Fugitive Justice: Runaways, Rescuers, and Slavery on Trial

by Steven Lubet

During the tumultuous decade before the Civil War, no issue was more divisive than the pursuit and return of fugitive slaves a practice enforced under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. When free Blacks and their abolitionist allies intervened, prosecutions and trials inevitably followed. These cases involved high legal, political, and most of all human drama, with runaways desperate for freedom, their defenders seeking recourse to a higher law and normally fair-minded judges (even some opposed to slavery) considering the disposition of human beings as property.

"Fugitive Justice" tells the stories of three of the most dramatic fugitive slave trials of the 1850s, bringing to vivid life the determination of the fugitives, the radical tactics of their rescuers, the brutal doggedness of the slavehunters, and the tortuous response of the federal courts. These cases underscore the crucial role that runaway slaves played in building the tensions that led to the Civil War, and they show us how civil disobedience developed as a legal defense. As they unfold we can also see how such trials whether of rescuers or of the slaves themselves helped build the northern anti-slavery movement, even as they pushed southern firebrands closer to secession.

How could something so evil be treated so routinely by just men? The answer says much about how deeply the institution of slavery had penetrated American life even in free states. "Fugitive Justice" powerfully illuminates this painful episode in American history, and its role in the nation s inexorable march to war.

Genres: History

384 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2010

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Lubet, a professor of law at Northwestern University, has written a book about the application of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 as it played out, and as it was resisted, during the decade before the American civil war. Close attention paid to records of court procedures in select cases, within the context of the contesting actions of slavers and abolitionists. Students of law will appreciate how much the rules which govern the administration of justice have changed in 150 years. Generalists will obtain greater insight into the divisions which led to war.

[Brian Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book centers on three trials related to the 1850 fugitive slave act. The first is the trial of Castner Hanway, an unarmed bystander to standoff between some escaped slaves and slavecatchers. After the owner is killed and slaves escape to Hanway is put on trial for treason in an attempt to stamp out the entire abolitionist movement as treasonous. The second is the trial of Anthony Burns, an escaped slave who is recaptured in Boston. Since the overseer lied about the last time he saw Burns in the South to cover his lax oversight, Burns's defense attempt to cast doubt that the right man has been apprehended since multiple witnesses testify that he was seen in Boston at the time when the overseer claimed he was still in Virginia. The final trial is of a group of residents from Oberlin, Ohio who stormed a hotel to rescue a captured runaway. The runaway escapes to Canada but his rescuers are put on trial for violating fugitive slave act. The trials are recounted as engaging narratives; it would be hard to find fictional court drama to rival these stories.

Along with these trials Lubet sets the context of the Fugitive Slave Act and tells the story of several smaller trials. But more significantly, ethical and theological issues are raised. The reader gains a real sense of the injustices of the time: a law that pays a judge $10 for ruling in favor of the slave owner but only $5 if he rules in favor of the alleged runaway; the seizing of free and women from northern states on the pretext that they were runaway slaves and the work of the federal government to prevent northern states from enacting laws to help protect these citizens; the that the owners could bring witnesses forward whereas the alleged runaway was prevented from testify on his own behalf (though testimony could be taken from him to be used against him). The book also raises the issue of whether unjust laws should be disobeyed and how the courts should rule in such circumstances.

Overall, an engaging and thought-provoking book.