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

Examines the impact fugitive slaves had on the Fugitive Slave Law and the coming of the American Civil War.

R. J. M. Blackett (Author)

9781108407779, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 January 2018

526 pages, 12 b/w illus. 7 maps
22.7 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm, 0.7 kg

'… [The] Captive's Quest is well worth our attention, bringing to light an enduring legacy of lawful racial exclusion and persecution and those who would flee and fight in resistance.' Kathryn Benjamin Golden, The Journal of African American History

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.

Part I. The Slave Power Asserts Its Rights: 1. The fugitive slave law
2. The law does its work
3. Compromise and colonize
Part II. Freedom's Fires Burn: 4. Missouri and Illinois
5. Western Kentucky and Indiana
6. Eastern Kentucky and Ohio
7. Southeast Pennsylvania
8. Eastern shore of Maryland and Philadelphia
9. New York
10. Massachusetts
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]