Natural Law Theory, Positivism, And The Fugitive Slave Law

Laws are enforced to provide our society with safety, boundaries, protection of rights, and overall justice. The United States Constitution and Bill of Rights were established years ago to reduce the tensions and conflicts of our newly founded nation. It sought out to accomplish this by providing justice through an equal voice for all citizens. However, this equal voice for justice more often times than not is squandered and diminished. Things such as race, religion, and culture often times blur the lines of the law and fair outcomes in a court. Individuals feel that their beliefs are more important than the protection of rights and the deliverance of law or the law itself cannot go outside of its limitations to provide justice. This is apparent in the court cases of Marbury v Madison, Plessy v Ferguson, and the book To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. These cases clearly exemplify that the law does not always provide justice, although it endeavors to do so.

The Fugitive Slave Act relied on a corrupt judicial system that paid judges according to their judgments on a case, a judge could have been paid more for returning a “fugitive slave” back into slavery rather than returning them to freedom. The people of the North were, for the most part, in opposition to the fugitive slave act, so it wasn’t uncommon for fugitive slaves to be “overlooked” by members of their community. These flaws

What is law? Law is a system of rules used to govern a society and control the behaviors of its members. In this case, Martin Luther King is charged for breaking a law. King questions the differences between just and unjust laws to justify his actions in Birmingham and the charges of breaking laws willingly. Defending his willingness to break laws, King argues, “How can you advocate breaking laws and obeying other?” He answers to accusation of his willingness to break laws with a well-written argument of what is just and unjust laws. Martin Luther King uses the definition, the categories, and the implication of the law excellently to answer the charges of breaking laws willingly.

Furthermore, King connects with his audience when he criticizes the unjust segregation laws. When accused of having a desire to break laws, King immediately disproves that theory by agreeing with their concern, and then discusses the difference between just and unjust laws. He quotes St. Thomas Aquinas faultlessly when he states his thoughts on law: "Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality" (222). He continues to say that a person has a "moral responsibility" (221) to refuse to comply with unjust laws, as well as having an obligation to obey just laws. His statement forces his readers to put themselves in his shoes and think of their moral responsibility to stand up against unjust laws regardless of

In 1850, representatives of Clinton County tried to introduce the bill again. Both houses opposed it, but eventually the bill passed and the governor signed it. However, there was an important stipulation to the bill; it could only go into effect after it was published in the newspapers; Iowa City Reporter and the Iowa Freeman of Mt. Pleasant. Fortunately, the Freeman refused to publish it, thus effectively stopping the bill from becoming law (History of Clinton County, 54). Nevertheless, there was another legal move to block runaway slaves from achieving freedom, this time from the United States Government. Before the Federal Government passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, slaves felt safe if they could run away to a free state. However, after this law went into effect slave catchers everywhere hunted them. The Fugitive Slave Act brought the problem of slavery to “Iowa’s doorstep” (History of Clinton County, 54).

The most glaring established issue with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was its disavowal of due process. A criminal was returned south on the expression of any white individual. The blamed was not permitted to present confirmation in his own guard. This unmistakably disregards the Fifth Amendment. "No individual might be… denied of life, freedom, or property, without due procedure of law."Unless you need to contend dark individuals weren't "people," a blamed criminal had a privilege to a real trial. As it stood, the Fugitive Slave Acts stripped all rights from a dark individual on the simple assumption he was a slave. He was assumed liable and had no real way to substantiate himself guiltless. The Bill of Rights was added to give "promote decisive

Fugitive Slave Law: Allowed people to go up North and recapture any black person to return to their “owner” even

The Fugitive Slave Acts came into place in 1850, it’s meaning was to prevent slaves from coming north by threatening people with jail sentences and a hefty fine of $1000. This law rooted back to the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 which were very similar to the Fugitive Slave clause which stated that all slaves found escaping to the north must be returned to their owner or the Northerners who were found with slaves would be fined $500. Northerners thought that this law was unfair because it favored the Southerners because it promoted slavery in a sense. This law stated that if

A powerful example of this, is the fact that Nelson Hackett was to be extradited back to the United States even after the Canadian officials knew that he was a slave and was trying to escape from his master (Document 7; Document 6). The major reason for the extradition of Hackett was due to his grand larceny charge, where he stole goods ranging from a roan mare to a gold watch from not only his master, but Augustus J. Ward and W. L. Wilson as well (Document 7; Document 5). With that being said, the Canadian and American governments followed the Fugitive Offenders’ Act, as Hackett was to be given severe consequences for fleeing from Arkansas to Canada after committing grand larceny (Document 9; Document 7). Therefore, both the Canadian and American government showed zero tolerance to thieves while providing assurance to those who had their property stolen that the issue would be properly dealt with. It is important to note, that in these documents, Alfred Wallace among other American citizens in the year of 1841 viewed slaves as a part of their property rights as slavery was still legal in the United States until 1865 (Document 6; Lesson 2 Podcast). Thus, for Wallace, Hackett was of great value to him as he was more than a slave, he was also property, so by running away he was stealing himself away from Wallace (Document 6; Lesson 2

Laws are created among society to maintain order, keeping the communities safe and controlled. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the trial of Tom Robinson is a textbook example of how law creates order among society. When Tom was accused of rape, he was taken to a court of law and prosecuted for the laws that he had broken. Atticus states, “There is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller… that institution gentlemen, is a court.” pg 274 When Atticus says that he is expressing that legally all men are equal in the court of law, and men that are proven guilty are demanded to serve the punishment that has been given to them. This shows that law is the ultimate decider over the people, and that the people should respect the law because it upholds the regulations of the nation.

It stated that all citizens must return a slave if perceived to be a runaway with no hesitation, to their owner. The Fugitive Slave law brought the issue of slavery to the doorsteps of antislavery citizens forcing them to aid in the continuation of slavery. This angered Northerners because they couldn‘t do much about it. If they did so they would be fined and possibly lawfully jailed. This act single-handedly accelerated the already growing tension between the North and South with the issue of slavery, which is believed to be a major factor in the causation of the Civil

When referring to the days of slavery, it is often assumed that the south was the sole force behind its continuance. However there were many factors which lead southerners as well as some in the north to quietly accept slavery as a good thing. John Calhoun declared in 1837 “Many in the South once believed that [slavery] was a moral and political evil…That folly and delusion are gone; we see it now in its true light, and regard it as the most safe and stable basis for free institutions in the world” (p. 345). This statement was justified by various reasons. There was the fundamental belief that Africans were inferior to their white counterparts. Many saw the slave population as a labor force that

The Fugitive Slave Acts were a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the United States.the first was the fugitive slave law of 1793 this law required judges to award possession of an escaped slave upon any formal request by a master or his representative. during this time accused runaways were denied trial by jury.Free black were denied the legal protections that the bill of rights guaranteed them as citizens.

The Fugitive Slave Acts were a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the United States. Enacted by Congress in 1793, the first Fugitive Slave Act authorized local governments to seize and return escaped slaves to their owners and imposed penalties on anyone who aided in their flight. Widespread resistance to the 1793 law later led to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which added further provisions regarding runaways and levied even harsher punishments for interfering in their capture. The Fugitive Slave Acts were among the most controversial laws of the early 19th century, and many Northern

To add to the less humane English laws compared to those of the French laws, they also used torture as a public spectacle to deter potential offenders. “Under these laws, the enslaved could be gibbeted, castrated, branded with hot irons, dismembered and even locked in dungeons for unlimited periods as punishment for insubordination.”7 The whites in the French West Indies all regarded the laws and respected the rights of slaves unlike the British planters. Under the slave system in British colonies, Europeans who killed their human chattel while administering punishments committed no criminal offences, as one report of 1788 states: "Very little measure appears to have been assigned by any general laws, to the Authority of the Master in punishing Slaves.”8 The British thought of them as inferior, The Barbados legislature put the matter succinctly in 1688, when it provided a solemn court for capital cases but omitted the usual jury of twelve men, on the ground that the accused "being British slaves, deserve not, from the Baseness of their condition, to be tried by the legal trial of twelve men of their Peers, or Neighbourhood, which truly neither can be rightly done, as the Subjects of England