Fugitive slave laws
Fugitive slave laws were legal provisions in the United States that mandated the return of escaped enslaved individuals to their owners, primarily established through the Constitution and subsequent federal legislation. The first significant statute, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, allowed slave owners or their agents to seize fugitive slaves who crossed state lines, placing the responsibility for enforcement on state officials. These laws lacked protections for the accused, such as habeas corpus, a jury trial, or the right to self-defense. This lack of protections led many northern states to implement their own laws to safeguard the rights of escaped slaves. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 intensified these issues by making the federal government responsible for the capture and return of fugitive slaves, criminalizing any interference with this process, and resulting in the wrongful capture of free individuals. The legal framework surrounding these laws sparked significant moral outrage in the North, contributing to rising abolitionist sentiments and tension that ultimately fueled the Civil War. The laws serve as a reflection of the complexities and conflicts inherent in the American system of slavery and the struggle for human rights.
Fugitive slave laws
Although the US Constitution provided for the return of fugitive slaves across state borders, it did not specify the mechanism by which this would be accomplished. Congress therefore enacted the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, by which slaves could be seized by masters or agents crossing state lines. State officials were made responsible for the enforcement of the federal law. For the slaves, the law embodied no protection of habeas corpus, trial by jury, or right to testify in their own behalf. In response, many northern states passed laws granting slaves personal liberties.
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 made the federal government responsible for returning slaves to their owners. Interference with the law became a felony. Again, the alleged fugitive was denied personal rights. Furthermore, since commissioners received a higher fee for delivering a slave than for rejecting a claim, the law resulted in the confiscation of free people. The law’s constitutionality was upheld in 1859 in Ableman v. Booth. Northern furor over the law and increasing abolitionist sentiment helped bring the country closer to the brink of war.
Bibliography
Blackett, R. J. M. Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2013. Print.
Foner, Eric. Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad. New York: Norton, 2015. Print.
Minifee, Paul. "Rhetoric of Doom and Redemption: Reverend Jermain Loguen's Jeremiadic Speech against the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850." Advances in the History of Rhetoric 16.1 (2013): 29–57. Print.
Murphy, Angela F. The Jerry Rescue: The Fugitive Slave Law, Northern Rights, and the American Sectional Crisis. New York: Oxford UP, 2015. Print.
Smith, David G. On the Edge of Freedom: The Fugitive Slave Issue in South Central Pennsylvania, 1829–1870. New York: Fordham UP, 2013. Print.