Fugitive Slave Act Provisions and Implications - Essay Example

Fugitive Slave Act – Provisions, Implications and a Failure Slavery, the word literallymeans bonded labor. The practice of enslaving people has been an age old practice in almost all ancient civilizations like the Inca, Egypt, Rome, Greece, India and China. Slave trading had been in use long before the black Africans came into America as slaves. As Davis points out “Prior to the Atlantic trade of enslaved Africans to the Americas, Muslim traders out of the Middle East and Northern Africa purchased, sold, and captured millions of enslaved Africans and Central Europeans in a slave-trading network that extended from present day Hungary to Southeastern Asia and the Far East.”(Davis, “Slavery in America: Historical Overview”). The arrival of Africans first started in America with the coming of the European colonial settlers around the early seventeenth century though evidences of slave trading of Africans in certain parts of America can be traced back to as early as fifteenth century. These slaves were forcibly brought in from their native countries and transported under harsh conditions and forced to work under even more brutal conditions in the various cotton, rice and tobacco plantations spread all over the southern parts of America. The brutalities and the tortures inflicted upon these African slaves are well represented in the very famous book “Uncle Toms Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe and also in “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacob. Slavery in America remained in practice for almost 250 years before it was abolished by the American constitution in 1865 at the end of the civil war. Fugitive slave act also known as the Compromise of 1850 was a sort of meeting halfway by both the northern and southern states. The northern states which did not in believe in slavery and the southern states whose entire economy depended on slave labor decided to come to an understanding which led to the creation of this controversial act which stated that all fugitive slaves were to be captured and brought back to their former owners. This act came into being after much discussion and bargaining amongst the southern and northern leaders and was penned to save the Union and hold it together. It started with the annexation of Mexico to the United States of America in 1846. As the war raged on, the debate also went on as to whether to make this new state a slave free state or not. David Wilmot, a democrat who was against slavery backed by other northern Whig politicians proposed to annex Mexico as a free state. South vehemently opposed this proposal and the whole debate came to a deadlock. Later the newly elected president general Taylor ordered the annexation of both California and New Mexico to America as Free states. This greatly enraged the southern states and to remove this impasse Stephen Douglas, a young democrat from the state of Illinois came up with the proposal of the compromise of 1850. This act allowed the joining of California as a free state while Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Utah were annexed under free sovereignty, that is, the residents would themselves decide their status of slavery. Texas was made to relinquish its claim over New Mexico in exchange for ten million dollars. The capital city Washington D.C. would still practice slavery, however trading in slaves would be banned in the entire District of Columbia. Since the creation of another free state enraged the southern slave states, the fugitive act came into place to pacify them. This act involved the citizens and asked them to cooperate in the capturing of all runaway slaves. These slaves once captured would have no right to trial by a jury and would be handed over to their claimant directly. More federal officers were brought in to exercise this act and see that all blacks be captured and sent back to their former owners. This act spelled disaster for many slaves who had escaped to the northern states and many of them escaped to neighboring Canada fearing capture and torture by their former owners. Many of them like Anthony Burns were hunted down and captured. Even free blacks were not spared. Devoid of any legal help they were completely defenseless and were completely at the mercy of their owners. As Jacobs exclaims, “Reader, I draw no imaginary pictures of southern homes. I am telling you the plain truth. Yet when victims make their escape from this wild beast of Slavery, northerners consent to act the part of blood hounds, and hunt the poor fugitive back into his den...” (Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, p.56). This act though opposed by the anti slave brigade comprising of many white abolitionists and the black population, was in general welcomed by the civic populace thinking it to be a working and a final solution. It for some years deferred the split of the Union and brought about some years of relative peace and the general population looked forward to something more constructive than a divide and fight over slavery. However this fugitive act made the abolitionists more determined to end slavery once and for all and the underground trafficking of the slaves to their freedom reached its peak after 1850. From the book “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” we get a vivid description of a southern home in the nineteenth century and the terrible treatment meted out to the slaves by their white owners. Life was harsh for an African slave and especially so for a female slave who often had to face sexual exploitations by these white owners. Children of mixed race were very common and were often raised along with the white children of the plantation owners. Such children as Jacobs would let us know were regarded “as property, as marketable as the pigs on the plantation..and...passing them into the slave traders hands as soon as possible..” (Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, p.57). Harriet Jacobs herself was born into a slave family. At the beginning she had a comfortable life as her mistress was kind and loving, however with the death of her mistress she was passed on to the niece and with that her ordeals started. Her new mistresss father Dr. James Norcom (as represented by the character name of Dr. Flint in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl) was a terrible man and Jacobs had to constantly deal with his attempts at sexual harassment on her. Finally fearing rape she ran away and had to hide under her grandmothers attic for nearly seven years before managing to escape to New York in 1842. As she lay hidden in the tiny attic space her owner frantically searched for her. In Jacobs own words “before ten o clock every vessel northward bound was thoroughly examined, and the law against harboring fugitives were read to all on board. At night a watch was set over the town....the next day was spent in searching. Before night, the following advertisement was posted at every corner, and in every public place for miles around:- $ 300 Reward! Ran away from the subscriber...all persons are forbidden, under penalty of the law, to harbor or employ said slave...” ( Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, p.148-149). Even after escaping to New York she was hounded by Norcom though he never managed to meet or capture her. Jacobs blames both the slave hunters of the north and south states equally, for the miserable conditions of fugitive slaves. In Jacobs own words “it is the fierce bloodhounds of the south, and the scarcely less cruel human bloodhounds of the north, who enforce the fugitive slave law” (Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, p.68). Once recaptured these fugitive slaves were completely at the mercy of their owners and more often than not, tortured mercilessly to death. The fugitive slave act bought only temporary relief to the already grim situation. This act outraged the northern states and the southern states were outraged at the “obstructions” created by the northerners. Later the Kansas- Nebraska act, the event of the “bleeding Kansas”, the Dred Scott decision and the Lincoln-Douglas debate all together led to the final collapse in the unity of the Union and south finally declared to opt for secession from north which resulted in the civil war of 1861. The fugitive slave act which cared less for the conditions of the slaves and the terrible exploitation that went with slavery was in all means a desperate and despicable act to keep both northern and southern states together. It however failed miserably as Lincoln pointed out that the Union could not be "permanently half slave and half free,” (cited in Roark, “The American Promise”, chap. 14). This harsh law failed to serve its purpose completely. What it only did was to create a hype in which many a fugitive slave was brutally tortured and murdered by their former owners. It was as Jacobs rightly framed it “the beginning of a reign of terror to the colored population” (Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, p.286) and an unfortunate and terrible chapter in the history of America. Works cited Davis, R. Slavery in America – Historical Overview (Creating Slavery). California State University Northridge. 9th October 2009. Web. 17th October 2009. http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/hs_es_overview.htm Jacobs, A, H and Mrs.Child (Lydia Maria). Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Boston: Published for the author. 1861. Original from Harvard University. Print. Roark, L, J. The American Promise: A History of the United States. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2008. Web. 17th October 2009. http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/history/cap/con_index.htm?14 Read More