Mary Ann Shadd Cary has had enough of this nonsense
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was a bunch of bullshit. You know who else thought that? Mary Ann Shadd Cary.
Shadd Cary (1823-1893) grew up in Delaware, but when the state made it illegal to educate Black children, her family moved to Pennsylvania. Where the Quakers were! When the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, she and her brother moved to Canada. Where she ran an anti-slavery newspaper and became the first woman newspaper editor in North America. Bam!
Ok so why was the Fugitive Slave Act terrible and why did she and her Underground Railroad-helping family move to Canada when it was enacted. Great question. My life is dedicated to nothing if not to putting the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in context and also telling everyone Grover Cleveland was a massive skeezebag. But anyway:
The main story is that everyone had been in each other’s faces since the country was officially founded about what to do regarding enslaving another person. Some people were pro and some were against. You know that part though. The reason the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was RIDICULOUSLY BAD in the face of an already RIDICULOUSLY BAD situation was: “It required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate.”
So before, if an enslaved person escaped from this other person holding them against their will, they could go to a free state and be relatively safe there. With this new law, the state HAD to send that enslaved person back where they came from. The fine was $1,000 if an official refused (about $30,000 today), and if you helped anyone trying to escape by giving them food or shelter, you could be imprisoned for 6 months AND pay the $1,000 fine. Right. It was horrible. Everyone freaked out.
All an “owner” needed to do was supply an affidavit to a federal marshal. There was no trial. The person who was being grabbed had no place to speak up for themselves, which meant people who had never been enslaved were also being kidnapped and forced into slavery. IT WAS THE WORST LAW. And in the midst of it, Mary Ann Shadd Cary got her and her brother to safety in Canada, published her awesome newspaper, encouraged other Black Americans to move to Canada, and in 1860, she moved BACK to the US, where she recruited Black soldiers into the Union Army for Indiana! And then went to Howard University School of Law! And became a lawyer! In 1883 when she was SIXTY.
Basically Mary Ann Shadd Cary was awesome and made things happen for herself and others during an intensely frightening time in the United States and then she went on to do even more awesome things. Excelsior!