Massachusetts |
Connecticut |
Rhode Island |
New Hampshire |
Maine |
Vermont |
1836: Supreme court holds that all slaves entering state become free 1837 1843: State officials prohibited from helping recapture fugitive slaves 1855 1858 1859 |
1836: Supreme court, following Massachusetts, holds that all slaves entering state become free 1838 1844 1848 1854 |
1848 1854 |
1846: State officials prohibited from helping recapture fugitive slaves 1857-58: Legislature: all slaves state become free upon entering state |
1838: State officials prohibited from helping recapture fugitive slaves 1857-58: Legislature: all slaves become free upon entering state |
1843: State officials prohibited from helping recapture fugitive slaves 1850 1854 1858: Legislature: all slaves become free upon entering state |
Transit Cases and Personal Liberty Laws Commonwealth v. Aves – Massachusetts, 1836 (18 Pick. 193); Jackson v. Bulloch – Connecticut, 1837 (12 Conn. 38); In re Sims – Massachusetts, 1851 (61 Mass. 285); Opinion of the Justices – Maine, 1861 (46 Me. 567)
Fanueil Hall, Boston, site of many antislavery rallies and speeches (1851) - courtesy Wikimedia Commons |
Poster for antislavery rally, Boston (1852) - courtesy Boston Public Library “[Slavery], being contrary to natural right, and effected by local law, is dependent upon such local law for its existence and efficacy, and being contrary to the fundamental laws of this State, such general right of property cannot be exercised or recognized here. … [S]uch an application of the law would be wholly repugnant to our laws.” - Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, in Aves
“[A]re we prepared to hold, that the moment a slave touches our soil, he becomes free? And to say, that the air of Connecticut is too pure for a slave to breathe? Why, we know, there has not been a moment for more than a century, in which such language could be held, without conveying a bitter sarcasm, both upon our laws and our practice. … [I]t can be of no avail to attempt to make ourselves purer in this matter than we really are; or to reprobate in others a practice, the blood of which is yet to be found on our own skirts.” – Justice __ Bissell (dissenting), in Jackson “[Acquiescing to federal fugitive slave laws] is absolutely necessary to the peace, union and harmonious action of the state and general govts. The preservation of both, with their full and entire powers, each in its proper sphere, was regarded by the framers of the const, and has ever since been regarded, as essential to the peace, order and prosperity of all the United States.” – Chief Justice Shaw, in Sims |