[compiled by] Billy G. Smith and Richard Wojtowicz.
ISBN
0812281454
Place of Publication
Philadelphia
Publisher
University of Pennsylvania Press,
Date of Publication
1989.
Physical Description
222 p. : ill., facsims., map ; 23 cm.
Notes
Includes indexes.
Bibliography: p. [173]-178.
Summary
Reprints ads for runaway slaves in Pennsylvania. Includes a glossary, a name index that permits runaways and owners to be traced over time, a subject index that identifies specific characteristics of escapees, and a final index that notes the names of fugitives and owners who appeared in all the Gazette ads between 1728 and 1790. [from amazon.com]
Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-196) and index.
Contents
A short history of fugitives in America and an African named James Somerset -- The original meaning of the fugitive slave clause -- The Fugitive Slave Act, kidnapping, and the powers of dual sovereigns -- The rights of slaveholders and those of free Blacks in Pennsylvania's Personal Liberty Law of 1826 -- Black sailors, kidnapped freemen, and a crisis in northern fugitive slave jurisprudence -- Arresting Margaret -- Arresting Edward Prigg -- Before the court -- Deciding Prigg -- After the court.
Summary
Margaret Morgan was born in freedom's shadow. Her parents were slaves of John Ashmore, a prosperous Maryland mill owner who freed many of his slaves in the last years of his life. Ashmore never laid claim to Margaret, who eventually married a free black man and moved to Pennsylvania. Then, John Ashmore's widow sent Edward Prigg to Pennsylvania to claim Margaret as a runaway. Prigg seized Margaret and her children, one of them born in Pennsylvania and forcibly removed them to Maryland in violation of Pennsylvania law. In the ensuing uproar, Prigg was indicted for kidnapping under Pennsylvania's personal liberty law. Maryland, however, blocked his extradition, setting the stage for a remarkable Supreme Court case in 1842.
