TEACHER LESSON PLAN
LESSON 3
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ISSUE
THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
This lesson focuses on the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, which
turned out to be the most troublesome of the laws that made up the Compromise of
1850. Northern abolitionists, including New York Senator William Seward, had
tried to defeat the measure in Congress. They denounced Massachusetts Senator
Daniel Webster for supporting it. It passed with the overwhelming support from
southern Whigs and Democrats. Some proslavery leaders warned that they would
judge the North’s good faith and support for the Compromise by how well they
enforced the Fugitive Slave Act.
In the North, abolitionists resisted the act in every way possible. In October
1850, shortly after the Compromise was approved, Boston abolitionists helped
William and Ellen Craft avoid capture and flee to Canada (Reading #2). The rescue
of Shadrach Minkins in February 1851 was even more widely publicized (Reading
#1). That same year, at Christiana, Pennsylvania, an abolitionist mob killed a slave
owner who came to retrieve a fugitive. Later, a gathering of two thousand people
broke into a courthouse at Syracuse, New York to rescue a runaway named Jerry
McHenry. These rescues were well publicized, especially in the South. However,
they were the exceptions.
More typical was the failed attempt in 1854 to rescue Anthony Burns from a
courthouse in Boston (Reading #3). By then, the agents who came to arrest
runaways knew enough to confront rescuers with overwhelming force. They
enlisted the help of US marshals, who the Fugitive Slave Act made available to them.
In fact, most attempts to recover runaways were successful, according to historian
Stanley W. Campbell (Reading #5).
How successful the Fugitive Slave Act was depends on one’s point of view. If
the purpose of the Compromise of 1850 was to remove the slavery issue from
American politics, the Act largely failed. It only shifted the debate from Congress to
state legislatures, with many northern state lawmakers passing so-called Personal
Liberty Laws (Reading #4). Such resistance was well publicized in the South and
strongly condemned there by state legislatures, public meetings, and newspaper
editors (Reading #4). However, the Act did succeed in capturing and returning
many fugitives to slavery.
The Fugitive Slave Act had ironic consequences. From the abolitionists’
perspective, it turned out to be an unexpected gift. Publicizing the plight of
runaways seized by agents from the South helped them build antislavery sentiment
in the North (Reading #5). Although many slave owners benefitted from the act, it
was widely regarded as a failure in the South (Reading #5). People there heard
mainly about the rescues of runaways, while successful slave recoveries went
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largely unreported. They were newsworthy only to the slave owners directly
involved. Overestimating the number of fugitives allowed to escape, proslavery
leaders in the South misjudged the North’s willingness to enforce the law. The
South’s distrust of northern intentions mounted.
GETTING THE LESSON UNDERWAY
HISTORICAL THINKING
What to Think About:
• Time and Chronology
HISTORICAL INQUIRY
The Big Question
What (Essential) Question to Ask:
• When did it happen and in what sequence?
THE BIG QUESTION
Mention again that the Big Question for this unit is how important was
slavery as a cause of the sectional crisis between that led to the Civil War. What role
did it play in causing or deepening conflict between the two sections?
THE LESSON
In this lesson, they will investigate the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act
and whether or how it contributed to sectional conflict.
GEOGRAPHIC TOOLS
• If necessary, review the map showing slave and free states and territories.
KEY TERMS
Revisit the vocabulary term specific to this lesson.
• Abolitionists
People who opposed slavery on moral grounds and who advocated
the immediate freeing of all people held in slavery.
• Fugitive Slaves
Slaves who had escaped from their owners and fled to the North.
UNIT TIMELINE
Touch base again with the unit timeline. This topic appears not as a single
event on that line, but as a four-year period (1851-1855) during which enforcement
issues were in the news and opinions about the act were taking shape.
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FREEING SHADRCH MINKINS
ACTIVITY #1
HISTORICAL THINKING
What to Think About
• Change and Continuity
• Time and Chronology
HISTORICAL INQUIRY
Activate Prior Learning
What Essential Questions to Ask
• When did the rescue take place?
• Hand out and introduce Reading #1.
• Make sure students understand that this reading is a secondary account that
describes the Shadrach Minkins’ rescue and not a document from that time.
• After students have read the account, conduct a discussion about the following:
• Find out what students have heard or read about the Underground
Railroad.
• Touch base with what they learned in Lesson #1 about abolitionists and
how abolitionists and slave rescues are related.
• How abolitionists regarded the Fugitive Slave Act (Lesson #2)
• How the South would likely react to episodes such as Shadrach Minkins’
rescue.
[FYI: Black as well as white abolitionists played a major role in fugitive slave rescue
attempts. While notable white lawyers such as Richard Henry Dana, Jr. volunteered
their services as defense counsel for Shadrach Minkins, he was freed and helped to
escape to Canada by black abolitionists.]
FUGITIVE SLAVES
ACTIVITY #2
HISTORICAL THINKING
What to Think About
• Evidence
HISTORICAL INQUIRY
Build Background
Knowledge
What (Essential) Questions to Ask
• What information about it is most relevant?
• Hand out Reading #2, Fugitive Slaves, as background reading for this
lesson. It is focused on fugitive slaves, how they escaped, and how the Fugitive
Slave Act affected them. If students need additional background about the
Compromise of 1850, make an appropriate textbook or other assignment.
• After the students have finished, check for comprehension. Ask students:
• How did slaves escape?
• Why was enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act important to the South?
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A CLOSER LOOK AT
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW
ACTIVITY #3
HISTORICAL THINKING
What to Think About
• Evidence
HISTORICAL INQUIRY
Collect Evidence
Analyze and Evaluate
What (Essential) Questions to Ask
• What information about it is most relevant?
• Hand out Reading #3. It consists of three parts: a primary source, a secondary
account, and a final primary source. They complement each other.
• Ask students write the following questions in their history notebook, leaving spac
space for a paragraph response after each:
• What did the Fugitive Slave Act required citizens in the North to do?
• How well did it protect the rights of persons accused under the law?
• What incentives did it provide for those who enforced the law?
• Make sure they understand the questions.
• To place the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act into perspective, students need
to understand key provisions of the law.
• The first source focuses on the provisions that antislavery leaders in the
North found most questionable and unfair.
• The second source is a summary of the act’s harsh provisions by historian
David M. Potter. It is a model of one historian’s interpretation of the act.
• The final source is an account of the difficulty Bostonians encountered in
trying to free Anthony Burns.
• Discuss the readings in light of the questions above. Then students respond to the
questions in their notebooks.
PERSONAL LIBERTY LAWS
PRO AND CON
ACTIVITY #4
HISTORICAL THINKING
What to Think About
• Perspective Analysis
• Causation and Agency
HISTORICAL INQUIRY
Analyze Evidence
Make Connections
What (Essential) Questions to Ask
• How did different people view it?
• Who or what made it happen?
• Hand out Reading #4. It consists of two primary sources regarding the
Massachusetts Personal Liberty Law.
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• Briefly describe the purpose of the personal liberty laws that several northern
states passed in response to the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act.
• Ask students to compare the two documents and the different perspectives
they represent.
• Ask them to explain the causal relation between the Fugitive Slave Act,
the Massachusetts law and the New Orleans newspaper’s reaction.
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT:
SUCCESS OR FAILURE?
ACTIVITY #5
HISTORICAL THINKING
What to Think About
• Significance
What (Essential) Questions to Ask
• What impact did it have on people then?
• How is it connected to the present?
• Hand out Reading #5. It consists of two parts: a primary source and a secondary
account by a historian. Both address the question whether the Fugitive Slave Act
was a success or failure.
• After students have read the excerpt from Frederick Douglass’ lecture, check
for comprehension. How does Douglass answer the question posed above?
• Introduce Campbell’s historical account. Make sure students understand his
interpretation of the law’s ironic outcome: that it succeeded in its purpose,
although the South was convinced it had failed.
• Conclude the lesson by discussing the significance of the Fugitive Slave Act and the
way it was enforced.
• What was its significance for people at the time?
• How significant was the act in terms of the Big Question asked in this unit?
How is it related to the sectional conflict over slavery that led to the Civil
War?
• Finally, what significance does it have for our own times? Are moral issues
good candidates for political compromise? What current issues tend to
resist compromise?
• What can we learn from the conflict over the Fugitive Slave Act?
• Assign the task called for in the introduction. Students should write a paragraph
or two reflection in their History Notebook about the significance of the Fugitive
Slave Act.