Podcasts about fugitive slave law

Send us a textAlberto and Domenica Castro once again see the ghost, Frederick Hay, who returns to their modern-day farm from 1851 on his way to Canada to escape the Fugitive Slave Act. Nobody is sure they believe in ghosts, especially not Frederick.B is for Bisexual - short stories by Laura P. Valtorta

California's Fugitive Slave Law

Send us a textIn Episode 06 of Earl Grae Cafe, Earl (she/they) dives into Chapter 5 of Toni Morrison's The Origin of Others to explore the inspiration behind Morrison's Beloved: the true story of Margaret Garner, an enslaved mother who faced trial for infanticide during the Fugitive Slave Law era. In this 25-minute episode, Earl examines Morrison's reflection on the challenge of telling stories about those whose lives and voices are often erased—a powerful theme that echoes Saidiya Hartman's work in Venus in Two Acts.This episode offers a thoughtful look at storytelling, identity, and the unspoken lives of “Others.” New listeners can jump right in, while regulars can appreciate the building depth of each chapter. Be sure to check out previous episodes (1-5) for more of Earl's readings and reflections on Morrison's brilliant insights.Don't forget to like and subscribe to the PAGES Pod channel wherever you get your podcasts to stay tuned for more from Earl Grae Cafe!Past Episodes of Earl Grae Cafe:Episode 01: Earl Grae Cafe- The Origin of Others (Foreword)Episode 02: Earl Grae Cafe- The Origin of Others (Chapter 1)Episode 03: Earl Grae Cafe- The Origin of Others (Chapter 2)Episode 04: Earl Grae Cafe- The Origin of Others (Chapter 3)Episode 05: Earl Grae Cafe- The Origin of Others (Chapter 4)Other Pages Pod Episodes you might like:PAGES Pod Volume XXII: Afropessimism, Care, and [Fractured Kinship]PAGES Pod Volume XV: Body PoliticsPAGES Pod Volume XII: AfropessimismVisit the PAGES TRG Online Library - Here

On this day in legal history, September 18, noted jurist and Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story was born. He got a lot of things right, and a lot of things wrong.Joseph Story, born on September 18, 1779, in Marblehead, Massachusetts, hailed from a family with a rich history of involvement in significant events leading up to the American Revolution. Despite initial aspirations in poetry, Story eventually focused on a career in law, spurred by early setbacks in his literary endeavors. His legal journey began under the mentorship of prominent attorneys Samuel Sewell and Samuel Putnam, culminating in his bar admission in 1801.Story's legal career blossomed as he garnered success in the courtroom and formed political alliances with influential figures like Jacob Crowninshield. His notable stint in the Massachusetts and federal legislature between 1805 and 1811 saw him briefly serve as the Speaker of the House for the Massachusetts House of Representatives. His legal acumen was recognized nationally when he successfully argued the landmark case Fletcher v. Peck before the Supreme Court in 1810, a case that marked the first instance of a state law being deemed unconstitutional.Story became the youngest Associate Justice to serve in the Supreme Court at the age of 32, nominated by President James Madison in 1811. Despite initial expectations of a divergent judicial philosophy from Justice John Marshall, Story embraced a vision that fortified the power of the Federal government, often collaborating closely with Marshall. His tenure on the bench was marked by landmark rulings that expanded the Supreme Court's authority and strengthened federal judicial power, notably in cases like Martin v. Hunter's Lessee and Swift v. Tyson.A staunch nationalist, Story vehemently opposed slavery, a stance evident in his ruling in the 1841 Amistad case where he advocated for the rights of African captives. However, his commitment to nation-building led to an incorrect ruling in Prigg v. Pennsylvania, reinforcing the federal Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, a decision that compromised the safety of escaped enslaved individuals and free black people in the north alike. Despite the challenges of circuit duties, Story remained passionate about education, joining Harvard's law faculty in 1829 and authoring seminal legal texts that illuminated complex legal concepts. His dedication to fostering a nationalist vision of federal law left an indelible mark on American jurisprudence, cementing his legacy as a formidable constitutional and legal scholar albeit not one without negative marks. His prioritizing of nation building ahead of the human rights of enslaved and free people is a serious blemish on what could have been a much more impactful public life. If Joseph Story were alive today he would be celebrating his 244th birthday and be super dead.The UK-based Woodsford Group Ltd., a prominent entity in the $13.5 billion litigation finance industry, is planning to sell its portfolio of passive US investments to concentrate on spearheading large-scale lawsuits against corporate malpractices. CEO Steven Friel revealed that this strategic shift aims to fuel the company's growth and reposition it in the market, although the details of the portfolio's size and value remain undisclosed. Woodsford intends to independently identify and organize lawsuits, moving away from merely investing in cases brought forward by law firms.This move comes as a response to a gap in the market created by a 2010 US Supreme Court ruling that restricts the trial of securities cases with significant foreign elements in the US. Woodsford plans to orchestrate these cases abroad, focusing on those that were previously under US jurisdiction. The company aims to initially seek non-litigious compensation for large groups of stakeholders affected by corporate wrongdoings, resorting to funded litigation if necessary. This strategy shift is in line with the emerging trend of substantial secondary transactions in the litigation funding sector, as noted by industry experts.Litigation Funder Woodsford Seeks Portfolio Sale in Market ShiftThe federal prosecutor's office in Muskogee, Oklahoma, is facing difficulties in recruiting attorneys to manage the increasing caseloads resulting from a Supreme Court ruling that altered Indian law jurisdiction. Despite receiving funding to expand from 8 to 159 employees, the office has struggled to attract qualified candidates willing to relocate to the economically challenged area. The 2020 Supreme Court case, McGirt v. Oklahoma, shifted the responsibility of prosecuting crimes on tribal lands to federal and tribal agencies, significantly burdening the Eastern District of Oklahoma, which encompasses a 26-county region within Indian territory.The recruitment challenges are exacerbated by the remote location and the stress associated with adapting to the federal judicial system's stringent criminal procedures. While some attorneys were initially eager to gain federal experience, many found the transition too challenging and left shortly after. In contrast, the neighboring Northern District, home to Tulsa, successfully doubled its attorney ranks to 68 within three years, leveraging the city's appeal. Experts suggest focusing recruitment efforts on local Oklahoma law school graduates to foster long-term retention. Meanwhile, US Attorney Christopher Wilson continues to emphasize the unique opportunities the role offers in hopes of attracting experienced trial lawyers.‘Forgotten' Oklahoma Town Can't Attract Enough US ProsecutorsThe Texas Senate acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton, a prominent Republican figure, on all 16 articles of impeachment he was facing, allowing him to retain his position. Despite being embroiled in corruption allegations since assuming office in 2014 and currently being under FBI investigation, Paxton managed to secure acquittal with ease. Throughout the trial, he maintained his innocence, dismissing the proceedings as a political witch hunt. The impeachment trial, which revealed deep divisions within the Texas Republican Party, saw Paxton's former aides testify against him, accusing him of corruption and abuse of power, primarily to shield a wealthy donor and conceal an extramarital affair.Former President Donald Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott praised Paxton's acquittal, with Abbott commending Paxton's resistance against the Biden administration. However, critics like Senator Roland Gutierrez criticized the verdict, attributing it to a flawed system that enables abuse of power. The trial, which began on September 5, has been criticized by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick for its lack of transparency and unnecessary expenditure of taxpayer money. So ends a rare occurrence in Texas politics, with the last impeachment trial of a statewide officeholder occurring in 1917.Texas Senate acquits AG Paxton in impeachment trial, keeps him in office | ReutersThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that Lyft has consented to pay a $10 million civil penalty to settle charges pertaining to non-disclosure of a board member's financial interest in a company transaction. Before Lyft went public in March 2019, a director on the company's board facilitated the sale of private shares worth $424 million through a special purpose vehicle connected to them, a detail that was not disclosed in Lyft's 2019 SEC filings. The SEC emphasized that Lyft was obligated to reveal the particulars of the transaction, given its role in approving the private sales. The involved director exited the board concurrent with the transaction. Lyft has neither confirmed nor denied the SEC's claims and has not yet commented on the matter.Lyft to pay $10 mln civil penalty over disclosure failures -SEC | Reuters Get full access to Minimum Competence - Daily Legal News Podcast at www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

In this episode, you'll meet Ilyon Woo, author of a new bestseller-- "Master Slave, Husband Wife." She recounts the harrowing journey of self-emancipation made by two enslaved Georgians--William and Ellen Craft -- in 1848. Disguised as a wealthy disabled white man traveling with his enslaved servant, the Crafts left Georgia via public conveyances, avoiding slave traders, law enforcement, and curious fellow passengers in their successful effort to gain freedom. Becoming popular speakers on the lecture circuit, they found themselves hunted by slavecatchers after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, you'll meet Ilyon Woo, author of a new bestseller-- "Master Slave, Husband Wife." She recounts the harrowing journey of self-emancipation made by two enslaved Georgians--William and Ellen Craft -- in 1848. Disguised as a wealthy disabled white man traveling with his enslaved servant, the Crafts left Georgia via public conveyances, avoiding slave traders, law enforcement, and curious fellow passengers in their successful effort to gain freedom. Becoming popular speakers on the lecture circuit, they found themselves hunted by slavecatchers after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, you'll meet Ilyon Woo, author of a new bestseller-- "Master Slave, Husband Wife." She recounts the harrowing journey of self-emancipation made by two enslaved Georgians--William and Ellen Craft -- in 1848. Disguised as a wealthy disabled white man traveling with his enslaved servant, the Crafts left Georgia via public conveyances, avoiding slave traders, law enforcement, and curious fellow passengers in their successful effort to gain freedom. Becoming popular speakers on the lecture circuit, they found themselves hunted by slavecatchers after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, you'll meet Ilyon Woo, author of a new bestseller-- "Master Slave, Husband Wife." She recounts the harrowing journey of self-emancipation made by two enslaved Georgians--William and Ellen Craft -- in 1848. Disguised as a wealthy disabled white man traveling with his enslaved servant, the Crafts left Georgia via public conveyances, avoiding slave traders, law enforcement, and curious fellow passengers in their successful effort to gain freedom. Becoming popular speakers on the lecture circuit, they found themselves hunted by slavecatchers after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

T.W. Higginson knew abolitionist Lucy Stone, supported John Brown, edited Emily Dickinson, led an insurrection against the Fugitive Slave Law, and fought beside Harriet Tubman. Brattleboro historian, Mary Cabot, also said he was a good dancer...here's his story

In part four of our episode on Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation we review the causes of the Civil War, and the momentous events of the 1850s, especially the Fugutive Slave Act and the Dred Scott decision, which rallied northern opinion against the expansion of slavery, and the southerners who insisted on that expansion--even into the North. Part 4: The War to Expand Slavery Audio Clips: Richard Blackett, “The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law,” talk given to the The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition (2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkzMFXlyjqo&t=164s   Musical Clips: “Early in the Mornin',” Prisoners of Parchman Farm, Louisiana (1947): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsiYfk5RV_Q Bibliography: David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis (Harper, 1976) Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War (Oxford, 1970) Richard Blackett, The Captive's Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and Politics of Slavery (Cambridge Press, 2018) Andrew Delbanco,The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War (Penguin, 2018)

In this episode, Lou presents a narrative written by John Brown's young lawyer, George H. Hoyt, written only a few years after the abolitionist's hanging.  Hoyt went to join John Brown in Charlestown, Virginia (today West Va.) and support his lawyers, but really went as a spy for Brown's supporters in the North who wanted to launch a rescue. But not only was the rescue impossible by the time that Hoyt arrived in Virginia, but Brown did not want to escape.  Hoyt thus became part of the drama of Brown's trial and last days, a story that can be found in more detail in Lou's book, Freedom's Dawn: The Last Days of John Brown in Virginia (2015).The Hoyt narrative is provided in ten short segments that somewhat follow the serialized narrative that appeared in the Leavenworth Conservative in 1867, as well as a kind of epilogue that Hoyt published in The Kansas Weekly Tribune in 1870.  The narrative, written from a firsthand eyewitness reveals a great deal about Brown's trial and the supposed "fair trial" that he received at the hands of a court dominated by slaveholders and guided by Sen. James Mason of Virginia, the architect of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and one of the ringleaders of the slaveholders' betrayal that would follow in 1861 following Lincoln's election.Guest music: "Bittersweet" by Silent Partner

Today, we are going to talk about slavery, maybe what comes to mind is the American South- but California has a history of enslavement too. So why isn't it better known? We'll hear a story from California's history. Then, we speak with a dancer from Fairfield who shares her experience of competing on the reality show “Lizzo's Watch Out For The Big Grrrls.”

On Monday, May 2, 2022 Politico broke the story that a draft decision written by Chief Justice Samuel Alito (George W. Bush appointment to the court) intends to rescind the 1973 decision Roe vs. Wade which gave all women in the United the States the right to seek an abortion.   We discuss some of our concerns with such a decision including:  It is in and of itself, an unprecedented event that a decision is disclosed months prior to being published.    Conservative appointees by the Bush and Trump administrations promised in their hearings that they would work within a framework that Roe v Wade is the law as a fundamental basis. Clearly, they were lying to the congressional committees overseeing their appointment.  Can we have any truth in a country where Supreme Court appointees can lie to get their way? What happened to conservative disdain for ‘activist judges?   We're worried for the consequences this decision has as a start. We know that culturally conservative groups have been aligned by design with large business interests to form the contemporary Republican party.  Where does this go from here?  Are we headed for a world where culture wars are won by the right as first step of appeasement, then rollbacks continue as they have or accelerate from the last 40 years to create the ultimate corporate welfare state?    Co-host Scott M. Graves reminds us of the parallels to 1857's Dred Scott decision Let's offer an overview.   The Dred Scott decision, formally Dred Scott v. John F.A. Sandford ruled that a slave who had resided in a free state and territory (where slavery was prohibited) was not thereby entitled to his freedom; that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States; and that the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had declared free all territories west of Missouri and north of latitude 36°30′, was unconstitutional. The decision added fuel to the sectional controversy and pushed the country closer to civil war. In plain English, the decision's core argument was that a black person in the US could not be considered a fully human being and one with all rights of US citizenship because in the US, white people were not willing to see them as such.   This decision accelerated what was already by 1857 spiraling out of control following earlier compromises including the Compromise of 1850, the events of Bloody Kansas following the Kansas/Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Law, among others all leading to the election of 1860 and the secession of South Carolina in 1861.  The Alito draft and the decision contained therein is similar in that it really appears to have the capacity to create a tipping point where citizens must earnestly fight to reverse the rollbacks of limiting specific groups of citizens of their rights.  We start with news breaking today that our local Heywood Hospital is in talks with UMASS Memorial Health System to merge, a story broke by Worcester Business Journal and we offer our media minute on the premiere of our series on Gardner's Sludge Landfill Expansion.

Isabella Beecher was outraged like many of her Boston neighbors by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law 1850. The new law, part of the Compromise of 1850, required citizens in free states to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves under penalty of stiff fines or imprisonment. Isabella was fully occupied looking after her eleven children, but she knew someone who might be able to do something: her husband's sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Three formerly enslaved Black men were living their California Gold Rush dream, building a lucrative mining supply business in just a few months. But one cool spring night in 1852, an armed posse of white men burst into their cabin and arrested them, claiming they were fugitive slaves. In our pilot episode, we explore a little-known California law that unleashed racial terror on Black people and made a mockery of the state constitution's ban on slavery. Episode Guests: Stacey L. Smith, an associate professor of history at Oregon State University, and author of Freedom’s Frontier: California and the Struggle over Unfree Labor, Emancipation and Reconstruction. Smith is acting as a historical consultant to the California Department of Justice as it supports the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans. Taylor Bythewood-Porter, an assistant curator at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles. Bythewood-Porter co-curated California Bound, Slavery on the New Frontier, 1848-1865. Candice Francis, communications director at the ACLU of Northern California. Explore the entire Gold Chains: Hidden History of Slavery in California Project Production Credits: Produced by the ACLU of Northern California. Episode created, written and hosted by Tammerlin Drummond Technical production and music by Dax Brooks, co-written by Alex Doty.  Thanks to Marshal Arnwine, Candice Francis, Gigi Harney, Brady Hirsch, Carmen King, Abdi Soltani, Eliza Wee and Stephen Wilson. And to our partners on the public education project, Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California: KQED the California Historical Society, the Equal Justice Society and Laura Atkins. Episode Website

Karen Cook Bell is Associate Professor of History at Boowey State University, with an expertise in slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and women's history. She is the author of Claiming Freedom: Race, Kinship, and Land in Nineteenth-Century Georgia, and her most recent work, Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America. In this conversation, Bell sheds light on the undertold story of enslaved fugitive women, and the ways in which they risked everything to self-emancipate in the period before and after the Revolutionary War. Bell grounds her analysis around specific female fugitives, including “A Negro Wench Named Lucia” (Chapter One - 18th Century), “A Mulatto Women Named Margaret” (Chapter Two - Pre-Revolutionary Period), “A Well Dressed Woman Named Jenny” (Chapter Three - 1776-1781), and “A Negro Woman Called Bett” (Chapter 4 - Post-Revolutionary Period). “I dedicate this book to all the nameless women whose stories have yet to be told. I'm hoping that with this book, the agency of Black women will be appreciated and recognized for what it was, and what it is — transformational. “ - Karen Cook Bell Excerpt from an essay by Karen Cook Bell, via Black Perspectives (https://www.aaihs.org/black-perspectives/): “During the American Revolution, one-third of fugitives were enslaved women. Their desire for freedom did not originate with the American Revolution; however, the Revolution amplified their quest for freedom. Enslaved women's desire for freedom for themselves and their children propelled them to flee slavery during the Revolutionary War, a time when lack of oversight and opportunity from the presence of British troops created spaces for them to invoke the same philosophical arguments of liberty that white revolutionaries made in their own fierce struggle against oppression...The stories of Margaret, Jenny, and Bett reveal the precariousness of their lived experiences and their resolve for freedom.” To learn more about fugitive slave newspaper ads, please visit Freedom on the Move at freedomonthemove.org CONCEPTS/IDEAS/TERMS TO KNOW: Petit Marronage | Grand Marronage Lord Dunmore's Proclamation (1775) | Phillipsburg Proclamation (1779) The Book of Negroes “Performing Fugitivity” | “Soul Value” (Daina Ramey Berry) http://www.beacon.org/The-Price-for-Their-Pound-of-Flesh-P1367.aspx COURT CASES / LEGAL ISSUES TO KNOW: Elizabeth Freeman Case (1781) | Fugitive Slave Law (1793) PEOPLE TO KNOW: Phillis Wheatley https://poets.org/poet/phillis-wheatley Ona Judge & William Lee (Enslaved by George Washington) https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/ona-judge To connect with Karen Cook Bell, find her on Twitter @kbphd08, or visit karencookbell.com. To purchase Running from Bondage, and to support independent booksellers, please visit our collection at bookshop.org, or visit Cambridge University Press at Cambridge.org. To learn more about our other shows and events, including the first annual Pan-African Food Fest, please visit www.recollect.media. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/recollect/message

Isabella Beecher was outraged like many of her Boston neighbors by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law 1850. The new law, part of the Compromise of 1850, required citizens in free states to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves under penalty of stiff fines or imprisonment. Isabella was fully occupied looking after her eleven children, but she knew someone who might be able to do something: her husband's sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe.

In this vital episode, Commissioner Johnston examines how history is being directly attacked and rewritten at this very moment. This practice is the ongoing pattern of progressive, historical revisionism. It also reflects a fundamental principle lost on most of us in our day-to-day lives: what has preceded us has lead to this moment.  A proper understanding of history will empower us to address this moment in which we live. Brian ties this to an understanding of the abortion culture surrounding us, and even more importantly, to what truly happened in the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions. Many Americans and even numerous pro-lifers do not fully understand the impact these decisions, nearly 50 years ago, have had on our present moment and how we are to address it. Brian explains that our misunderstandings of history are not our fault.  Many educational institutions, particularly in the United States, are under the sway of the John Dewey view of education, progressivism, and relativism. In Europe, this had already taken place with the wide-spread adoption and excitement surrounding Hegel‘s view of history. History was considered matters of the past. But, “what is significant is that we are now going into the future.  What truly matters is that these old things are left in the past and we now progress into a brave new world of promise.” In this improved world, “the government is to bring about these courageous further steps of progress.” But this is a very distorted view of history. History is cumulative. History has led up to this very moment. In the Spielberg movie, Amistad, the lead Mende tribesman was brought before the United States Supreme Court. He was asked what he wanted to do and why he was doing it  His answer not only summed up their decision but summed up a view and understanding of history that all of us should share: “My ancestors lived so that I might stand in this moment.” This incisive understanding of history and respect for the facts of history will also help us in understanding our moment, in understanding our present battles.   What happened in The Civil War  Brian then takes a deep dive into exploring one of the most common misunderstandings of Abraham Lincoln, his commitments, and the real nature of the Civil War. Many think that the Civil War was about suppressing the slave states rights to own slaves. But that is not the case. In fact, Lincoln's position on states rights was exactly the opposite. Lincoln was fighting for the right of FREE states to exercise their duty within their jurisdictions to protect the lives of those under their authority. Once that ability was established, then the Senate could consider what laws ought to apply to all the states. That would eventually happen in the13th and 14th amendments, but it was not possible if free states were not even allowed to abolish slavery! Several actions by the federal government were actually preventing the rights of the free states to be exercised within their borders. The Fugitive Slave Law, the Kansas Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott Decision, all infringed on the rights of free states to exercise their duty under natural law to protect those who could not protect themselves (the same basis that individual states would later use to ban abortion). Even though free states could say that they were free states, according to the federal government, a slave was never legally free until he or she crossed the Canadian border. The most odious of these offenses against free states is the blatantly pro-slavery Dred Scott Decision, which explicitly said that states could not ensure freedom or protect the lives of slaves inside their jurisdictions. This was actually the same action of the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions: proclaiming it as federal law that one could own another human being, and that one was free to kill a human being whom they claim to own. States were not free to ban this principle of deadly ownership of human beings.   Roe and Doe specifically prohibited pro-life states from enacting their laws. This was a direct assault on the nature of the Constitution and the authority of the States. In addition, it assumed the authority of the United States Senate to both speak for, and then impose federal law on the several states. The nature of the United States Constitution was trampled by the Dred Scott Decision in slavery, was trampled by Roe and Doe and by the abortion culture which they unleashed.

In this vital episode, Commissioner Johnston examines how history is being directly attacked and rewritten at this very moment. This practice is the ongoing pattern of progressive, historical revisionism. It also reflects a fundamental principle lost on most of us in our day-to-day lives: what has preceded us has lead to this moment.  A proper understanding of history will empower us to address this moment in which we live. Brian ties this to an understanding of the abortion culture surrounding us, and even more importantly, to what truly happened in the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions. Many Americans and even numerous pro-lifers do not fully understand the impact these decisions, nearly 50 years ago, have had on our present moment and how we are to address it. Brian explains that our misunderstandings of history are not our fault.  Many educational institutions, particularly in the United States, are under the sway of the John Dewey view of education, progressivism, and relativism. In Europe, this had already taken place with the wide-spread adoption and excitement surrounding Hegel‘s view of history. History was considered matters of the past. But, “what is significant is that we are now going into the future.  What truly matters is that these old things are left in the past and we now progress into a brave new world of promise.” In this improved world, “the government is to bring about these courageous further steps of progress.” But this is a very distorted view of history. History is cumulative. History has led up to this very moment. In the Spielberg movie, Amistad, the lead Mende tribesman was brought before the United States Supreme Court. He was asked what he wanted to do and why he was doing it  His answer not only summed up their decision but summed up a view and understanding of history that all of us should share: “My ancestors lived so that I might stand in this moment.” This incisive understanding of history and respect for the facts of history will also help us in understanding our moment, in understanding our present battles.   What happened in The Civil War  Brian then takes a deep dive into exploring one of the most common misunderstandings of Abraham Lincoln, his commitments, and the real nature of the Civil War. Many think that the Civil War was about suppressing the slave states rights to own slaves. But that is not the case. In fact, Lincoln’s position on states rights was exactly the opposite. Lincoln was fighting for the right of FREE states to exercise their duty within their jurisdictions to protect the lives of those under their authority. Once that ability was established, then the Senate could consider what laws ought to apply to all the states. That would eventually happen in the13th and 14th amendments, but it was not possible if free states were not even allowed to abolish slavery! Several actions by the federal government were actually preventing the rights of the free states to be exercised within their borders. The Fugitive Slave Law, the Kansas Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott Decision, all infringed on the rights of free states to exercise their duty under natural law to protect those who could not protect themselves (the same basis that individual states would later use to ban abortion). Even though free states could say that they were free states, according to the federal government, a slave was never legally free until he or she crossed the Canadian border. The most odious of these offenses against free states is the blatantly pro-slavery Dred Scott Decision, which explicitly said that states could not ensure freedom or protect the lives of slaves inside their jurisdictions. This was actually the same action of the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions: proclaiming it as federal law that one could own another human being, and that one was free to kill a human being whom they claim to own. States were not free to ban this principle of deadly ownership of human beings.   Roe and Doe specifically prohibited pro-life states from enacting their laws. This was a direct assault on the nature of the Constitution and the authority of the States. In addition, it assumed the authority of the United States Senate to both speak for, and then impose federal law on the several states. The nature of the United States Constitution was trampled by the Dred Scott Decision in slavery, was trampled by Roe and Doe and by the abortion culture which they unleashed.

Date: February 12th, 2021Ep #43 / Feb 12th / Paris Peace Settlement / Fugitive Slave LawShow Summary: ·       Honorable Mention·       Paris Peace Settlement - 1973·       Fugitive Slave Law - 1793·       Interesting FactSocial Media Links:·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ourdailyhistorypodcast ·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailyhistorypod ·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/our_daily_history_podcast/ ·       Buzzsprout: https://ourdailyhistory.buzzsprout.com/ Resources: ·       Music by JuliusH from Pixabay +·       https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/release-of-u-s-pows-begins ·       https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-enacts-first-fugitive-slave-law   Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ourdailyhistory)

Did you know that Mark Twain's father-in-law lobbied for the release of a young woman arrested under the Fugitive Slave Law in 1853? That Twain's grave lies in a cemetery with numerous conductors and stationmasters on the Underground Railroad? That Twain's eulogy was given by the first woman ordained in the state of New York? With the help of Oscar-nominated actor, Hal Holbrook, and his grandson, Will Holbrook, Matt Seybold explores the largely forgotten and often surprising political history of the small town where the Center for Mark Twain Studies is located. This episode was originally produced for the official podcast of C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists. They are currently soliciting proposals for new episodes. For more information, visit C19Society.org/podcast

Today we commemorate the Jerry Rescue, an event where abolitionist freed an escaped slave who had been arrested in Syracuse, NY under the Fugitive Slave Law

Today we commemorate the Jerry Rescue, an event where abolitionist freed an escaped slave who had been arrested in Syracuse, NY under the Fugitive Slave Law

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Ralph Waldo Emerson, address on The Fugitive Slave Law, May 3, 1851

This magisterial study, ten years in the making by one of the field's most distinguished historians, will be the first to explore the impact fugitive slaves had on the politics of the critical decade leading up to the Civil War. Through the close reading of diverse sources ranging from government documents to personal accounts, Richard J. M. Blackett traces the decisions of slaves to escape, the actions of those who assisted them, the many ways black communities responded to the capture of fugitive slaves, and how local laws either buttressed or undermined enforcement of the federal law. Every effort to enforce the law in northern communities produced levels of subversion that generated national debate so much so that, on the eve of secession, many in the South, looking back on the decade, could argue that the law had been effectively subverted by those individuals and states who assisted fleeing slaves.Richard Blackett is a historian of the abolitionist movement in the US and particularly its transatlantic connections and the roles African Americans played in the movement to abolish slavery. He is the author of Building an Antislavery Wall: Black Americans in the Atlantic Abolitionist Movement, 1830-1860; Beating Against the Barriers. Biographical Essays in Nineteenth-Century Afro-American History; Thomas Morris Chester: Black Civil War Correspondent; Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War; Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery, and Running A Thousand Miles for Freedom: The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery. His most recent work is The Captive's Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery.Blackett has been named the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University for the 2013-14 academic year. On May 5, 2008, the Library Company held its Annual Dinner in its 277th year. Professor Richard J. Blackett, the Andrew Jackson Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, was the featured speaker. Click Here for an audio pod cast of his talk about the African American struggle in the age of emancipation. Blackett taught previously at the University of Pittsburgh (1971-85), Indiana University (1985-1996); University of Houston where he was the John & Rebecca Moores professor of history and African American Studies (1996-2002). He has been Associate Editor of the Journal of American History (1985-1990), Acting Editor (1989-1990); editor of the Indiana Magazine of History (1993-1996). He is also past president of the Association of Caribbean Historians.

The Provincial Freeman first published by Mary Ann Shad. Mary Ann Shadd was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the oldest of 13 children to Harriet and Abraham Shadd. Both her parents were leaders in the Underground Railroad, which helped black slaves reach freedom in Canada. Her parents sent her to a Quaker school, and her love of learning led her to open a school for black children, then to continue teaching for years. When the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, forcing authorities in all states to send black slaves back to captivity in the south, Shadd and her brother Isaac moved to Canada. On March 24, 1853, Shadd and Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward edited and published The Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper dedicated to the ideals of freedom and educating black people in Canada and the United States. In this process, Shadd became the first black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada. The paper was first published in Windsor, then Toronto and then Chatham, Ontario and continued until September 20, 1857. The newspaper was considered aggressive for its time as Shadd and others were critical of those who took advantage of freed slaves, and critical of black religious leaders in the south for not encouraging blacks to become self-reliant. The paper read, "Self-reliance Is the Fine Road to Independence." Shadd married Thomas F. Cary from Toronto in 1856 and while living in Chatham, they had two children. Cary died in 1860 and eventually Shadd moved to Washington, D.C. where she established a school for black children and studied law at Howard University, becoming a lawyer in 1870. Shadd died in Washington on June 5, 1893. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ep. 2 of 7 on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Understand the impact of the Fugitive Slave Law on American writers and the abolitionist movement. See more on this topic here.  Join us on Goodreads goo.gl/T7Waw1. Contact @profomalley  

Season 2, Episode 3. In this episode, Chris Calton looks at the horrors of fugitive slave laws, the ways government incentivized the kidnapping of free blacks, and the rise of private defense groups to fight off slavers.

Uncle Tom's Cabin by author Harriet Beecher Stowe is an anti-slavery blockbuster before the Civil War.

Listen to the Audio Book Black Abolitionists, by Benjamin Quarles In Chicago, the response to the new fugitive slave law was swift and dramatic. To protect its members from “being borne back to bondage,” the group created a vigilance committee consisting of a black police force of seven divisions; each division had six persons who were to patrol the city each night to watch for slave catchers. On September 30, 1850, more than three hundred black Chicagoans gathered at Quinn Chapel. At the time, the city's population was about 23,000 people (with only 378 blacks). The Liberty Association's greatest moment came when members stormed the office of the justice of the peace and freed several fugitive slaves who were awaiting transport south. Thousands of Chicagoans gathered to watch and cheer the event -- a noble and unheralded milestone in Chicago history.  

“On the Edge of Freedom” In “On the Edge of Freedom,” David Smith breaks new ground by illuminating the unique development of antislavery sentiment in south central Pennsylvania—a border region of a border state with a complicated history of slavery, antislavery activism, and unequal freedom. During the antebellum decades every single fugitive slave escaping by land east of the Appalachian Mountains had to pass through the region, where they faced both significant opportunities and substantial risks. While the hundreds of fugitives traveling through south central Pennsylvania (defined as Adams, Franklin, and Cumberland counties) during this period were aided by an effective Underground Railroad, they also faced slave catchers and informers. “Underground” work such as helping fugitive slaves appealed to border antislavery activists who shied away from agitating for immediate abolition in a region with social, economic, and kinship ties to the South. And, as early antislavery protests met fierce resistance, area activists adopted a less confrontational approach, employing the more traditional political tools of the petition and legal action. Smith traces the victories of antislavery activists in south central Pennsylvania, including the achievement of a strong personal liberty law and the aggressive prosecution of kidnappers who seized innocent African Americans as fugitives. He also documents how their success provoked Southern retaliation and the passage of a strengthened Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. The Civil War then intensified the debate over fugitive slaves, as hundreds of escaping slaves, called “contrabands,” sought safety in the area, and scores were recaptured by the Confederate army during the Gettysburg campaign. David Smith received his Ph.D. in American History from the Pennsylvania State University in 2006. A social historian of the Civil War period, his research centers on the intersection of war, societal conflict, and race. He currently works as a consultant to the Department of Defense.

In this podcast I talk with Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University about his book, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015). Per the book jacket, “More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America’s history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition, traveling with owners doing business with the city’s major banks, merchants, and manufacturers. New York was also home to the North’s largest free black community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge. Slave catchers and gangs of kidnappers roamed the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight kidnappings, the city’s free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the New York Vigilance Committee in 1835. In the 1840s vigilance committees proliferated throughout the North and began collaborating to dispatch fugitive slaves from the upper South, Washington, and Baltimore, through Philadelphia and New York, to Albany, Syracuse, and Canada. These networks of antislavery resistance, centered on New York City, became known as the underground railroad. Forced to operate in secrecy by hostile laws, courts, and politicians, the city’s underground-railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830 and 1860. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown, their significance little understood. Building on fresh evidence,including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York–Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. The story is inspiring–full of memorable characters making their first appearance on the historical stage–and significant–the controversy over fugitive slaves inflamed the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by ‘practical abolition,’ person by person, family by family.” Some of the topics we discuss are: -How vigilance committees provided fugitives with legal representation if they were apprehended. -Why the unwillingness of local juries to convict persons who took part in widely publicized rescues influenced congressional debates over slavery. -The ways resistance to Fugitive Slave Law forced ordinary northerners who had no connection with the abolitionist movement to confront the relationship between individual conscience and legal obligation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast I talk with Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University about his book, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015). Per the book jacket, “More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America's history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition, traveling with owners doing business with the city's major banks, merchants, and manufacturers. New York was also home to the North's largest free black community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge. Slave catchers and gangs of kidnappers roamed the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight kidnappings, the city's free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the New York Vigilance Committee in 1835. In the 1840s vigilance committees proliferated throughout the North and began collaborating to dispatch fugitive slaves from the upper South, Washington, and Baltimore, through Philadelphia and New York, to Albany, Syracuse, and Canada. These networks of antislavery resistance, centered on New York City, became known as the underground railroad. Forced to operate in secrecy by hostile laws, courts, and politicians, the city's underground-railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830 and 1860. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown, their significance little understood. Building on fresh evidence,including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York–Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. The story is inspiring–full of memorable characters making their first appearance on the historical stage–and significant–the controversy over fugitive slaves inflamed the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by ‘practical abolition,' person by person, family by family.” Some of the topics we discuss are: -How vigilance committees provided fugitives with legal representation if they were apprehended. -Why the unwillingness of local juries to convict persons who took part in widely publicized rescues influenced congressional debates over slavery. -The ways resistance to Fugitive Slave Law forced ordinary northerners who had no connection with the abolitionist movement to confront the relationship between individual conscience and legal obligation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

In this podcast I talk with Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University about his book, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015). Per the book jacket, “More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America’s history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition, traveling with owners doing business with the city’s major banks, merchants, and manufacturers. New York was also home to the North’s largest free black community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge. Slave catchers and gangs of kidnappers roamed the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight kidnappings, the city’s free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the New York Vigilance Committee in 1835. In the 1840s vigilance committees proliferated throughout the North and began collaborating to dispatch fugitive slaves from the upper South, Washington, and Baltimore, through Philadelphia and New York, to Albany, Syracuse, and Canada. These networks of antislavery resistance, centered on New York City, became known as the underground railroad. Forced to operate in secrecy by hostile laws, courts, and politicians, the city’s underground-railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830 and 1860. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown, their significance little understood. Building on fresh evidence,including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York–Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. The story is inspiring–full of memorable characters making their first appearance on the historical stage–and significant–the controversy over fugitive slaves inflamed the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by ‘practical abolition,’ person by person, family by family.” Some of the topics we discuss are: -How vigilance committees provided fugitives with legal representation if they were apprehended. -Why the unwillingness of local juries to convict persons who took part in widely publicized rescues influenced congressional debates over slavery. -The ways resistance to Fugitive Slave Law forced ordinary northerners who had no connection with the abolitionist movement to confront the relationship between individual conscience and legal obligation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast I talk with Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University about his book, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015). Per the book jacket, “More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America’s history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition, traveling with owners doing business with the city’s major banks, merchants, and manufacturers. New York was also home to the North’s largest free black community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge. Slave catchers and gangs of kidnappers roamed the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight kidnappings, the city’s free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the New York Vigilance Committee in 1835. In the 1840s vigilance committees proliferated throughout the North and began collaborating to dispatch fugitive slaves from the upper South, Washington, and Baltimore, through Philadelphia and New York, to Albany, Syracuse, and Canada. These networks of antislavery resistance, centered on New York City, became known as the underground railroad. Forced to operate in secrecy by hostile laws, courts, and politicians, the city’s underground-railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830 and 1860. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown, their significance little understood. Building on fresh evidence,including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York–Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. The story is inspiring–full of memorable characters making their first appearance on the historical stage–and significant–the controversy over fugitive slaves inflamed the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by ‘practical abolition,’ person by person, family by family.” Some of the topics we discuss are: -How vigilance committees provided fugitives with legal representation if they were apprehended. -Why the unwillingness of local juries to convict persons who took part in widely publicized rescues influenced congressional debates over slavery. -The ways resistance to Fugitive Slave Law forced ordinary northerners who had no connection with the abolitionist movement to confront the relationship between individual conscience and legal obligation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Audio Book Henry Bibb,  Part 2 self-liberated  newspaper founder, The Voice! Author and Newspaper Owner, Henry Bibb a self-liberated black man gained his freedom in 1837. However he returned to Kentucky to try and rescue his wife and daughter. On the first attempt, he was recaptured and his whole family was sold south to a Mississippi plantation owner.   They escaped together, but were set upon by wolves and recaptured. Henry managed to get away again, but despite all his efforts, could not free his beloved Malinda and their little girl, Frances. ------ Henry Bibb became an eloquent lecturer, author and community organizer.  http://bit.ly/HenryBibb_LoveAds In September 1851, as a result of the new Fugitive Slave Law, Mr. Bibb called a conference to be held in Toronto to discuss whether or not Canada was the best place for African Americans to seek freedom.  More than 50 delegates came to the North American Convention, also called “The Convention of Coloured Freemen.”  Henry and Mary also started a newspaper, The Voice of the Fugitive, in January, 1851. The Voice of the Fugitive was the first anti-slavery paper published in Canada by people of African descent. It was a very important means of communicating with Underground Railroad supporters, and with the general public.  Mr. Bibb's autobiography, Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave publicized the horrors of slavery. It was published in 1849 and became very popular reading, helping to further the cause of anti-slavery in North America and even in Europe.

Author and Newspaper Owner, Henry Bibb a self-liberated black man gained his freedom in 1837. However he returned to Kentucky to try and rescue his wife and daughter. On the first attempt, he was recaptured and his whole family was sold south to a Mississippi plantation owner.   They escaped together, but were set upon by wolves and recaptured. Henry managed to get away again, but despite all his efforts, could not free his beloved Malinda and their little girl, Frances. ------ Henry Bibb became an eloquent lecturer, author and community organizer.  http://bit.ly/HenryBibb_LoveAds In September 1851, as a result of the new Fugitive Slave Law, Mr. Bibb called a conference to be held in Toronto to discuss whether or not Canada was the best place for African Americans to seek freedom.  More than 50 delegates came to the North American Convention, also called “The Convention of Coloured Freemen.”  Henry and Mary also started a newspaper, The Voice of the Fugitive, in January, 1851. The Voice of the Fugitive was the first anti-slavery paper published in Canada by people of African descent. It was a very important means of communicating with Underground Railroad supporters, and with the general public. The Bibbs' newspaper also provided information useful in the resettlement of former slaves and free Black Americans in the British colony of Canada West (Ontario). A network of agents in the U.S. and Canada collected from subscribers and sent the money to Henry and Mary so they could run the newspaper. Mr. Bibb's autobiography, Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave publicized the horrors of slavery. It was published in 1849 and became very popular reading, helping to further the cause of anti-slavery in North America and even in Europe. ---

Tonight at 8pm learn more about William Lambert on The Gist of Freedom as we resume our reading of William Katz's book Breaking The Chains, Chapter 12 "Black Militias"  William Lambert created the “African American Mysteries; the Order of the Men of Oppression,” a complicated set of rituals that protected the very existence of the Underground Railroad. Lambert was a friend and confidant of well known abolitionist John Brown, who Lambert insisted was a sane and reasonable man who voluntarily sacrificed himself to fan the flames of liberty. Blackburn, Thornton and Ruth (or Lucie)  The Blackburns successfully and bravely escaped slavery from Louisville, KY. They had been settled in Detroit, Michigan, for two years when, in 1833, Kentucky slave hunters captured and arrested the couple. The Blackburns were jailed but allowed visitors, which provided the opportunity for Ruth to exchange her clothes - and her incarceration - with Mrs. George French; Ruth escaped to Canada. The day before Thornton was to be returned to Kentucky, the African American community rose up in protest. While the commotion was going on, Sleepy Polly and Daddy Walker helped Thornton to escape to Canada. The commotion turned into a two day riot and the sheriff was killed. It was the first race riot in Detroit, and afterward the first Riot Commission was formed in the U.S. Once in Canada, Thornton designed, built, and operated Toronto's first horse-drawn carriage hackney cab and cab company. 

In 1841 author, Solomon Northup, a free born black man, while visiting Washington D.C. was kidnapped and sold into slavery (12 years). Anne, his wife, later learned of New York's anti-kidnapping law of 1840, which was supported by the original Fugitive Slave Law of 1793.    Mrs. Northup petitioned the Governor to enforce the law and to restore her husband's liberty.    "Your excellency is entreated to employ such agent or agents as shall be deemed necessary to effect the restoration and return of said Solomon Northup, in pursuance of an act of the Legislature of the State of New-York, passed May 14th, 1840, entitled "An act more effectually to protect the free citizens of this State from being kidnapped or reduced to slavery."    Join The Gist of Freedom guest, Renee Moore,

Black Abolitionists chp 9 Benjamin Quarles ~"Before the ship's owner could arrest them under the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law, a group of 6 black women rushed into the state Supreme Court . While the attorney for Morris was addressing the judge, Someone in the spectator's section shouted, "Go, go." Whereupon A colored woman "of great size," who scrubbed floors for a living, threw her arms around the neck of one officer, Immobilizing him while the other colored people rushed to the bench and bore Eliza and Polly Ann down the courthouse steps and shoved them into a waiting carriage. Eliza and Polly Ann were never recaptured, and their abettors went scot-free, although the Sheriff C.P. Sumner, father of Charles Sumner (movie Lincoln starring Tommie Lee Jones) was criticized for permitting such a breach of the peace. 

In which we discuss the Northern reaction to the new Fugitive Slave Law that was part of the Compromise of 1850.  Plus, we look at the significant impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Join The Gist of Freedom as we welcome Professor John L. Lawlor!  John will discuss the Fugitive Slave Law, legal case of Moses Honer. The Revised Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 deputized and paid  any person in the U.S. for the sole purpose of enslaving any Free Black Person they presumed to be a self-emancipated (fugitive). Moreover, the law punished any person involved with assisting the self-emancipated African American. Prior to 1850, Slavers were mandated to obtain a warrant, thereby giving "Fugitves" due process of the Law. (Dred Scott) However as a result of the onslaught of the Underground Railroad's self-emancipations and the  moral and legal  support  from outspoken Anti-Slavery Organizations, the Slavers desperation to end the anti-slavery movement grew to an all-time high. Previously, their organization, The Colonization Society failed to convince the Free Black abolitionists to migrate to Africa.  Therefore when the Gold Rush presented itself, they placed all their golden chips on the table in an effort to force the Free Black Abolitionists out of the country or  at the least, back on the auction block. During the acquistion of the terriorty now known as California  the Slavers agreed to admit California into the Union as a Free State in exchange for the new Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. And it worked, for a brief period... thousands of Free Blacks and their organizations packed up and moved to Canada. But, the most radical black and white abolitionists, like John Brown and the black militia (The Copeland Brothers) remained. And they became more vigilant than ever.  Whenever bounty hunters attempted to cross the mason dixon line and kidnap African Americans such as Pennslyvania's "Christianna Rescue" and  (Anthony Burns, John Price, Shadrach Minkins) Violent skirmishes erupted between bounty hunters and Anti-Slavery Vigilant Committee Members. 

The Gist of Freedom Welcomes Stephanie Gilbert to the reading and book discussion, Black Abolitionists by Benjamin Quarles with hosts, Preston Washington and Ty Gray-EL. One of The First, Interracial Riots, Blacks and Whites, Anti-Slavery Supporters Rioted together, in defense of Shadrach Minkins a Self-Emancipated black man "Fugitive Slave"! in 1851, a group of outraged black men burst into a courtroom in Boston and rescued Shadrach Minkins, the first escaped slave seized in New England under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. About 20 black men grabbed Minkins "by the collar and feet" and ran out the door, down the hallway and stairs, and into the crowded street. The crowd was so large and so hostile that the marshals dared not pursue the rescuers. Here is Stephanie Gilbert's  great great grandfather's (Narrative) Account of what happened next... "A number of the colored people caught hold of the door and pulled it and took Shadrach out of the court house. Amid great excitement we run him off to Canada. Before sending him we run him to the west end and change his attire to that of a woman. It caused a great furor throughout the U.S, but we landed the fugitive beyond the reaches of the two legged blood hounds. Everybody who was suspected of having a hand in running him off to Canada were arrested. I happened to escape and being the first to give the alarm. Many had trials but none was convicted. This affair stirred us up in Boston. Hundreds of fugitive slaves fled from Boston after that. Some went to Canada, some to Halifax and some to St John's N.B. and spent the remainder of their days there. He was taken to a hiding place on Beacon Hill. That night, he began his journey on the Underground Railroad. Six days later, he arrived safely in Canada."

Join The Gist of Freedom as we discuss Black Abolitionists and their rescues from Benjamin Quarles book, "Black Abolitionists" Chapter 4. Professor Tonya Thames, Genealogist Preston Washington and Poet, Ty El Gray (A Black Woman's Smile) Rev. Samuel R. Ward and Frederick Douglass established the first black American labor union The American League of Colored Laborers (ALCL)  It was formed in New York City in 1850 as a collective for skilled free craftsmen, and sought to develop agricultural and industrial arts skills among its members, and to encourage African American business. The same year, The Slavers passed a the Fugitive Slave Law which targeted Black Abolitionists. The new law deputized and paid anyone who helped capture and enslave a Free black they suspected of being a fugitive, run-away slave. The law arrested anyone involved in the rescue of a "suspected fugitive slave". Ward an abolitionist, became involved in the rescue of a fugitive slave, William "Jerry" Henry.  Federal marshals accompanied by the local police, arrested William "Jerry" Henry. Word of the arrest quickly reached the Convention, then in session at a nearby church. We are here in the most extraordinary circumstances," ex-slave Samuel Ward," told a gathering. "We are witnessing such a sight as, I pray, we may never look upon again. A man in chains, in Syracuse! ..What a term to apply to an American! By pre-arranged signal, church bells began ringing, and a crowd of Negroes and Whites With a battering ram the door was broken in and despite pistol shots out the window by one of the deputy marshals, it became clear that the crowd was too large and determined to be resisted. The crowd broke into the jail and forced the marshals to free William "Jerry" Henry. 

Join The Gist of Freedom as we discuss Black Abolitionists and their rescues from Benjamin Quarles book, "Black Abolitionists" Chapter 4. Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward and Frederick Douglass established the first black American labor union The American League of Colored Laborers (ALCL)  It was formed in New York City in 1850 as a collective for skilled free craftsmen, and sought to develop agricultural and industrial arts skills among its members, and to encourage African American business. The same year, The Slavers passed a the Fugitive Slave Law which targeted Black Abolitionists. The new law deputized and paid anyone who helped capture and enslave a Free black they suspected of being a fugitive, run-away slave. The law arrested anyone involved in the rescue of a "suspected fugitive slave". Ward a well known abolitionist, became involved in the rescue of a fugitive slave, William "Jerry" Henry October 1, federal marshals accompanied by the local police, arrested William "Jerry" Henry. Word of the arrest quickly reached the Convention, then in session at a nearby church. We are here in the most extraordinary circumstances," ex-slave Samuel Ward," told a gathering. "We are witnessing such a sight as, I pray, we may never look upon again. A man in chains, in Syracuse! ... What a term to apply to an American! How does this sound beneath the pole of liberty and the flag of freedom? By pre-arranged signal, church bells began ringing, and a crowd of Negroes and Whites gathered With a battering ram the door was broken in and despite pistol shots out the window by one of the deputy marshals, it became clear that the crowd was too large and determined to be resisted. The crowd broke into the jail and forced the marshals to free William "Jerry" Henry. 

Join The Gist of Freedom as we present The Black Abolitionists featured in Benjamin Quarles' book, Black Abolitionists.   In our first of 13 shows, Preston Washington and host Ty Gray-El will discuss chapter one; Anti-Slavery Movement Prior to The Revolution; Organizations, Churches, Colonization- John B. Vashon, Martin Delaney, Bishop Richard Allen. Vashon paid the bounty for blacks held by slave catchers. Kidnappers received great rewards for kidnapping blacks in the North and enslaving them in the South.   This was especially true after the original Fugitive Slave Law of 1792, was revised, The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The federal Government deputized vigilantes and paid bounties for the capture of alleged "Runaways".  In one instance, Vashon gave shelter and employment to a young man after purchasing his freedom.  Vashon was a friend of the abolitionists Martin R. Delany and William Lloyd Garrison,  The Liberator, in Pittsburgh.  

  Historian, Peter Stewart lectures on the  Meyers Residence an Historic Site, important stop in Albany's Underground Railroad Route. Stewart will also discuss the inflatable Liberty Church, an amazing artistic preservation and celebration of the Underground Railroad. Black stewards served on the steamships that plied the Hudson between NYC and Albany. One of them was Steven Myers, a leader of the Albany underground. Myers worked as a steward on the Armenia, it's almost inconceivable that he didn't escort fugitives as a regular thing. (Steamboats were incredibly dangerous: they blew up, all the time. In 1852, the Armenia was beaten by the Henry Clay in the most famous race ever.  The Henry Clay caught fire and became a floating inferno, killing eighty on board.  The image of fugitive slaves sneaking northward in the dead of night has a terrific iconic power however By the 1850s—and in spite of the Fugitive Slave Law—underground's work took place completely in the open. In 1852, the warden of Sing Sing penitentiary, released one day early a prisoner, a fugitive —to keep him from falling into the hands of the U.S. Commissioner. The underground always embraced new technology. Just as steamboats replaced the old land route, the underground literally took to the rails wherever it could. The opening of the railroad up the eastern shore of the river in 1851 cut travel time in half. In the 1850s, the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery office gave fugitives train fare for travel from New York City north. In 1855,Harriet Tubman simply took three of her brothers,and several other companions she had led all the way from Maryland, to Grand Central Station and bought them tickets for Albany