civil War the legal status of the slave was changed by his See also:master's being in arms. General B. F. See also:Butler, inMay 1861, declared negro slaves See also:contraband of war. A See also:confiscation See also:bill was passed in See also:August 1861 discharging from his service or labour any slave employed in aiding or promoting any insurrection against the See also:government of the United States.

By an act of the 17th of See also:

July 1862 any slave of a disloyal master who was in territory occupied by northern troops was declared ipso facto See also:free. But for some time the Fugitive Slave Law was considered still to hold in the case of fugitives from masters in the border states who were loyal to the Union government, and it was not until the 28th of See also:June 1864 that the Act of 185o was repealed. See J. F. See also:Rhodes, See also:History of the United States from the Compromise of r85o, vols. i. and ii. (New York, 1893); and M. G. M'Dougall, Fugitive Slaves, 1619–2865 (Boston, 1891).

End of Article: FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS

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