Early Republic, 1780–1849 '' (1839) depicting the kidnapping of Peter John Lee, a
free Black resident of
Westchester County, New York, in 1837 The prevalence of kidnapping was noted by Congress as early as 1799.
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania had enacted personal liberty laws which predated the Fugitive Slave Clause. The Massachusetts law included enslaved and
free people of color under the state's general
habeas corpus protections. In Pennsylvania, where enslavers used various means to circumvent the 1780 gradual abolition law, the 1788 act was designed specifically to prevent kidnappings of free Black residents. The act prohibited the removal of Black residents from the state without their consent and set the penalty for kidnapping at six months
hard labor and a £100 fine. While the act made no distinction between free and enslaved residents, a 1795 ruling by the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania found that the law did not prevent the removal of freedom seekers under the Fugitive Slave Act. Article 6 of the
Northwest Ordinance, which outlawed slavery in the
Northwest Territory except as a
punishment for crime, made the region a haven for freedom seekers and free Black settlers. In 1810, the legislature of the
Indiana Territory required enslavers to prove the identity of defendants before removing them from the territory; non-compliance with the law was punishable with a $1,000 fine. Following statehood, the first elected
governor of Indiana Jonathan Jennings called for legislation to strengthen anti-kidnapping protections in his first annual message to the
Indiana General Assembly. The 1816
Act to Prevent Manstealing mandated
jury trials in cases arising under the Fugitive Slave Clause; enslavers were required to obtain an
arrest warrant, and a
sheriff or
constable, not the enslaver or their agent, would make the arrest. Efforts to pass a federal personal liberty law or modify the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act were defeated by
proslavery lawmakers during the 1810s. Following the
Missouri Crisis, states in the
Northeastern United States passed new legislation to protect their free Black populations from kidnappers. Pennsylvania's 1826 statute became a model for much of the subsequent legislation. The act provided that the testimony of enslavers or other interested parties could not be used as evidence in
preliminary hearings and required the plaintiff to pay
court costs, in addition to mandating arrest warrants and jury trials in cases involving freedom seekers.
New York and
Vermont required that defendants in fugitive slave cases be assigned
public defenders. Pennsylvania's law was challenged in 1842, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Edward Prigg for the kidnapping of
Margaret Morgan and her children. Ruling for the majority, Justice
Joseph Story found that enslavers had an absolute right to recapture freedom seekers anywhere in the
United States. States had no authority to interfere with enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Clause, but could refuse to assist enforcement efforts. Free states responded to the ruling in
Prigg v. United States by specifically prohibiting local officials from cooperating with enslavers. In Pennsylvania,
Connecticut,
Rhode Island, Massachusetts,
Vermont, and
New Hampshire, judges were forbidden from enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act, and enslavers were denied the use of public jails to imprison freedom seekers. In these states, "the Fugitive Slave Act became a dead letter," prompting outraged enslavers to demand more vigorous federal enforcement.
Antebellum, 1850–60 (right) attempted to
kill her children and herself to prevent their rendition under the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in a case that inspired
Ohio's personal liberty law. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, adopted as part of the
Compromise of 1850, significantly expanded federal efforts to enforce the Fugitive Slave Clause. The act created a new class of U.S. commissioners to hear claims arising under the law; commissioners were paid $5 for every defendant freed and $10 for every person condemned to slavery, creating a financial incentive to find in favor of the enslaver. Congress empowered
U.S. marshals to conscript citizens to assist in the execution of the law and made harboring or obstructing the capture of a freedom seeker punishable with up to six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. The act did not include a
statute of limitations, allowing longtime residents and individuals born in the free states to be charged and enslaved under the law. The act drew outraged responses from abolitionists, who called for overwhelming resistance to render the law unenforceable.
Frederick Douglass reflected the spirit of
militant resistance when he told a crowd in
Pittsburgh that "the only way to make the Fugitive Slave Law a dead letter is to make half a dozen or more dead kidnappers." The 1854 kidnapping of
Anthony Burns and the 1856 attempted
suicide and kidnapping of
Margaret Garner precipitated a wave of new personal liberty laws across New England and the Upper Midwest. Between 1855 and 1857, Rhode Island, Massachusetts,
Michigan, and
Ohio passed legislation prohibiting the imprisonment of freedom seekers in county jails. These statutes significantly impeded enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, as the widespread threat of
rioting made private property holders unwilling to allow their buildings to be used to imprison freedom seekers. Connecticut in 1850, followed by Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio,
Wisconsin, and Vermont, imposed penalties for kidnapping free people of color ranging from fines of $1,000 to $5,000 and one to five years' imprisonment; the Ohio law made kidnapping punishable with up to eight years' hard labor. Vermont, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Wisconsin extended the writ of habeas corpus and trial by jury to Fugitive Slave Act defendants. In these states, and in
Maine, the defendant's court costs were to be paid by the state. By empowering
circuit court judges to interfere directly in the rendition of freedom seekers, these acts went beyond earlier statutes in explicitly seeking to obstruct enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Clause. New York,
New Jersey,
Indiana,
Illinois, and
Minnesota enacted no new personal liberty laws during the 1850s. Ohio's personal liberty law was repealed in 1858 after less than a year in operation, while the Pennsylvania law prohibiting the use of public jails to imprison freedom seekers was repealed in 1852. Stanley W. Campbell argues that relatively weaker resistance, combined with proximity to the slave states, allowed effective enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act in the Lower North. ==Theory==