Early fugitive cases:
Respublica v. Richards – Pennsylvania, 1795 (2 Dallas 224); Jack v. Martin – New York 1834-35 (Supreme Court, 12 Wendell 311; affirmed, Court of Errors and Appeals, 14 Wendell 507); State v. Sheriff of Burlington – New Jersey, 1836 (unpublished)
New Jersey’s lag in abolishing slavery: State v. Post – New Jersey, 1845 (20 N.J.Law 368 )
Later fugitive cases:
Kauffman v. Oliver – Pennsylvania, 1849 (10 Pa. 514); Lemmon v. People – New York, 1860 (20 N.Y. 562)
| Print (1843) - "On the side of the oppressors there was power- The officer of justice! arresting a helpless female fugitive in New York" (Print, 1843) - courtesy New York Public Library)
Liberation of Henry "Box" Brown, who literally mailed himself from Virginia to Philadelphia (1850) - Courtesy Wikipedia “What, first transport a man out of [New Jersey] on the charge of his being a slave, and try the truth of the allegation afterwards … transport him in chains to Missouri or Arkansas, with the cold comfort that if a freeman he may there assert and establish his freedom? No, if a person comes into this sate, and here claims the servitude of a human being …, here he must prove his case, and here prove it according to law.” – Chief Justice Joseph Hornblower, in Burlington “Slavery was planted in this State, not by her sons, … but the lords and owners of the country … [W]armed by [the Revolution’s] spirit and influenced by the principles of the declaration of independence, … the legislature abolished slavery in the State; not in every respect and instantaneously, not at once thrusting out the aged and decrepit and the helpless infant … but it was done as most great and good things are done, gradually.” – Justice ___, in Post “[Pennsylvania’s emancipation law was enacted] “in grateful commemoration of the then certain prospect of escaping from the house of bondage and the hand of the oppressor …. Outside the compact [of federal law], we breathe more freely. We feel the genial influence of the common law on this subject [freedom].” – Justice __, in Kauffman “The position that a citizen carries with him, into every State into which he may go, the legal institutions of the one in which he was born, cannot be supported.” – Justice __, in Lemmon |
EMPIRE OF LAWS - The Legal History of the 50 American States > 2. MID-ATLANTIC LEGAL HISTORY > 2.3. The Mid-Atlantic States: The Antebellum Era (1825-1865) > 2.3.1. The Mid-Atlantic States (1825-1865): Law and the Transportation Revolution > 2.3.2. The Mid-Atlantic States (1825-1865): The Cradle of Corporate America > 2.3.3. The Mid-Atlantic States (1825-1865): Jacksonians and Banks >