The Jerry Rescue: The Fugitive Slave Law

Although today equality is one of the main aspects of the American government, during the foundation period groups that were not given many freedoms used their rights to fight for greater equality. In 1977, African-American activists signed the Slave Petition for Freedom in an attempt to free slaves and give them freedoms. In America, slaves were treated very badly under the control of white aristocrats. Slaves were put under very strict guidelines and if those instructions were not met, they would be punished. Slaves were “Unjustly Dragged by the hand of cruel Power from their Derest (Dearest) friends and sum (some) of them Even torn from the Embraces of their tender Parents” and “Deprived of Every social privilege of Every thing Requisit

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).

This joy for African Americans soon ended when they realized that the leeway for their rights got smaller each day, as the North began focusing on other issues and Southern Democrats began slowly rising back to political power. A former slave woman in Texas recounts the violence and reality of being a freed person. She states her master made her work months after she was legally freed, and that she could see lots of former slaves hanging from trees. Her point of view, as an African American woman, is significant because she gives us insight on the price that came with being freed in the South(Document 5). Southern states learned ways to work around federal racial protection laws just to oppress and make African Americans feel like second class citizens again.

The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 was implemented to enforce and approve slavery. This law states that slave runaways can be denied the ability to have a jury trial and can sometimes be denied the opportunity to provide evidence. Judges in these trials could give an escaped slave to their representative or their master. This law also prohibited free black people of their protection they should have had through the Bill of Rights. The Fugitive Slave Laws contradicted ideas in an earlier decade where they were making a movement towards treating blacks and whites equally. A black man named Benjamin Benneker was a well-known writer that once wrote about Jefferson and his views on slavery. He had opposing

The statement from the letter from a fugitive slave suggest that the slave-owner tried to make it seem as though it was a privilege to be a slave. Stating that slaves have a better life than free blacks because they have food, shelter and can receive medical assistance if needed. In reality all she was trying to do was brainwash the slaves into thinking that them not being slaves would make their lives even harder. Now, that statement may not be inaccurate but, a colored person in those times would rather be free and having to worry about where their next meal will come from than to be treated like an animal. In todays society everyone in the country of the united states is supposed to be treated equally but, people of color still have a difficult

The law negated fugitives the right of trial by jury, forbade them from testifying on their own behalf, and allowed their return to slavery simply through a slaveholder’s claim. The law also permitted federal officers to hunt down fugitives in the North, and targeted all escapees, which put ex-slaves who had resided in the North for over thirty years in peril of being captured. Most notably, the law revealed to northerners the harsh reality that the progression of slavery was in the hands of their collaboration and agreement to the Fugitive Slave Act. Moreover, through the legalization of slave-catching measures in the North, the law reminded northerners that slavery was a problem affecting the entire country, not solely the

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850 that allowed slave catchers to seize alleged fugitive slaves without a trial and prohibit the assistance of fugitives and/or impeding their retrieval (“Abolition, Anti-Slavery Movements, and the Rise of the Sectional Controversy”). As a result, many former slaves were captured and forced to return to their masters. For example, Anthony Burns, a slave from Virginia who escaped slavery and established a new life in Boston, was detained by a federal marshal (Fraser 360). The arrest incited uprisings and protests by Boston’s white and colored abolitionists (Fraser 360). Nevertheless, public opinions of the Fugitive Slave Act varied depending on the country’s region. On one hand,

This publication supported the idea of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Law. The purpose of this publication was to prove that slavery

The fugitive slave law of 1850 was part of the compromise of 1850. This law required the united states government to actively assist slave owners in recapturing their fugitive slaves. Under the united states constitution, slave owners had the right to reclaim slave who ran away to free states. With this, the federal government had to assist the slave owners. No such requirement had existed previously. Created tensions because the southerners sought to strengthen the fugitive slave law. Northerners sought to respect respect the constitution’s fugitive slave clause and thereby preserve the union by accommodating southern anger over the fugitive slave issue.

The main idea of the reading, “Who Claims Me,” is the history of the Fugitive Slave Law and the importance of certain citizens in the rebellion against the unjust law. One of the biggest abolitionist leaders at this time was Frederick Douglass because he influenced an uprising against an inequitable legislation. On October 14, 1851, he spoke at a gathering of fugitive slaves and encouraged them to fight back and stand up for their rights. He was an important figure because his speech spurred the creation of the Boston Vigilance Committee which was made to protect and help out fugitive slaves.

In Giddings speech he asks what law is helping the slaves in America, all the laws about them are against them. Them when he seeks help in the North there is a law making it illegal to help them. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 making it if you get caught helping a slave you could face up to 6 months in prison and a $1000 dollar fine. What is America really free if there was a law preventing anyone from helping slaves, and police officers are tracking them down everywhere. The people in the North would never follow the laws that make them give a runaway slave to his pursuers. It would be as if they were murdering the slave. So a man that brings a slave back to slavery is murdering him. Giddings states that that person is now a murderer and should

Otis did exaggerate his case for effect. One way that Otis exaggerated was when he compared the writs of assistance to slavery. Otis had explained that no matter what, till the day he dies, if there was a price or not, there was absolutely no way he would agree with what they explained in the writs of assistance. Therefore Otis tried to let the people know that the writs of assistance was a horrendous idea. Generally speaking, Otis showed exaggeration when he compared writs of assistance to slavery.

Since the spoken word, hundreds of philosophers have defined law in different ways. Philosophy allows people to study the nature of people’s beliefs which can differ over time. Not even the law is exempt from the opinions of philosophers. Seeing law in different ways allows people to come to different conclusions about legal cases. The Fugitive Slave Law was a controversial law in American history, which allowed slave-owners to capture their slaves who have fled north to free states. Once, jurors tried a group of emancipators in Boston for helping an escaped slave flee to Canada. These emancipators challenged the Fugitive Slave Law in United States v Morris. According to the Fugitive Slave Law, helping an escaped slave is in violation

On December 6, 1865, slavery was annulled in the United States: for all we know. Some may argue that slavery ended in December of 1865; however, an article entitled “Children in Forced labor 2014” confirms that a whopping 945,000 children between the ages of twelve and fourteen are victims of modern day slavery better known as sexual exploitation or human trafficking. Human trafficking according to the United Nations is: “...the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper means -such as force, abduction, fraud, or coercion- for an improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation” (National Institute of Justice). The average age of entry in this industry is about 12 years old. Every year,

A Total Institution is an association where people or gatherings are detached for long stretches of times as their lives are controlled and managed by organization, which is precisely what jail and the slave society are. Despite the fact that subjugation is a distant memory, it is still here discretely. According to Frederick Douglass, The condition in which one individual is claimed as property by another and is under the proprietor 's control, particularly in automatic subjugation called slavery. There are few differences between total institution and slavery. Such as, housing, life and activity, clothes and personal item, uneducated, bonds between slave overseer and master.