Teaching with
Fugitive Slave Laws
State Standards
U.S. History I, Topic 1
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Describe the Constitutional Convention, the roles of specific individuals (e.g. Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, George Washington, Roger Sherman, Edmund Randolph), and the conflicts and compromises (e.g., compromises over representation, slavery, the executive branch, and ratification).
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U.S. History I, Topic 4
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Research primary sources such as antebellum newspapers, slave narratives, accounts of auctions, and the Fugitive Slave Act, to analyze one of the following aspects of slave life and resistance (e.g., the Stono Rebellion of 1739, the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804, the rebellion of Denmark Vesey of 1822, the rebellion of Nat Turner in 1831; the role of the Underground Railroad; the development of ideas of racial superiority; the African American Colonization Society movement to deport and resettle freed African Americans in a colony in West Africa).
Brief History
Protections for the institution of slavery were embedded in the founding documents of the United States. After the United States Constitution was ratified including a Fugitive Slave Clause, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which “empowered [enslavers] to seize runaway slaves, ordered state and federal authorities to help capture and return runaway slaves, and fined those who assisted runaway slaves.”¹ As tensions between the North and the South mounted over the issue of slavery, Congress passed an even more stringent fugitive slave law in 1850. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed federally commissioned marshalls to capture a self-liberated person in any state without a warrant or any evidence other than a sworn testimony from the enslaver.² The Act’s passage also meant that the free blacks were frequently kidnapped and sold as slaves.
There were many measures to resist such laws. Many northern states enacted personal-liberty laws, which provided self-liberated persons with the right to a jury trial. States also enacted laws which made the kidnapping of free blacks a crime, punishable by ten years in jail. In extreme cases, ardent abolitionists formed Vigilance Committees to maintain the freedom of self-liberated persons.
The following sources and activities explore how the United States Constitution and the Fugitive Slave Acts became tools to enforce racial hierarchy, and what measures some Americans to resist these laws.. The clips from 12 Years a Slave show how the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 encouraged the kidnapping of free blacks and how a New York State law aided in the liberation of these individuals.
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1.“Fugitive Slave Acts,” Equal Justice Initiative, 2019.
2. Adam Augustyn et al., “Fugitive Slave Acts,” Encyclopedia Britannica, January 17, 2018.
Framing Questions
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How was the issue of slavery embedded in the earliest documents of the nation’s founding?
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How did the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 enforce ideas of white supremacy?
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How did the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 strip African Americans of their human rights?
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What measures were used to resist the fugitive slave laws?
Film Clips
Questions
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What does Solomon Northup’s kidnapping suggest about the practices of the Fugitive Slave Law?
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In what ways do the first two scenes strip Solomon Northup of his humanity? How did the Fugitive Slave Acts strip people of their humanity?
Primary Source Analysis
Clip 1: 8:36 - 15:53
(*Language Warning: the ‘n-word’)
(*Violence Warning: 14:25)
Solomon Northup is walking through a park in Saratoga, New York in 1841 when he is approached by a friend and introduced to two travelers who claimed to work for a show. They promise Solomon a large sum of money to perform in Washington DC, where he agrees to join them. Solomon is having dinner and wine with the two men. The scene quickly changes when Solomon wakes up chained to a dark floor. Flashbacks reveal that Solomon's kidnappers carry him to his hotel room and leave him. The flashback ends with a violent encounter with enslavers who tell him he is a runaway from Georgia, despite the fact that Solomon expressed his status as a free man. This scene demonstrates how the practices of the fugitive slave laws enforced white supremacy and stripped black Americans of their human rights.
See Chapter III in Northup's autobiography, Twelve Years a Slave.
Clip 2: 27:47 - 28:35
(*Language Warning: the ‘n-word’)
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Upon disembarking the ship, an enslaver calls each enslaved man and woman by name. The enslaver calls Solomon “Platt.” When protesting that his name is not Platt, Solomon is slapped across the face. This scene demonstrates how black Americans were stripped of their real identities upon being kidnapped and enslaved.
Clip 3: 2:00:21 - 2:04:05
(*Language Warning: the ‘n-word’)
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A carriage pulls up to a group of men tilling soil and planting seeds at Epps’s plantation. The sheriff calls out for Platt and asks him some questions about his real identity. Mr. Parker, a friend of Solomon’s, has come to liberate him from the plantation. After convincing the sheriff of his identity, Solomon rushes to Mr. Parker. Epps threatens Solomon, whereupon Solomon is safely helped into the carriage and carried home to Saratoga, New York. This scene demonstrates one way in which both individual and state entities resisted the Fugitive Slave Laws.
See Chapter XXI in Twelve Years a Slave.
Primary Source Analysis
Activities & Assignments
Rewriting History’s Heroes
A take-home assignment that helps students better understand how prominent government officials were enslavers through research and writing.
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See Teaching Hard History: American Slavery or the Zinn Education Project for more information.
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Additional Resources
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Resisting the Fugitive Slave Law (Massachusetts Historical Society)
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The Law That Saved Solomon Northup (The New York History Blog)
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The Fugitive (Uncivil Podcast)
