The Film: Interview Transcripts: John Burt

John Burt, Esq., Pittsburgh historian on
the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
This is a dramatic turning.  The Constitution, itself, provides for the return of fugitive slaves, and there is an early Fugitive Slave Law passed by Congress under President Washington in 1793. But by 1850, the South is dissatisfied because it feels like it’s not working.  The South is losing its property. And Clay, as a result of part of this compromise, presents this vastly strengthened Fugitive Slave Law.  It is so strong that what it does is tinker with traditional Democratic legal principles.  It takes away the right of jury trial in all cases of persons accused of being fugitive slaves, and it takes away the historic protection of the Writ of Habeas Corpus.  As a result, all that it takes to send a black person, even someone who was free born in the North, it takes only an accusation by a white man to say that person was a slave and has escaped.  No trial.  No evidence. 

As a result, many northerners who previously were kind of indifferent to the slavery question begin to pause and say, wait a minute, if it can happen to fugitive slaves, what about Jews, Catholics, immigrants?  Aren’t there other implications here?  Aren’t there other problems?  So, instead of reducing the crisis, it accelerates the crisis, and the other unintended consequence is that among black people, well, you find among some people an inclination to move on.  There is an increase in activity of people who are leaving for Canada. 

Among those who stay, there is an increased commitment to resistance, even if that means by force.  After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, there is a large public meeting here in Pittsburgh.  Martin Delaney stands on the speaker’s platform at that meeting and says very clearly, “I will shoot the first slave catcher who tries to come across my threshold.”  And Delaney’s statement is indicative of the increased level of resistance of many black people in the North.

Under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, anyone, black or white, who is caught aiding and abetting a fugitive slave, faces the possibility of going to prison, and a fine which could cost them hundreds or perhaps even thousands of dollars.  There are no cases here, but there are some cases in other states where people actually go to jail, some for years, for their assistance to fugitive slaves.  In Western Pennsylvania, and this is true in other places in the North, this simply increased passive resistance to the law.  You get more and more local police officers who are inclined to turn a blind eye.  It’s part of this increased resentment in the North, which is going to percolate all through the 1850s and become part of the crisis which erupts with the gunfire in April of 1861. 

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