Fugitive Slaves (1619-1865)

PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION OF WOMEN Fay House Monographs No. 3
PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Ph.D. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY BOSTON, U.S.A. PUBLISHED BY GINN & COMPANY 1891 Copyright, 1891, By the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women. University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.
Every careful student of history is aware that it is no longer possible to write the general history of any important country from the original sources; on any period, the materials which accumulate in a year are more than can be assimilated by one mind in three years. The general historian must use the results of others' work. It is therefore essential that the great phases of political and constitutional development be treated in monographs, each devoted to a single, limited subject and each prepared on a careful and scientific method.
This first number of the historical series of the Fay House Monographs aims to discuss the single topic of Fugitive Slaves. Mrs. McDougall has drawn together and compared many cases found in obscure sources, and has perhaps been able to correct some commonly received impressions on this neglected subject.
Even in its limited range this does not pretend to be a complete work in the sense that all the available cases are discussed or recorded. The effort has been made to use the cases as illustrations of principles, and to add such bibliography as may direct the reader to further details. The appendix of laws is as full as it was possible to make it from the collections in the Boston Public and Massachusetts State Libraries. If the monograph prove useful to the student of American history, it will meet the expectations of author and editor.
ALBERT BUSHNELL HART.
Cambridge, April 2, 1891.
The following monograph was written while the author was a student in the Harvard Annex as a study in the Seminary course given by Professor Albert Bushnell Hart. The work has continued during parts of the four years since 1887. The effort has been to trace in some measure the development of public sentiment upon the subject, to prepare an outline of Colonial legislation and of the work of Congress during the entire period, and to give accounts of typical cases illustrative of conditions and opinions. Only a few of the more important cases are described minutely, but a critical list of the authorities may be found in the bibliographical appendix.