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I am trying to put myself in the place of the slave who ran and made it to the north, a place he was told he would be free, just to be turned over and sent back to hell.
Stumpfoot, this was not always the case. I believe that the Abolitionist movement in the North rivals or exceeds any action taken by people in regards to any political issue today. The arrest of Shadrach Minkins comes to mind.
Well, they were sent back – or at least some of the time. The Abolitionists, however, began to become so opposed even to this that enforcement of the FSA was hardly an easy task. When Shadrach Minkins was captured in Massachusetts, President Fillmore [url url=http://Shadrach Minkins]had to bring federal troops in[/url] to bring him to the South. If I recall correctly, many soldiers were called upong to tranport him past the 50,000 spectators who were watching in Massachusetts after the sentence to send him back South was brought down.
For more on this subject I would refer you to another Foner scholar, Eric Foner and his great book Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War. The background of the slavery issue is dealt with in copius detail. 🙂
This is the discussion thread for the article, “The Injustice of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850”.
