The Captive's Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery

Slaveries Since Emancipation

by R.J.M. Blackett

This magisterial study, ten years in the making by one of the field's most distinguished historians, will be the first to explore the impact fugitive slaves had on the politics of the critical decade leading up to the Civil War. Through the close reading of diverse sources ranging from government documents to personal accounts, Richard J. M. Blackett traces the decisions of slaves to escape, the actions of those who assisted them, the many ways black communities responded to the capture of fugitive slaves, and how local laws either buttressed or undermined enforcement of the federal law. Every effort to enforce the law in northern communities produced levels of subversion that generated national debate so much so that, on the eve of secession, many in the South, looking back on the decade, could argue that the law had been effectively subverted by those individuals and states who assisted fleeing slaves.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

483 pages, Hardcover

First published January 25, 2018

About the author

R. J. M. Blackett is the Andrew Jackson Professor of History at Vanderbilt University and the author of several books about nineteenth-century history.

Reviews

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing level of research, very dense with details from public records and news/editorial accounts of the day, Blackett centers to the under-acknowledged and defining roles that African-Americans played in the struggles that led to ending official slavery in the USA (de facto slavery continued until the 1940s). The war against enslavement began long before the Civil War. Captives, escapees, and free African-Americans were the core of the unrelenting drive that challenged the equally determined white supremacists of north and south.
There is so much to digest, the book could have benefited from more section breaks.

[Sandra Oldfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tremendous amount of effort and time went into writing this book which is evident.

[Mills College Library]

973.7115 B6286 2018