Congress, in its infinite wisdom, often makes bad law. Today is a reminder of that fundamental truth.
When: On September 18, 1890, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed slave owners to reclaim slaves who had escaped to other states.
Why: The Fugitive Slave Act was part of a larger “Compromise of 1850,” intended to settle the question of extending slavery into new territories and avoid breaking apart the Union. (Guess what? It didn’t work.)
What: Under the law, aid to escaping slaves became a federal offense. A bounty system was created that opened the way for “slave catchers” who had free rein to swoop down on entire black families and accuse them of being runaways. The law also created an office of commissioners who decided if a black person was a runaway slave or not. They were paid $10 for every person they returned to slavery but only $5 for every one they determined was a freedman. Guess what they usually decided?
The law immediately hardened the resistance to slavery among the growing number of American abolitionists. Ralph Waldo Emerson called it, “a filthy enactment” and said he would not obey it. In Boston, a fugitive named Shadrach was captured and was going to be returned to the South. But an angry crowd of blacks rescued him and sent him to freedom in Canada. President Millard Fillmore threatened to send in federal troops to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act in Boston.
Frederick Douglass, a former slave turned fiery abolitionist speaker and publisher, said:
The only way to make the Fugitive Slave Law a dead letter is to make a half a dozen or more dead kidnappers. A half dozen more dead kidnappers carried down South would cool the ardor of Southern gentlemen, and keep their rapacity in check….
But the greatest impact of the Act may have been the inspiration it provided to a writer. Outraged by the law, Harriet Beecher Stowe began to write the serialized story that would be published in 1852 as Uncle Tom’s Cabin. A literary sensation, it sold more than a million copies and changed the terms of the debate over slavery in America. During the Civil War, Lincoln met Stowe and said,
So you’re the little lady that made this great war.
You can read more about the Compromise of 1850, The Fugitive Slave Act, Frederick Douglass and Stowe in Don’t Know Much About the Civil War.
