The following is the reading and the questions i need answered:
Background
Each year in the 1840s, several hundred slaves ran away to the North and Canada from plantations in the border states, especially Virginia and Maryland. The question was — what obligation did free states in the North and West have to return these slaves to their southern masters? Congress had passed a Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 that determined that states without slavery had to return escaped slaves to states from which they came. However, enforcement was lax. Over the years many states and communities passed “personal liberty laws” that relieved Northerners from the responsibility of returning escaped slaves.
Personal liberty laws varied from state to state, but most states tried to implement fairness in the handling of these situations without actually nullifying, or refusing to recognize, the federal law. For example, a state might require that a fugitive slave has a jury trial before he or she could be handed over to southern law enforcement. Other states denied funds to state and local police officials for any task associated with the detection and capture of escaped slaves, since slavery was illegal in their states.
When Congress passed the Compromise of 1850, it strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act by including strict penalties for Northerners who did not cooperate with southern warrants for the return of escaped slaves. The effect of this new act, as Seth Rockman has explained, was to make Northerners believe that their own rights were being endangered by the “slave power,” meaning the political power of the planter class. Instead of making states in the North more cooperative, the law backfired, dramatically increasing support for abolition.
Sources
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, excerpts
It shall be the duty of all marshals and deputy marshals to obey and execute all warrants and precepts issued under the provisions of this act, when to them directed; and should any marshal or deputy marshal refuse to receive such warrant, or other process, when tendered, or to use all proper means diligently to execute the same, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of one thousand dollars, to the use of such claimant, on the motion of such claimant, by the Circuit or District Court for the district of such marshal; and after arrest of such fugitive, by such marshal or his deputy, or whilst at any time in his custody under the provisions of this act, should such fugitive escape, whether with or without the assent of such marshal or his deputy, such marshal shall be liable.
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When a person held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the United States, has heretofore or shall hereafter escape into another State or Territory of the United States, the person or persons to whom such labor or service may be due … may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person, either by procuring a warrant from some one of the courts, judges or commissioners aforesaid, … or by seizing and arresting such fugitive, where the same can be done without process, and by taking, or causing such person to be taken, forthwith before such court, judge, or commissioner…; and upon satisfactory proof being made, … to use such reasonable force and restraint as may be necessary, under the circumstances of the case, to take and remove such fugitive person back to the State or Territory whence he or she may have escaped as aforesaid. In no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence.
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Any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant … from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor, either with or without process as aforesaid, or shall rescue, or attempt to rescue, such fugitive from service or labor, from the custody of such claimant …; or shall aid, abet, or assist such person … to escape from such claimant …; or shall harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, after notice or knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive from service or labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of said offences, be subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months …; and shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages to the party injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost as aforesaid, to be recovered by action of debt.
Analyze the Evidence
Question
What aspects of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 could many Northerners interpret as a direct infringement of their own personal rights and freedom and what would Southerners consider a defense of their rights?
Rubric
Fill in all of the cells in the Evidence Chart.
In the cells in the second row, list three things that Northerners and Southerners disliked and liked about the act.
In the evidence cells, make sure you include at least two quotations from the Source in each cell.
Evidence Chart
Northern Response to the Act:
Southern Response to the Act:
