The Fugitive Slave Law and Its Victims
This is from the American Anti-Slavery Society and is dated 1856. For a while slaves could get their freedom simply by getting into Northern states, but this upset the South so much that pressure was brought to bear to get a law passed to stop that.
This was the fugitive slave law. If a slave got into a Northern state, his owner (or the bounty hunters the owner hired) could enter that state and search for the slave. If they found him/her/them, then they would return the slaves to their owners. Usually such slaves were flogged or worse when they got back to their plantation.
The law, of course, upset abolitionists. Now for the slaves to be truly free they had to make their way to Canada via the Underground Railroad system that had been established.
The law was passed by Congress in September of 1850.
The first four sections of the law basically deal with who is going to enforce it.
This was obviously put in the law because the makers knew some of the people charged with enforcing the law were against slavery, and this puts them at direct financial risk if they don't enforce the law. If the slave escapes, then the lawman is subject to paying his full value.
Section 6 notes that the 'claimant' can get a warrant or not; the escaped slave can be taken into custody and has no recourse to legal action. A judge hears the evidence and then can turn the slave over to the owner (or his delegate), and that person can use any force necessary to get the slave back to the owner.
The slave is not allowed to testify in his/her own behalf. In addition, there's a provision to prevent anyone else from interfering with the owner/bounty hunter/whoever from taking the slave back to the owner.
This section is aimed straight at abolitionists. Anyone who tries to stop a slave from being found, or helps the escaped slave in any way at all can be fined (twice, basically), and put into prison for up to six months. The people helping on the underground railroad knew about this and still took their chances helping the escaped slaves, showing they really believed in the cause of freedom for all.
The impression I get from this section is that, if the owner thinks someone is going to interfere, he can arrange to have a whole bunch of guys go with the lawman to take the slave back to the plantation.
The pamphlet then goes on to name the men who voted in favor of the bill. The bill passed by a vote of 109 for, 75 against. Again, a list of votes is given.
Then the document goes on to attack Daniel Webster. Apparently he fully supported the idea of a bill, though he was not a senator when it was voted on. He had become Secretary of State. Then the document goes on to give specific examples of escaped slaves who were caught and what happened to them.
Some of the fortunate escaped slaves experienced others paying enough money to get them their freedom. This did not always happen, though. This particular case concerned a slave that had been free for nineteen years, but was still returned to his 'owner.'
The people taken varied considerably in age, from basically being babies all the way up in age. The states the document specifically cites that blacks were taken from included New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Delaware, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Connecticut and California.
The document goes on for page after page about single blacks or entire groups of blacks being caught by slave owners or their hired thugs. Some blacks were kidnapped, with, undoubtedly, some of these never having been slaves at all. There were also numerous incidences of men pretending to befriend the escaped slaves and later turning them over to the authorities.
Some instances did involve violence.
A good number of the instances involve the states of Kentucky (a slave state), and Ohio (a free state.) Escaping slaves would cross the Ohio River and, if lucky, make contact with the underground railroad and make their way to freedom. Many were not so lucky, though, and were caught. One example is given of a mother who murdered one of her own children to keep her from going back into slavery.
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