Fugitive Slaves (1619-1865)

by Marion Gleason McDougall

Treaties and First Act.

1. Fugitive clause in treaty with the Delawares.

1778, Aug. 7. Art. IV. "And it is further agreed between the parties aforesaid, that neither shall entertain or give countenance to the enemies of the other, or protect in their respective States, criminal fugitives, servants, or slaves, but the same to apprehend, and secure and deliver to the State or States to which such enemies, criminals, servants, or slaves respectively belong."—Statutes at Large, VII. 14.

2. Fugitive clause in the treaty of peace. [§§ [13,] [22.]]

1782-83. 1782, Nov. 13. Provisional articles. 1783, Sept. 3. Definitive treaty. "His Britannic Majesty shall, with all convenient speed, and without causing any destruction, or carrying away any negroes or other property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his armies, garrisons, and fleets from the said United States."—Treaties and Conventions, ed. of 1889, pp. 372, 378.

3. Fugitive clauses in Indian treaties. [§ [13.]]

1784-86. 1784, Oct. 22. Treaty with the Six Nations, Art. I.

1785, Jan. 21. Treaty with the Wyandots, etc. Art. I. "All the prisoners white and black" taken by the Indians "shall be delivered up" or "restored."—Statutes at Large, VII. 15, 16.

4. Fugitive clause in King's ordinance. [§ [14.]]

1785, April 6. Report of the Committee on Government of the Western Territory. "Provided that always, upon the escape of any person into any of the States described in the resolve of Congress of the twenty-third day of April, 1784, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the thirteen original States, such fugitive might be lawfully reclaimed and carried back to the person claiming his labor or service, this resolve notwithstanding."—Papers of Old Congress, XXI. 331, cited in Bancroft, History of the United States (last Revision), VI. 133.

5. Fugitive clauses in Indian treaties. [§ [13.]]

1785, Nov. 28. Treaty with the Cherokees, Art. I.

1786, Jan. 3. Treaty with the Choctaws, Art. I.

1786, Jan. 10. Treaty with the Chickasaws, Art. I.

Identical clauses. The Indians "to restore all the Negroes and all other property taken during the late war."

1786, June 31. Treaty with the Shawanees. Art. I. "All prisoners white and black taken in the late war from among the citizens of the United States by the Shawanee nation shall be restored."—Statutes at Large, VII. 18, 21, 25, 26.

6. Fugitive clause in Northwest Ordinance of 1787. [§ [14]]

1787, July 13. Art. VI. "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided, always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service aforesaid." Read first time, July 11, 1787. Passed July 13, 1787.—0 Journals of Congress, XII. 84, 92.

7. Fugitive clause in the Constitution. [§ [15.]]

1787, Sept. 13. Art. IV. § 2. "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."—Revised Statutes of the United States, I. 18.

8. Clauses for returning fugitives in Indian treaties.

1789, Jan. 7. Treaty with the Wiandots, etc. Art. I. "The said nations agree to deliver up all the prisoners now in their hands (by what means soever they may have come into their possession)."—Statutes at Large, VII. 28.

1790-91. 1790, Apr. 7. Treaty with the Creeks. Art. III. "The Creek Nation shall deliver ... all citizens of the United States, white inhabitants or negroes, who are now prisoners in any part of the said nation. And if any such prisoners or negroes should not be delivered on or before the first day of June next ensuing, the governor of Georgia may empower three persons to repair to the said nation, in order to claim and receive such prisoners and negroes."—Statutes at Large, VII. 35.

1791, July 2. Treaty with the Cherokees. Art. III. All prisoners to be yielded up on both sides.—Statutes at Large, VII. 36.

9. First Fugitive Slave Act.

1793, Feb. 12. An Act respecting fugitives from justice and persons escaping from the service of their masters.

"Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever the executive authority of any state in the Union, or of either of the territories northwest or south of the river Ohio, shall demand any person as a fugitive from justice, of the executive authority of any such state or territory to which such person shall have fled, and shall moreover produce the copy of an indictment found, or an affidavit made before a magistrate of any state or territory as aforesaid, charging the person so demanded, with having committed treason, felony or other crime, certified as authentic by the governor or chief magistrate of the state or territory from whence the person so charged fled, it shall be the duty of the executive authority of the state or territory to which such person shall have fled, to cause him or her to be arrested and secured, and notice of the arrest to be given to the executive authority making such demand, or to the agent of such authority appointed to receive the fugitive, and to cause the fugitive to be delivered to such agent when he shall appear: But if no such agent shall appear within six months from the time of the arrest, the prisoner may be discharged. And all costs or expenses incurred in the apprehending, securing, and transmitting such fugitive to the state or territory making such demand, shall be paid by such state or territory.

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That any agent, appointed as aforesaid, who shall receive the fugitive into his custody, shall be empowered to transport him or her to the state or territory from which he or she shall have fled. And if any person or persons shall by force set at liberty, or rescue the fugitive from such agent while transporting, as aforesaid, the person or persons so offending shall, on conviction, be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, and be imprisoned not exceeding one year.

"Sec. 3. And be it also enacted, That when a person held to labour in any of the United States, or in either of the territories on the northwest or south of the river Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into any other of the said states or territory, the person to whom such labour or service may be due, his agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize or arrest such fugitive from labour, and to take him or her before any judge of the circuit or district courts of the United States, residing or being within the state, or before any magistrate of a county, city or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made, and upon proof to the satisfaction of such judge or magistrate, either by oral testimony or affidavit taken before and certified by a magistrate of any such state or territory, that the person so seized or arrested, doth, under the laws of the state or territory from which he or she fled, owe service or labour to the person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such judge or magistrate to give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant for removing the said fugitive from labour, to the state or territory from which he or she fled.

"Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent or attorney, in so seizing or arresting such fugitive from labour, or shall rescue such fugitive from such claimant, his agent or attorney when so arrested pursuant to the authority herein given or declared; or shall harbor or conceal such person after notice that he or she was a fugitive from labour, as aforesaid, shall, for either of the said offences, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars. Which penalty may be recovered by and for the benefit of such claimant, by action of debt, in any court proper to try the same; saving moreover to the person claiming such labour or service, his right of action for or on account of the said injuries or either of them."—0 Statutes at Large, I. 302-305.