Document C

“Effects of the Fugitive-Slave-Law” by Theodor Kaufmann and Hoff & Bloede (1850)

Background: In 1850, there was great controversy over the status of slavery in the
territories the US had won in the Mexican-American War and whether California would be
admitted into the Union as a free state. The Compromise of 1850 was a deal between the
North and South to try and solve it. As a part of the deal for allowing California to become a
free state, it was agreed to pass a much stronger Fugitive Slave Act than had existed before.
The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act required all escaped slaves living in the North to be returned
to their former masters. It also stated that all citizens and officials of free states in the
North were required by law to cooperate with capturing and returning escaped slaves. This
provoked a large amount of resistance amongst Northerners, who did not want to help
return escaped slaves to their former masters. Northerners resented the slave catchers
who would search for and try to capture escaped slaves in the North. They alleged that the
slave catchers would not distinguish between escaped slaves and freedmen, Blacks who
had been born free. This political cartoon, “Effects of the Fugitive-Slave-Law,” was
published in a New York newspaper in 1850 to protest against the law.
The text on the political cartoon reads:
“Holy Bible: Thou shalt not deliver unto the master his servant which has escaped from his
master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee. Even among you in that place which he shall
choose in one of thy gates where it liketh him best. Thou shalt not oppress him.”

“Declaration of Independence: We hold that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.”

Source: Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3a05114/ (Retrieved

2019)