The Fugitive Slave Law | Becoming Frederick Douglass | PBS

00:03:28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW3TkkRv8nI

Summary

TLDRThe video outlines the escalating tensions surrounding the issue of fugitive slaves from the ratification of the Constitution to the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This act mandated the return of escaped slaves from free states to their owners, significantly endangering the freedom of African Americans in the North. It also imposed harsh penalties on anyone aiding escaped slaves. Frederick Douglass's radical response included advocating for violence against slave catchers, emphasizing the deep-rooted nature of slavery in American society and predicting that such conflicts would ultimately lead to war.

Takeaways

  • 📜 The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 intensified conflicts over slavery.
  • ⚖️ It required federal enforcement to return escaped slaves.
  • 🚨 Free African Americans faced increased threats to their freedom.
  • 💰 Wealthy slaveholders lobbied for the act's enforcement.
  • 👮‍♂️ Assisting escaped slaves led to criminal consequences.
  • ✊ Douglass argued for the right to resist slave catchers violently.
  • 🔫 He believed violence was justified against those capturing slaves.
  • ⚔️ The act foreshadowed the impending Civil War.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:03:28

    Between 1789 and 1850, tensions rose over the return of escaped slaves, particularly affecting African Americans in the North. Southern states demanded the right to reclaim fugitives, threatening the freedom of many. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was a desperate measure by slaveholders to maintain slavery, establishing federal enforcement to return escaped slaves from Northern states. Wealthy slaveholders lobbied Congress for this act, which imposed penalties on anyone aiding escapees. The law created a climate of fear, even among free African Americans. Frederick Douglass argued for the right to use violence against slave catchers, advocating that it was justifiable to resist those who trafficked in human beings. Douglass foresaw that the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act would lead to war, recognizing the deep commitment of many to the institution of slavery.

Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • What was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850?

    It was a law that required the federal government to assist in the capture and return of escaped slaves to their owners, even in free states.

  • How did the Fugitive Slave Act affect free African Americans?

    It put their freedom at greater risk, as they could be captured and returned to slavery.

  • What was Frederick Douglass's stance on the Fugitive Slave Act?

    He argued that blacks had the right to use violence to resist slave catchers.

  • What were the consequences for those who assisted escaped slaves?

    They faced criminal penalties under the Fugitive Slave Act.

  • What did Douglass mean by making the Fugitive Slave Act a 'dead letter'?

    He suggested that the best way to nullify the law was through violent resistance against slave catchers.

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  • 00:00:00
    - [Speaker] Between the ratification of the Constitution
  • 00:00:03
    in 1789 and 1850 there's increasing conflict
  • 00:00:08
    over the rendition of fugitives from slavery.
  • 00:00:12
    I mean, so the southernmost states, so North Carolina,
  • 00:00:15
    South Carolina, Georgia, make a demand which is
  • 00:00:18
    that they will be able to claim anybody who escapes
  • 00:00:24
    from slavery in the slave states to the free states.
  • 00:00:27
    And this immediately puts the freedom
  • 00:00:31
    of every single African American
  • 00:00:34
    in the North at a much greater level of threat.
  • 00:00:44
    - [Gloria] The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
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    was the last ditch effort of those slave holders
  • 00:00:50
    who wanted to hold on to the bondage and greed of slavery.
  • 00:00:58
    - [Amy] The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act created
  • 00:01:02
    enforcement mechanisms that forced and required
  • 00:01:07
    the federal government to get in the business
  • 00:01:09
    of sending back to slavery those who ran away.
  • 00:01:14
    Now the federal government was going to
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    go after those who had fled to Northern states.
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    This hadn't happened before.
  • 00:01:23
    - [Gloria] What we saw were these slaveholders
  • 00:01:25
    who were very politically connected and very wealthy
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    and they lobbied the Congress to have a Fugitive Slave Act
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    that not only meant that their escaped property
  • 00:01:36
    would be brought back but anyone, black or white,
  • 00:01:40
    involved in assisting that person to escape slavery
  • 00:01:44
    would also have criminal consequences.
  • 00:01:49
    - [Narrator] Hardships imposed by this atrocious
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    and shameless law were cruel and shocking.
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    Although I was now myself free,
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    I was not without apprehension,
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    even colored people who had been free
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    all of their lives felt themselves
  • 00:02:05
    very insecure in their freedom.
  • 00:02:08
    - [Robert] Douglass argued in 1850 in the wake
  • 00:02:11
    of the Fugitive Slave Law being passed
  • 00:02:14
    that blacks had the right to use violence
  • 00:02:16
    to resist fugitive slave catchers.
  • 00:02:19
    - [Narrator] It can never be wrong
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    for the imbrued and whip scarred slaves
  • 00:02:23
    or their friends to hunt, arrest, and even strike down
  • 00:02:28
    the traffickers in human flesh.
  • 00:02:32
    - [Speaker 2] That was a radical position using violence
  • 00:02:35
    as a way to challenge slave catchers.
  • 00:02:37
    And he says that the best way to make
  • 00:02:39
    the Fugitive Slave Act a dead letter
  • 00:02:41
    is to make two or three dead kidnappers.
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    And he says that this is a thing that's justifiable.
  • 00:02:48
    - [Gloria] After the Fugitive Slave Act,
  • 00:02:50
    Frederick Douglass knew that it would come to war.
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    He realized just how deeply entrenched as southerners
  • 00:02:57
    and many others were in this institution of bondage,
  • 00:03:02
    they were not going to willingly give up slavery.
  • 00:03:07
    (outro music)
Tags
  • Fugitive Slave Act
  • slavery
  • Frederick Douglass
  • African Americans
  • violence
  • Northern states
  • Southern states
  • law
  • abolition
  • conflict