§ 77. Character of the personal liberty laws. § 78. Acts passed before the Prigg decision (1793-1842). § 79. Acts passed between the Prigg decision and the second Fugitive Slave Law (1842-1850). § 80. Acts occasioned by the law of 1850 (1850-1860). § 81. Massachusetts acts. § 82. Review of the acts by States. § 83. Effect of the personal liberty laws. =§ 77. Character of the personal liberty laws.=--The personal liberty laws were statutes passed in the Northern States whose object was to defeat in some measure the national Fugitive Slave Law. Often their ostensible purpose was to protect the free negroes from kidnappers, and to this end they secured for the alleged fugitive the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, and the trial by jury. Sometimes, however, they frankly avowed their aim as a deliberate attempt to interfere with the execution of the United States statutes. In the following examination of these laws, they will be considered first chronologically, and afterward more minutely according to their subject matter. In previous chapters we have noticed many instances wherein fugitives have been befriended by individuals, or by organizations like the Antislavery Societies or the Underground Railroad. But the action of the State governments in the personal liberty bills, from the time the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 began to be executed to the outbreak of the Civil War, showed that the dissatisfaction of the North was fundamental, and was not confined merely to the few in the van of the Antislavery movement. [Sidenote: Analysis.] =§ 78. Acts passed before the Prigg decision (1793-1842).=--Although the so-called personal liberty laws were not passed until about 1840, Indiana[256] and Connecticut[257] had before that time provided that on appeal fugitives might have a trial by jury. The Connecticut law, in contrast to the hostile spirit of later legislation, was entitled, "An Act for the fulfilment of the obligation of this State imposed by the Constitution of the United States in regard to persons held to service or labor in one State escaping into another, and to secure the right of trial by jury in the cases herein mentioned." Notwithstanding this preamble, the law provided for fining State officials who might take part in fugitive slave cases. The first definite personal liberty laws were passed by Vermont[258] and New York,[259] in 1840, and were entitled Acts "to extend the right of trial by jury." They not only insured jury trial, but also provided attorneys to defend fugitives. This was the only law of the kind New York ever passed, and proved of little value, since it soon fell into disuse, and was almost forgotten.