Anti-Abortion Politicians Are Now Taking Inspiration From the Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 mandated the seizure and return of Black people who had been enslaved, or were simply suspected of being enslaved, to their so-called masters, even if those Black people made it to a free state. It denied those Black people the opportunity to have a jury trial, and empowered federal marshals to return enslaved people to the South without due process.
The act was a vile repudiation of the very concept of freedom, but its thrust was nothing new. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was not all that different from the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which itself merely enforced Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution. (Yes, the Constitution, that hastily written, overly celebrated, kinda trash American governing document.) The original version of that document explicitly provided for the capture and return of people who had escaped slavery. Here’s that language, if you’re interested: “No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.” It’s disgusting, isn’t it?
Yes, this country always sanctioned the recapture of enslaved people, but what was new about the monstrous 1850 version was that it punished white people too. Section 7 of the law punished those who “rescue, or attempt to rescue” or “aid, abet, or assist” others trying to rescue enslaved people from bondage. The law called for civil penalties—money—to be paid by the whites who helped escaped slaves. The Confederates literally put the lack of enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act on their list of casus belli for their insurrection against the American government.
The Fugitive Slave Act was repealed in 1864, and the constitutional language mandating slave recapture was excised with the 13th Amendment’s prohibition on slavery. But now, nearly 160 years later, some Republicans seem eager to bring back these kinds of laws. This time, their goal is not the recapture of enslaved people but the recapture of women.
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/abortion-missouri/
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