Resistance and the Fugitive Slave Law

Ever the ambidextrous politician, Abraham Lincoln argues in his Cooper Union Address both that the “Founding Fathers” opposed slavery and that the Fugitive Slave Act (1850), as the law of the land, must be honored in The Republican Party vindicated: the demands of the South explained / speech of Hon. Abraham Lincoln of Illinois at the Cooper Institute, New York City, February 27, 1860. Scholars today recognize that Lincoln was not “The Great Liberator” of legend, providing ample evidence that emancipation resulted from centuries of resistance and self-liberation by millions of Blacks through actions large and small. 

Lincoln, Abraham. The Republican Party Vindicated-the Demands of the South Explained: Speech of Hon. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, at the Cooper Institute, New York City, February 27, 1860. Washington: Republican Executive Congressional Committee, 1860. Alan Sussman Rare Book Collection at the Stevenson Library, Bard College. Call #E453 .L56 1860  

Bounty-hunting slavecatchers roamed the streets of Northern cities - no Black person - not even legally free ones, were safe.  Anthony Burns had escaped to Boston from Virginia, where he was captured and tried. According to the Massachusetts Historical Society, “After an interracial abolitionist rescue effort failed to free Burns, authorities surrounded the courthouse holding him with an iron chain and rings of police, cavalry, and several artillery companies. Judge Edward G. Loring declared Burns an escaped slave and ordered him returned to his owner in Virginia.”

Anthony Burns: A History, by Charles Emery Stevens. Boston: John P. Jewett and Co. 1856. Alan Sussman Rare Book Collection at the Stevenson Library, Bard College. Call # E. 450.B96

“Marshall’s posse with Burns moving down State Street,” opposite title page, Anthony Burns: A History, by Charles Emery Stevens. Boston: John P. Jewett and Co. 1856.

The pamphlet, Fugitive Slave Law, its History and Constitutionality, with an Account of the Seizure and Enslavement of James Hamlet and his subsequent restoration to liberty, responds to the Act that required Northern states to be complicit in returning escaped slaves to the Southerners who claimed them as property. Northern abolitionists were furious. At a rally in 1854 attended by Sojourner Truth, Henry David Thoreau and hundreds of others, William Lloyd Garrison burned a copy of the Act declaring it a “covenant with death and an agreement with hell.”

Tappan, Lewis. The Fugitive Slave Bill, Its History and Unconstitutionality: With an Account of the Seizure and Enslavement of James Hamlet, and His Subsequent Restoration to Liberty. New York: William Harned, 1850. Alan Sussman Rare Book Collection at the Stevenson Library, Bard College. Call # E 450 .A51

Garrison, William L. Selections from the Writings and Speeches of William Lloyd Garrison: With an Appendix. Boston: R.F. Wallcut, 1852. Alan Sussman Rare Book Collection at the Stevenson Library, Bard College Call #: E449 .G22  

“William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist, journalist, and editor of The Liberator Abstract,” albumen print on card mount. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, http://lccn.loc.gov/2017660623

The Speech of Hon. Charles Sumner, in the Senate of the United States, 19th and 20th May, 1856 was occasioned by the Kansas-Nebraska Act that sparked “Bleeding Kansas,” a violent conflict about the expansion of slavery.  When Senator Sumner of Massachusetts railed against the immorality of slavery, Congressman Preston Brooks beat him nearly to death with a cane on the floor of the Senate. Sumner, Charles, Speech of Hon. Charles Sumner, in the Senate of the United States, 19th and 20th May, 1856, Boston : J.P. Jewett, 1856. Alan Sussman Rare Book Collection at the Stevenson Library, Bard College Call # E 433 .S92.

“Southern chivalry - argument versus club's,” After John L. Magee, lithograph. [1856]

“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The arc is a long one. My eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice,” Theodore Parker, author of The Trial Of Theodore Parker: For The “Misdemeanor” Of A Speech In Faneuil Hall Against Kidnapping (Boston 1855)

Parker, Theodore, The trial of Theodore Parker : for the "misdemeanor" of a speech in Faneuil Hall against kidnapping, before the Circuit Court of the United States, at Boston, April 3, 1855 / with the defence by Theodore Parker. Boston : Published for the author, 1855. Alan Sussman Rare Book Collection at the Stevenson Library, Bard College Call # E450 .P3 E55.