Fugitive Slaves (1619-1865)McDougall, Marion Gleason
History
Fugitive Slaves (1619-1865)
McDougall, Marion Gleason
Fugitive slaves -- United States; Slavery -- Law and legislation -- United States
Canada even in these early times seems also to have been a haven for
fugitives. In 1705 New York passed an act, which was renewed in 1715, to
prevent slaves running away from frontier towns like Albany to Canada,
because it was of great importance, they said, in time of war, "that no
Intelligence be carried from the said city and county to the French in
Canada."[31]
During all this time the Southern colonies, especially the Carolinas and
Georgia, were also making many complaints in regard to the difficulty
they had in recovering the fugitives, both Indian and negro, who were
escaping in large numbers into Florida. There, among the Creek Indians
and the Spanish at St. Augustine, they easily found refuge.[32] This
difficulty was, however, not remedied in colonial times, but continued
long after the formation of the Federal Union, and in fact until the
close of the Seminole war, in 1845.
[Sidenote: Intercolonial Cases.]
=§ 9. Intercolonial cases.=--When, as was often the case, no agreement
upon the return of fugitives had been arranged between the colonies, the
rendition of a slave depended wholly upon the state of feeling existing
between the two peoples, and sometimes became an important question.
Between the New England colonies no cases have been found recorded,
although we infer that there must have been reason for the insertion of
a fugitive slave clause in the Articles of Confederation of 1643.[33]
Of other early cases one of the most interesting is the escape from
Virginia of four Englishmen belonging to the class of bound servants.
They rowed in a small boat up the coast as far as Cape May, where they
landed.[34] They soon found themselves objects of suspicion with the
people, and, as was a common practice, took refuge among the Indians.
About a year afterward their masters tracked them to their place of
refuge, and captured two of them, but the others were again beyond reach.
The Indians, who evidently did not always befriend runaways, had just
sold one of them, William Browne, to a Swede, and Browne, learning of his
former master's appearance, had found opportunity to escape. The fourth
of the fugitives was still among the Mantas, and could not be secured. Of
the two recaptured, one was returned without trouble, but the other,
Turc, who had just entered the service of a certain Pieter Aldrich,
resisted his captors. A struggle took place upon the boat in which they
were carrying him away. After wounding three of his guards, he succeeded
in making his escape, only to be recaptured almost immediately. When
tried for the deed at New Amsterdam, he received a death sentence.[35] In
this case, one of the most complete in detail left to us, may be found,
in the incidents of escape, pursuit, resistance, and final rendition, all
the features of the later fugitive slave cases. It is also an example
wherein the laws of the period, which required the rendition of a bound
white man in the same manner as a negro slave, were strictly carried out:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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