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Portraits of Local Abolitionists and Reformers
The Rescue
of Harriet Powell
The Fugitive Slave Law and Its Impact
The Jerry Rescue and Its Aftermath
How the Antislavery Movement Used the Print Media
Maps and Charts
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The Fugitive Slave Law and Its Impact
The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in September of 1850 served to
coalesce the various antislavery movements in opposition to a legal compromise
with the South that they regarded as unconstitutional. The law precipitated
the simmering conflicts of previous decades into becoming dramatic clashes.
In this publication, Samuel May Jr. (the cousin of the Reverend Samuel
J. May) provided a synopsis of the law Congress enacted in September of
1850:
Sect. 6. The claimant of any fugitive slave, or his attorney, “may
pursue and reclaim such fugitive person,” either by procuring a
warrant from some Judge or Commissioner, “or by seizing and arresting
such fugitive, where the same can be done without process;” to
take such fugitive before such Judge or Commissioner, “whose duty
it shall be to hear and determine the case of such claimant in a summary
manner,” and, if satisfied of the identity of the prisoner, to
grant a certificate to said claimant to “remove such fugitive person
back to the State or Territory from whence he or she may have escaped,”—
using “such reasonable force or restraint as may be necessary under
the circumstances of the case.” “In no trial or hearing under
this act shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted in
evidence.” All molestation of the claimant, in the removal of his
slave, “by any process issued by any court, judge, magistrate,
or other person whomsoever,” [is] prohibited.
Sect. 7. Any person obstructing the arrest of a fugitive, or attempting
his or her rescue, or aiding him or her to escape, or harboring and
concealing a fugitive, knowing him to be such, shall be subject to a
fine of not exceeding one thousand dollars, and to be imprisoned not
exceeding six months, and shall also “forfeit and pay the sum of
one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost.”
This legal summary of the Fugitive Slave Law is preceded in May’s
tract by these verses from Deuteronomy (23:15–16): “Thou shalt
not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master
unto thee: He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which
he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: THOUGH
SHALT NOT OPPRESS HIM.”
 
The Fugitive Slave Law and Its Victims (New York: American Anti-Slavery
Society, 1861) by Samuel May Jr., the cousin of the Reverend Samuel J.
May. The key elements of the law are included in the label on the wall
above this case.
Letter from William M. Clarke to Edwin Clarke, 31 May 1841. It appears
courtesy of the Onondaga Historical Association Museum and Research Center
in Syracuse, N.Y. William M. Clarke was one of the planners of the daring
rescue of Harriet Powell in 1839, and both he and his cousin Edwin were
active in assisting fugitives to make their way to Canada. Living in a
Lake Ontario port that was connected with Syracuse by the Oswego Canal,
Edwin was ideally located to receive freedom seekers from William. Because
Edwin was a trusted family member, William seems to have been willing
to write openly to him about Underground Railroad “passengers”
traveling north on the canal. Dennis Connors of the Onondaga Historical
Association has suggested that “Frisbie” is an alias and not
the real name of the fugitive.
May 31, 1841
Dear Coz,
There were three fugitives shiped on board the old line of packets,
this morning, for Oswego, and, amid the hurry and bustle, they were
not furnished with a “pass.” They are, Mr. Frisbie and wife
from Baltimore, and another woman from near Baltimore. We commend them
to your care[.]
Yours &c
W. M. Clarke
P. S. Another is on his way and you may expect him in a day or two[.]
W.
   
Letter from James C. Fuller to J. Worthington, 22 September 1841. The
incident referred to in this letter involves the liberation of the family
of Samuel and Harriet Russell from slavery. This was accomplished through
the efforts of James Fuller on behalf of Gerrit Smith and his wife. Mrs.
Smith and her brother had acquired slaves through an inheritance and were
keen on emancipating them. This involved negotiating with a slaveholder
in Kentucky and transporting the family out of the South. James Fuller,
an English Quaker who had taken up residence in Skaneateles, volunteered
to undertake this because of his devotion to the antislavery cause and
his friendship with the Smiths. An anecdotal family story recounts that
Fuller was challenged in the South upon the propriety of his traveling
in the same conveyance with the Russell family. His ingenious solution
was to purchase the public coach and its horses outright and to continue
on his way. In this communication to Worthington, the slaveholder, Fuller
makes it clear that this journey will be recounted in the antislavery
press and that he is personally interested in the salvation of Worthington:
It may afford thee some satisfaction to learn that with my charge
I got home safely, and two days after surrendered my trust to Gerrit
Smith who was delighted to receive that portion of the family which
I had brought....I have written for publication an account of my tour
to Kentucky and the incidents I met with, and have sent it to New York
for publication in two Anti Slavery papers and desired the Editors to
forward a copy to thy address, which I hope may come to thy hand, and
if I have through inadvertancy or other wise made any mistatement be
kind enough to point it out. Thy Brother Elisha will also have the account
sent him. I have ordered that the Emancipator should be sent thee for
twelve months and paid for it, hoping thou will give it a perusal, and
such consideration as its contents are entitled to. The situation of
the Slaveholder for many years past has deeply engaged my attention,
and since transacting the business I did with thee permit me to say
I have felt interested in thy individual welfare[.] it is far from me
to limit the healing power, the efficatious virtue of that blood which
was spilt for all Men on Calvary Cross, yet I have my fears that it
will wash out the stain from the hands of him, or her, whose hands are
red with the blood of the Slave.
 
Letter from Isaac T. Hopper to James Wilbur, 9 October 1850. Hopper,
a Quaker reformer writing from New York, explains in the letter some of
the circumstances surrounding the release of James Hamlet, the first fugitive
slave to be returned from a free state to the South under the provisions
of the Fugitive Slave Act, the law having been passed less than a month
before the date of this communication. In this case, the opposition to
the law in New York City was not able to prevent Hamlet’s forced
relocation to Baltimore, but they raised enough money to purchase Hamlet’s
freedom. This letter also alludes to a meeting in Syracuse protesting
the law and acknowledges that Syracuse is well ahead of New York City
and suggests that the planning done in Syracuse should be emulated in
this matter:
Eight hundred dollars was made up by some benevolent individuals in
this City which was applied to the purchase of James Hamlet’s liberty
and he has been restored to his wife and family, to the rejoycing of
many....I shall send thee the [New York] Tribune of to day that contains
an account of the proceedings of a late meeting at Syracuse[.] the resolutions
adopted at that meeting may, perhaps, be some guide in preparing a petition
to Congress—Nothing of the kind has been prepared here as yet,
but doubtless there will be before Congress meet again. The case of
James Hamlet has excited universal indignation at the vile law under
which he was arrested[.] Any mans life would be in danger that should
render himself conspicuous in such matters.
A portion of the account in the New-York Daily Tribune of 9 October
1850 that Isaac Hopper sent to Wilbur describes this early meeting in
Syracuse in opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act:
A large and enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of Syracuse was held
in the City Hall last evening. The room was crowded. Not less than five
hundred persons were present. Hon. Alfred Hovey, Mayor of the City,
presided....
While the Committee was preparing resolutions the meeting was addressed
by Samuel R. Ward, the black gentleman whom Capt. Rynders has so much
reason to remember, and by Rev. J. W. Loguan [sic], a highly
respectable minister of the colored Methodist Church here. They exhibited
to their fellow-citizens the fearful predicament into which they were
thrown by this infernal law, and made appeals for sympathy and aid which
called forth the heartiest responses.
One of the resolutions they made concluded that “‘the Fugitive
Slave Law’ recently enacted by the Congress of these United States,
is a most flagrant outrage upon the inalterable rights of man; and a daring
assault upon the Palladium of American liberties — our Constitution.”
The speech of Reverend Loguen at this meeting in Syracuse was recorded
in The Reverend J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman: A Narrative
of Real Life (Syracuse: J. G. K. Truair and Co., 1859), and a portion
of it reads as follows:
What is life to me if I am to be a slave in Tennessee? My neighbors!
I have lived with you many years, and you know me. My home is here,
and my children were born here. I am bound to Syracuse by pecuniary
interests, and social and family bonds. And do you think I can be taken
away from you and from my wife and children, and be a slave in Tennessee?
Has the President and his Secretary sent this enactment up here, to
you, Mr. Chairman, to enforce on me in Syracuse?—and will you obey
him? Did I think so meanly of you—did I suppose the people of Syracuse,
strong as they are in numbers and love of liberty—or did I believe
their love of liberty was so selfish, unmanly and unchristian—did
I believe them so sunken and servile and degraded as to remain at their
homes and labors, or, with none of that spirit which smites a tyrant
down, to surround a United States Marshal to see me torn from my home
and family, and hurled back to bondage—I say did I think so meanly
of you, I could never come to live with you.
Read the full
text of this work in the "Documenting the American South"
digital collection at the University of North Carolina.
   
Letter of Charles B. Sedgwick to Dora Sedgwick, 11 April 1851. Sedgwick
was the lawyer for the abolitionists in the Syracuse area, and in this
letter to his wife, he expressed his frustrations with the antislavery
movement in Boston that was unable to prevent the capture of Thomas Sims
on 4 April 1851 and his return to slavery under the provisions of the
Fugitive Slave Act. The authorities in Boston were so intent on enforcing
this law that they utilized three hundred armed soldiers and marshals
to guard Sims and another two hundred and fifty soldiers to ensure the
transfer of Sims to a vessel that would return him to slavery in Georgia.
Sedgwick, the calm legal councilor, was prepared for the loss of a significant
number of lives in order to prevent this from happening:
Mr. May is yet about—He is with Geo. Thompson in Canada. Have
had no preaching for two Sundays & some of his people who are anxious
to hear preaching every Sunday scold a little—They are expected
to return tomorrow—Boston will sink in my regard if they let Sims
be taken back to Slavery. I am afraid he will be, but I must say I had
rather hear that one hundred valuable lives were lost than to hear it—No
sacrifice of blood is too great to establish the principle that Slaves
cannot be hunted & chained & driven off from Massachusetts—If
these kidnappers were to be killed it would teach a useful lesson &
I hope they wont go away alive. The shuffling of the Commissioner is
contemptible. I will send Mr May the paper you sent me but I am afraid
Sims will be past praying for.
Letter of Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 6 October 1852. Frederick
Douglass cannot help comparing the Sims case in Boston with the success
that was attained with the Jerry Rescue in Syracuse, and the Miss Griffiths
to whom he refers is the editor of Autographs for Freedom, the
Rochester antislavery imprint that appears in this exhibit:
That was a magnificent and glorious [Jerry Rescue] Celebration at
Syracuse. Boston Abolition, that allowed Sims to be dragged into Slavery,
did seem to me less efficient than Syracuse abolition, that rescued
Jerry—though it might be considered egotistical to Say So!
I doubt not that my friend Miss Griffiths had a good visit at Peterboro’—And
left you with her Strength renewed.
Yours Always for freedom and humanity
Frederick Douglass
Order of Services at the First Anniversary of the Kidnapping of Thomas
Sims, April 12, 1852 (Boston: Prentiss and Sawyer, 1852). This broadside
was sent to Gerrit Smith by the Reverend John Pierpont, the author of
the hymn labeled as the fourth item on the program, the first two stanzas
of which affirm that the Revolutionary War dead of the Battle of Bunker
Hill would have been horrified by the seizure of Thomas Sims in Boston,
who was apprehended under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act of
1850:
Souls of the Patriot dead,
On Bunker’s height who bled!
The pile, that stands
On your long-buried bones—
Those monumental stones—
Should not suppress the groans,
This day demands.
For Freedom there ye stood;
There gave the earth your blood;
There found your graves;
That men of every clime,
Faith, color, tongue, and time,
Might, through your death sublime,
Never be slaves
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