Discussing fugitive slaves and the coming of the civil war at the end of presentation. The speaker will take questions from the floor. We have two roving microphones. If you have a question or indeed a comment, please raise your hand and the microphone will find you. So further ado, please welcome me. Help. Welcome dr. Blackett to the podium. Dr. Richard blackett. Thank you. Okay. Good to see so many people gathered in the morning on a saturday morning, of all things. Uh, makes reminds me of my. 9 00 class as an undergraduate when people were forced to be. Huh. Okay. I wish to use to fuze fugitive slave incidences as to our discussion today. The first involve the failed attempt to escape on the pearl from washington, d. C. In april 1848. The second the successful freeing of Daniel Webster otherwise known as daniel danger. Freed from philadelphia in april, 1859. They provide a useful symmetry. The on the eve of the discussion about the need for a more stringent fugitive slave law, the attempted escape from washington was just one of a series of dramatic escapes that, including henry, sprung from this city. William and ellen craft, macon, georgia. And a number of slaves from kentucky who settled in michigan. Dangerfield came at the end of the decade racked by disputes over the return of this set of escaped slaves. Late one evening in april, this the pole slipped into the potomac river, not far from the white house, with an estimated 77 slaves sleeping, seeking their freedom. The ship under captaincy of daniel drake in philadelphia had been hired by William Chaplin of upstate new york, an antislavery agent who had moved to washington to replace charles story, who had died in a baltimore prison. Charged with helping the enslaved to freedom. Among those assisting drayton were to free blacks Paul Jennings and daniel bill. The 77 enslaved on board was estimated to worst 2 million in todays money. Drayton was hoping to reach the of the Chesapeake Bay long before the escapees were missed. But adverse winds and, currents slowed the ships progress. They were becalmed for long periods. Given the authorities time to pursue the pearl, which was soon overtaken and the escapees returned to jail in the city. Crowds of angry citizens gathered outside the prison and in front of the national era. The citys antislavery newspaper, edited by amelia bailey, who had earlier been forced to flee cincinnati ahead of an angry antislavery. Congress debated attempted escapes, southerners focusing much their anger on joshua giddens, the ohio whig who had visited drayton in prison when. One of the slaves was asked why she had chosen to leave a good home, she replied. And i want you to keep this in mind. I wanted liberty, wouldnt you . So it devastates. In response to that captured the enslaved conception of freedom. John calhoun sought South Carolinas lead in slave holding voice in the senate captured. The political significance of the event. Here he said in congress, theres but one question that can destroy this union and our institutions and that is this very same slave question. Within two Years Congress would pass a new fugitive slave law. Ten years later. Black wilderness artists and members of the black community of philadelphia and harrisburg, pennsylvania played a Critical Role in the release of a man with the interest. A black man with the interest, the name of Daniel Webster. At the time, webster was living with family in harrisburg, where was arrested on a warrant issued by a local commissioner. Webster was accused of escaping from his owner in virginia five years earlier. Words of his arrest was telegraphed to friends in philadelphia and a number of opponents of slavery in the state house of pennsylvania began in search of witnesses, testify in websters behalf. Five africanamerican witnesses traveled from harrisburg, including in the 60 year old dr. William jones and his doctor, his honorific who had long played an active role in the communitys resistance to the all claim to have known webster a year before his owner claimed he had escaped. Scores of philadelphia supporters arrived early for the hearing. All the Seats Available in the cramped commissioners office. Included some of the leading black and white figures in the states abolitionist movement. Attorneys who volunteered to appear for webster employed delaying tactics, including demanding that the hearing be moved to a larger room. So some more members, the community could attend. A large crowd of blacks gathered in the streets outside, threatening to storm the hearing room and an estimated 300 Police Officers were on hand. Some webster supporters were arrested for the disorderly conduct, which, according to one observer, were only, he said, aggravated public feeling. The hearing lasted until 5 00. The following yet most of the crowds outside remained unwatched during a bitterly cold april night. The lawyer for the claimant argued that once the details of the ownership and flight were established, when the fugitive fled was immaterial, it was sufficient that all witnesses from virginia knew webster, knew he was a slave, and knew he escaped, that they were all from the same county where. Webster was enslaved with all that all for the better, said the lawyer. Why . He asked the commissioner. No white men brought to corroborate the evidence given by the black witnesses from harrisburg who testified in websters behalf, as was done in other cases. Defense counsel raised the question of identity as way of testing, the reliability of the warrant under which webster was arrested. He demanded webster be measured to determine his height. It a detail included in the warrant for his recapture. The measurement, however, proved inconclusive. But it and the testimony of his friends from, harrisburg must have raised some some troubling questions about legitimacy of his former owners claim. When the commissioner ruled in favor webster the crowds in and the hearing room were surprised but jubilant. His decision turned on differences between the supposed date of websters escape and those of black witnesses. Espy the elderly. Dr. Jones, who produced a workbook to show webster had helped to build his home months before he was said to have escaped by. By acting in unison. The black communities with the aid of write abolitionist supporters had defied the law. Really a rare occasion in this period. Let us explore some of the consequences of both as an unrest for an understanding of how fugitives by their actions helped to undermine a system that had been in existence since the adoption of the constitution. It is useful to recall the words of article four, clause three of the constitution known as the fugitive slave clause. Although neither the words fugitives slaves are used instead, the clause reads no person held a service or labor in state under the laws thereof. Escaping into another shall in consequence of any law of regius of or regulations, then be discharged charge from such service of labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. Thats one of the reasons that i never became a lawyer. Notice notice no mechanism is provided for. How returns are to happen in the previous clause, which involves the return of fugitive from justice. Such a mechanism is clearly laid out. The lack of such mechanisms quickly became apparent. It was addressed in the first fugitive slave law of 1793. Enforcement relied heavily on the states which the fugitive slaves had escaped. It quickly became apparent, particularly to slaveholding, that the new law lacked teeth. Before the ink had dried the search for for a stronger law was set in motion. The bills in the house and adopted in 1870 and for instance, addressed the growing insecurity of slave property in the border states. Under the proposed law, slave holders could go to court in their state and prove ownership of an escapee. With the stamp of legal approval, approval they could reclaim the runaway through the requisition on the governor of the state in which the formerly enslaved had taken refuge under the habeas would have no force. There would be no trial by jury. It would be a penal offense for state officers to decline to enforce the law. The bill passed the house, but the senate, although it agreed, imposed a four year limit on this application. The house, however, would reject it, and that bill failed to pass. Another bill was was offered in both the house and senate in 1821. In the wake of the missouri compromise. But it never came to a vote. While the slaveholding interests failed, enact a more stringent federal that could that would guarantee the return of absconding slaves. Northern states added insult to injury by passing a series of what was called personal liberty laws that further curtail the effectiveness of the 7093 law. Some of these laws require that anyone accused of being a slave was entitled to a hearing before a jury. Pennsylvanias 1847 law, for instance, denies slave holders the use of the states prison to all escapees awaiting extradition. This had real, practical significance at a time when there no federal prisons. When in august 1851, the harrisburg commissioner remanded a escapee to maryland. The acting for the enslaved the enslaved looked for a secure place to hold the enslaved while waiting, awaiting the next train to maryland. During the night, members of the black Community Set the hotel on fire. The fire was detected and extinguished before any harm come to the occupants. The next day, the agent went on to maryland with the slave. The costs covered by the federal treasury. Whenever slavery existed, then slave escaped in search of freedom. Many years ago will perceive the first historian to examine underground railroad, to insist that runaway, as he called them, missionaries, was in the cause of freedom. They were the ones first initiated and later and later worsened the crisis over slavery by. Their decision to put distance themselves and those who claim them. As one told a reporter after he had made it safely to canada, he said he had let his feet feel for leaving his master to feel it in his pocket. Very perceptive. Its a beautiful. Although there are no hard figures. All the evidence suggests that numbers rose appreciably in the 1840 as they left the left alone, with families pooling their resources to escape in groups. In early fall, 1852, eight slaves escape from mines of southwest missouri cross the Mississippi River and headed for sparta, illinois. Some in the group were related, others were fellow miners. Losses. This occurred all along. The divide between slavery and freedom. Slaveholders formed organized missions to defend their interests and curtail their flights. Some of those very effective. But wherever their activities were contested by the enslaved and their everson since the early 1830s. If you braves soldiers some of whom we have been able to chronicle apparently defied logic and reason by going south to contact then slave to encourage, as one local law said, to entice them to escape. Siebert again calls them adventure tourists, liberators. Recently, another has called them the special forces of the underground. A few paid a heavy price. Others went undetected even before the york abolitionist gerard smith declared in 1842 that abolitionists were morally to go into the south and use their intelligence to promote the escaped of ignorance and bruited slaves from their prison house. White and black abolitionists had made forays into the slave states. Calvin fairbanks, the oberlin graduate who spent more than 20 years in kentucky prisons for his troubled but indifferently by helping the slaves to. He was put in, as he said, his hand against the authority of the state prior the start of the poston campaign in the late 1850s. In his dresser an oberlin student was caught and nashville with antislavery literature in his wagon hidden. Among the bibles he was selling. By then he had already contact had enslaved and free blacks. He was tried, convicted of no known state law, relieved of his clothes and publicly whipped where dresser went. Others followed seaboard counted 20 of these liberated white and four black. More recently, others have added to these numbers. There still is, however, much more work to be done on this score. We know much about such liberators as harriet tubman, but all along is devalued, especially in places where they were free. Blacks. These liberation left their mark on the system when the enslaved fled. Macon county, kentucky, for example. They knew to first make their way to john parkers in ripley, ohio parker in turn, made frequent trips across the river to bring out the enslaved. It is possible that he worked with arnold grigson enslaved in macon county who helped the slaves reach ripley, but who chose to remain in slavery until two years into the war. We need to add to that number those who escaped slavery and to help families and friends reach freedom. Those endured the hardship of escape yet risked it all to return. Thomas went with higginson suggests demonstrated a capacity for what he called heroic deeds unmatched among whites. Again, we are not sure many did. Nor are we sure about the numbers of liberators involved in this dangerous and business. Fairbanks claim to have liberated 47 before he was caught. Tubman claims to have brought out 300 as war neared, but obscure. They were radical. His story incited one. Kennedy and reserve are speculating that former slaves who had fled, fled to the british colony, returned to bring out 600 enslaved. In 1860, that number cannot be confirmed. What is critical is that on the eve the war, their collective action has had profound effect on the politics of slavery. What was it that so angered southerners . As congress debated the new fugitive slave law in 1850, senator andrew butler, South Carolina, tried to quantify the value of lost property. Kentucky, he pointed out, had lawson and estimated 30,000 worth of slaves every year since 1840. James mason of virginia, who submitted the new law. With its more draconian measures thought. The numbers were closer to 100,000 a year. When one of his constituents finally took retook his slave in harrisburg, pennsylvania, mason told his colleague it cost his neighbor more than the market value of the slave. He escaped. He recaptured thomas pratt, former governor of maryland, spoke from experience during his administration and he reported the state. The state law slaves valued at eight 80,000 every. In early 1850 a slave catcher observed that both virginia and maryland had more slaves than any other period in maryland concurred. Not day passes, he wrote. When one or more of the enslaved did not take a chance on reaching a free state, all figures are very likely for political effect. But the claims cannot be dismissed of hand. They are. They tell us something about slaveholders desperate as the enslaved challenged their Economic Security and, political hegemony by taking leave the work of outside only made things worse. It is hard not to ridicule curtis jacobs, a maryland slave holder from the eastern shore. The actions of the enslaved, the presence of a growing free black population as well as the intrusion of outsiders, drove jacobs to distraction. There were troubling developments. His farm in 1855. He reported hardy, one of the enslaved, escaped in june six months later. Joshua followed but was retaken a. Number of women including sally and julia, had murdered their children. Other women had taken what calls teas and dregs to induce abortions. Several men and women, including abed, leah and charlotte, had united together to poison him and other members of his family. Jacobs tried to rally his neighbors, which suggests their two works experience in problems. He traveled out of state to buy cuffs and ankle locks. The following january he reported intercepting letters what he called paid abolitionists mail from new york and canada, informing the enslaved that wagon, arms and mules had been procured to take them out on of all days. The fourth, as if things could not get. Jacobs claimed to have evidence that the plot to destroy was financed by money from english women abolitionists. It was a dangerous brew. This mix of the insider working with outside help and financed by foreign money to destroy slavery in this remote part of the eastern shore. A cursory look at figures recorded in north point to the scope of the problem facing those such as jacobs, who tried to stem the tide of escapes by end of the 1840s, it was that over 110 runaways had passed through one town in ohio over a six month period. The figures from this town were not unusual, as james mason told his and descendants sent in the senate trying to capture those who had absconded. Was he like looking for fish in the sea . More troubling was the fact that they seemed to vanish into thin air once. They crossed into a free state. Local mobs made up large lee of blacks prevented them returning people. According to henry clay of kentucky. These people, these free blacks who he said possessed part of our political system. All these led mason to conclude that the price of recapture and return was greater than the market value of the runaways. It begs the logical question why try to retake those seeking they are freedom to remain inactive in the in the face of such on their Property Authority would be to concede that the system was flawed if not legitimate. Illegitimate. Not surprisingly, slaveholders placed the for these depredations at the feet of those who, according senator butler, invoked slaves to leave for butler and his the enslaved could possibly have taken the to leave without prompting of dark outside forces. There was, however, an element of truth in butlers observation going. So to aid the had been a feature of the underground railroad some time. These emissaries subversion blended into normal commercial and trade in systems between the two sectors, making difficult to detect them. We know something of their activities because their failures. Allison wark james burr and George Thomson students at marion in quincy, illinois crossed the missouri in 1841 to help that should be crossing the mississippi. So for those geographers who very keen to cross mississippi in 1841 to help in slaves escape, they would betray the court and sent to prison. That stopped neither the flow of escapees out of the section of missouri nor the arrival of emissaries from illinois. By the end of the decade, it destroyed missouri and threw up her in despair. Subversive as she them was her words. Thick as and a dead horse. In september 1844, local officials were nonplused by the escape from lexington of louis hayden, the wife, his wife and their son Calvin Fairbank and William Webster of maine, both t