THE CRITICAL DECADE OF THE 1850S- AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

Growing conflict between Southern slaveholding interests and Northern antislavery activists prompted Congress to negotiate the Compromise of 1850. The act satisfied the antislavery factions on some points such as admitting California as a free state and abolishing slave trading in the nation's capital. However, it appeased the proslavery factions by including a new law to protect slaveholders' recovery of escaped slaves.

A

Fugitive Slave Act

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was much stronger than an earlier 1793 fugitive slave law. Armed with a legal affidavit describing the fugitive, a slaveowner or his representative need only convince a federal commissioner that a captive was his property. No court or trial was necessary, and no defense was guaranteed. Particularly infuriating to blacks and other abolitionists was the provision that compelled bystanders to assist in captures or face fines and imprisonment.

Antislavery forces organized vigilance committees to protect fugitive slaves from the increased danger, and many were rescued from slavecatchers. For example, abolitionists spirited William and Ellen Craft out of Boston and sent them to England; a group of blacks burst into a Boston hearing room, freed Shadrach Minkins (known in Boston as Fred Wilkins) and carried him to Canada; a crowd in Syracuse overwhelmed jail guards and freed Jerry McHenry. There were also many unsuccessful rescue attempts, such as the cases of Thomas Sims in 1851 and Anthony Burns in 1854, both of whom were returned to slavery after reaching Boston. Such events generated public sympathy for the antislavery cause. Resistance to the federal law in Boston was so strong that 2000 soldiers were required to escort Anthony Burns to the ship that returned him to Virginia.

B

Dred Scott Case

Black anger and pessimism increased in 1857 when the Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott case. Scott, a slave, had sued for freedom based on his having lived with his master for two years in the free territory of present-day Minnesota. In a major victory for slaveholders, the Court not only refused Scott’s petition for freedom but declared that blacks were not American citizens. Further, it decided that Congress could not bar slavery from the Western territories.

Such developments in the 1850s led blacks to become more militant and fueled renewed interest in emigration among a minority of African Americans. Converts to militant black nationalism included Martin R. Delany who led an exploratory expedition to Africa in 1859.

When white abolitionist John Brown laid plans to ignite and arm slave uprisings, he found many black supporters. Five African Americans were among the 18 men whom Brown led in a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1859. Although the raid failed and Brown was hanged, black community gatherings commemorated John Brown's martyrdom, and many considered Harpers Ferry the first skirmish in a war against slavery.