Fugitive Slave Cases in Cumberland County, PA

This paper was originally presented at the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. The paper, slightly modified for Cumberland County History, is presented here.

With the passing of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1793, and its reinforcement through the Prigg v. Pennsylvania decision and the Compromise of 1850, incidents between southern slave owners and the residents of Pennsylvania became more common in the years before the Civil War. In Cumberland County there were five slave cases which epitomized the conflict and tensions growing between the North and South.

The first known slave incident occurred in 1832, when a slave owner from Maryland claimed a man living in Carlisle was his slave. He went to the Court of Common Pleas at the County Courthouse and was granted ownership of the man. The next incident occurred in June of 1847, when three freedom seekers were traveling via the Underground Railroad to Carlisle. They were captured and held illegally in prison, leading to the McClintock Riot. In 1847, the Daniel Kaufman Trial was held at the courthouse over Kaufman's aiding of freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad. In 1850, the Burns Family Incident is recorded in which a slave owner from Maryland captured the eighteen year old son of his former slave and took him back to Baltimore to be sold into slavery. The slave owner's trial for kidnapping was also held in Cumberland County. Finally in the spring of 1859, a slave catcher kidnapped the Butler family from their home, and once again the trial was held at the Cumberland County Courthouse. These incidents represent the attitudes of society in the 19'" century and show the increasing tensions between the Northern free states and the Southern slave states.

On 12 February 1793, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the Second Congress. This law authorized slave owners to cross state lines and arrest or seize their servants or fugitives and allowed '"any magistrate of a county, city, or town,' to rule on the matter. " However, throughout Pennsylvania this law was not strictly enforced by local officials. Pennsylvania even passed an anti-kidnapping law in 1826 to inhibit the capture of fugitive slaves.  This all changed in 1842, when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Edward Prigg in Prigg v. Pennsylvania. Prigg was convicted of kidnapping a woman and her child and returning them to their Maryland owner. Prigg's lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court, and the Court declared that the Pennsylvania anti-kidnapping law of 1826 was unconstitutional. The Court also upheld the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 and "affirmed that a slaveholder's right to his property overrode any contrary state legislation." However, there was a catch. The Court also said that the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law was a federal responsibility and the states did not have to cooperate. This allowed for a series of personal liberty laws to be passed between 1842 and 1850, which prohibited state authorities and facilities to be used in the recapture of fugitive slaves. It would be these personal liberty laws that would lead to turmoil in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.

The grounds on which the "Old" Courthouse now stands, was also the location of the first Cumberland County Courthouse. On 24 March 1845, that courthouse was destroyed by fire. However, the townspeople of Carlisle rushed into the burning building and saved many of the documents held there. Because of this there is some information about the 1832 case of "Jim" a fugitive slave, which occurred in the original courthouse. In 1832 Thomas Anderson, a slave owner from Fredrick, Maryland, requested that the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas grant him custody of a man named Jim. Anderson claimed that Jim was a fugitive slave, who had run away in 1829. In the document "The Case of the Application of Thomas Anderson for a warrant for the removal of Jim, a Negro to the State of Maryland," Anderson was able to get two neighbors to act as witnesses, John Stevens and Samuel Griffiths. Both men signed a statement identifying Jim as Anderson's slave. On the 31" of October 1832, Associate Judge William Line granted Anderson a certificate, giving him the authority to remove Jim from Carlisle and take him back to Maryland, in accordance with the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law. 

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