Fugitive slave
Encyclopedia
History of slavery in the United States
Slavery in the United States was a form of slave labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in...
, "fugitive slaves" (or runaway slaves) were slaves
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
who had escaped from their master to travel to a place where slavery was banned or illegal. Many went to northern territories
Northern United States
Northern United States, also sometimes the North, may refer to:* A particular grouping of states or regions of the United States of America. The United States Census Bureau divides some of the northernmost United States into the Midwest Region and the Northeast Region...
including Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
until the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed. Because of this, fugitive slaves had to leave the country, traveling to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
or Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. During the Civil War many slavery advocates stated that most of the slaves stayed on the plantation rather than escape, but in fact there were half a million who ran away, which is about one in five. This is a very high proportion considering many of the slaves did not know where to go or what they would need to survive .
History
Fugitive slaves early in U.S. were sought out just as they were through the Fugitive slave law years, but early efforts included only Wanted posters, flyers etc.. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, Bounty hunters and civilians could lawfully capture escaped slaves in the north, or any other place, and return them to the Slave master. Many escaped slaves upon return were to face harsh and horrid punishments such as amputation of limbs, whippings, branding, and many other unthinkable acts. Escaped slaves were not the only ones sought after during these ordeals, people who aided escapees were also punished by legal law as seen in the case of Ableman v. Booth, where Booth was charged with aiding Glover's escape by preventing his capture from Federal Marshals. Many states tried to nullify the new slave act or prevent capture of escaped slaves by setting up new laws to protect their rights. This is shown in many forms of law, but one most notable is the Massachusetts Liberty Act. This Act was passed in order to keep escaped slaves from being returned to their masters by stopping the abduction of Federal Marshals or bounty hunters. Also in the previously mentioned Supreme Court Case Ableman v. Booth, the actions that spurred the accused was the attempt of Wisconsin to rule The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Unconstitutional.When mere laws didn't suffice to aid abolitionists, they along with the slaves turned to drastic measures in order to undermine slave owners. Such ideas as the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
, breaking work tools etc...were used to either silently get back at them or just flat out stop slavery. Breaking work tools was a common way for slaves to get back at their masters. By impeding the work they could do it also halted the amount of money that could be made off that slave by the master.
The Underground Railroad is probably one of the most well known ways that abolitionists aided slaves out of the south and into northern states. In this manner the slaves would go from house to house of either whites or freed blacks where they would receive shelter, food, clothing etc..
Now when the slaves were found gone, most masters did everything they could to find their lost “property.” Flyers would be put up, posses to find him/her would be sent out, and under the new Fugitive slave Act they could now send federal marshals into the north to extract them. This new law also brought up bounty hunters to the game of returning slaves to their masters, even if the “slave” had already been freed he could be brought back into the south to be sold back into slavery if he/ she was without their freedom papers. In 1851 there was a case of a Black Coffee house waiter who was snatched by Federal Marshals on behalf of John Debree who claimed the man to be his property. Even though the man had escaped earlier, his case was brought before the Massachusetts supreme court to be tried.
The Underground Railroad
The Underground RailroadUnderground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
was a network of abolitionists between 1816 and 1860 who helped fugitive slaves escape to freedom. The Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
(Quakers,) Baptists, Methodists and other religious sects helped in operating the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
. Notable people who used the Underground Railroad include:
- Anderson Ruffin AbbottAnderson Ruffin AbbottAnderson Ruffin Abbott, M.D. was the first Black Canadian to be a licensed physician. His career included participation in the American Civil War and attending the death bed of Abraham Lincoln.-Early life:...
- Henry "Box" Brown
- Levi CoffinLevi CoffinLevi Coffin was an American Quaker, abolitionist, and businessman. Coffin was deeply involved in the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio and his home is often called "Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad"...
- Frederick DouglassFrederick DouglassFrederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
- Calvin FairbankCalvin FairbankCalvin Fairbank was an American abolitionist minister who spent more than 17 years in prison for his anti-slavery activities.-Biography:...
- Thomas GarrettThomas GarrettThomas Garrett was an abolitionist and leader in the Underground Railroad movement before the American Civil War....
- William Lloyd GarrisonWilliam Lloyd GarrisonWilliam Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United...
- Samuel GreenSamuel Green (freedman)Samuel Green was an African-American slave, freedman, and minister of religion, who was jailed in 1857 for possessing a copy of the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe....
- Josiah Bushnell GrinnellJosiah Bushnell GrinnellJosiah Bushnell Grinnell was a U.S. Congressman from Iowa's 4th congressional district, an ordained Congregational minister, founder of Grinnell, Iowa and benefactor of Grinnell College....
- Josiah HensonJosiah HensonJosiah Henson was an author, abolitionist, and minister. Born into slavery in Charles County, Maryland, he escaped to Ontario, Canada in 1830, and founded a settlement and laborer's school for other fugitive slaves at Dawn, near Dresden in Kent County...
- Isaac HopperIsaac HopperIsaac Tatem Hopper was an American abolitionist who is known as the father of the underground railroad.-Contributions to African-Americans:...
- Roger Hooker LeavittRoger Hooker LeavittCol. Roger Hooker Leavitt was a prominent landowner, early industrialist and Massachusetts politician who with other family members was an ardent abolitionist, using his home in Charlemont, Massachusetts as an Underground Railroad station for slaves escaped from the South...
- Samuel J. May
- John ParkerJohn Parker (abolitionist)John P. Parker was an African-American abolitionist, inventor, iron moulder and industrialist who helped hundreds of slaves to freedom in the Underground Railroad resistance movement based in Ripley, Ohio. He was one of the few blacks to patent his inventions before 1900...
- John Wesley PoseyJohn Wesley PoseyJohn Wesley Posey was a significant figure in the Underground Railroad in Indiana, America. Posey was one of the organizers of the Anti-Slavery League of Indiana....
- John RankinJohn Rankin (abolitionist)John Rankin was an American Presbyterian minister, educator and abolitionist. Upon moving to Ripley, Ohio in 1822, he became known as one of Ohio's first and most active "conductors" on the Underground Railroad...
- Alexander Milton RossAlexander Milton RossAlexander Milton Ross, , was born in Belleville, Upper Canada and died in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was an abolitionist who was an agent for the secret Underground Railroad slave escape network, known in that organization and among slaves as The Birdman for his preferred cover story as a bird...
- David RugglesDavid RugglesDavid Ruggles was an anti-slavery activist who was active in the New York Committee of Vigilance and the Underground Railroad. He was an "African-American printer in New York City during the 1830s", who "was the prototype for black activist journalists of his time"...
- Samuel SeawellSamuel SeawellSamuel Seawell was a lawyer and printer in Massachusetts. In the year 1700 he published the first North American antislavery tract called The Selling of Joseph....
- William StillWilliam StillWilliam Still was an African-American abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, writer, historian and civil rights activist....
- Sojourner TruthSojourner TruthSojourner Truth was the self-given name, from 1843 onward, of Isabella Baumfree, an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, she...
- Harriet TubmanHarriet TubmanHarriet Tubman Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Harriet Ross; (1820 – 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War. After escaping from slavery, into which she was born, she made thirteen missions to rescue more than 70 slaves...
- Charles Augustus WheatonCharles Augustus WheatonCharles Augustus Wheaton was a businessman and major figure in the central New York state abolitionist movement and Underground Railroad, as well as other progressive causes...
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, part of the Compromise of 1850Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in September 1850, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War...
, was a law enacted by the Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
and House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
that declared that all fugitive slaves be returned to their masters. Because the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
agreed to have California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
enter as a free state, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was created. The act was passed on September 18, 1850, and it was repealed on June 28, 1864.
Harriet Tubman
One of the most notable fugitive slaves of American history and conductors of the Underground Railroad is Harriet TubmanHarriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Harriet Ross; (1820 – 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War. After escaping from slavery, into which she was born, she made thirteen missions to rescue more than 70 slaves...
. Born in Dorchester County, Maryland
Dorchester County, Maryland
Dorchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland on its Eastern Shore. It is bordered by the Choptank River to the north, Talbot County to the northwest, Caroline County to the northeast, Wicomico County to the southeast, Sussex County, Delaware, to the east, and the Chesapeake...
around 1822, Tubman grew up a slave. As a young adult, Harriet Tubman escaped from her master’s plantation in 1849. Between 1850 and 1860 she helped approximately 300 slaves escape from slavery, including her parents. During this time, there was a $40,000 bounty over her head for anyone who could capture her and bring her back to slavery. Many people called her the “Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
of her people.” Harriet Tubman also worked as a spy during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
See also
- AbolitionismAbolitionismAbolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
- Article Four of the United States Constitution
- DrapetomaniaDrapetomaniaDrapetomania was a supposed mental illness described by American physician Samuel A. Cartwright in 1851 that caused black slaves to flee captivity. Today, drapetomania is considered an example of pseudoscience, and part of the edifice of scientific racism...
- Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
- Fugitive Slave Acts
- History of Slavery in the United StatesHistory of slavery in the United StatesSlavery in the United States was a form of slave labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in...
- Harriet TubmanHarriet TubmanHarriet Tubman Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Harriet Ross; (1820 – 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War. After escaping from slavery, into which she was born, she made thirteen missions to rescue more than 70 slaves...
- History of SlaveryHistory of slaveryThe history of slavery covers slave systems in historical perspective in which one human being is legally the property of another, can be bought or sold, is not allowed to escape and must work for the owner without any choice involved...
- Slave Trade Compromise and Fugitive Slave Clause