![\"\"](\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/files\/2010\/06\/HD_BoilingSpringsPA1872z.preview-300x250.jpg\")
<\/a>Boiling Springs<\/a>, Pennsylvania embraced the transportation and protection of fugitive slaves moving northward across the\u00a0Mason-Dixon Line<\/a>. Daniel Kaufman<\/a> (alternately spelled Kauffman),\u00a0born in Cumberland County in 1818, laid out designs for the town and helped make his presence known. His support for the Underground Railroad strengthened in Boiling Springs, as indicated by the\u00a0events of October 24, 1847.<\/p>\nAs shown by evidence<\/a> later presented in court, thirteen slaves belonging to the Oliver family escaped in Maryland, crossed the border into Pennsylvania, and eventually found themselves in Kaufman\u2019s barn in Boiling Springs. Kaufman consented to provide them with shelter and\u00a0food, and within the next day he offered up his wagon to transport the slaves across the Susquehanna River. News of the fugitive slaves spread, and within a few short months the slave owner’s family filed a lawsuit against Kaufman.<\/p>\n The Court of Common Pleas of Cumberland County opened the case Oliver et al. v. Kaufman<\/em> against Kaufman and two other known associates, Stephen Weakley and Philip Breckbill. The defendants argued that the suit could not be tried in state court as the issue pertained to federal law. Nevertheless, the jury delivered a verdict<\/a> in favor of the plaintiff; Kaufman had to pay $2000 in damages. When a panel of judges of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court oversaw the case, their \u201cmajority opinion<\/a>”\u00a0notably argued \u201cthat Congress possesses the exclusive right to legislate on the subject [of fugitive slaves] and that State Legislatures have no right whatever\u201d and could therefore not recover any damages. The Cumberland County Court\u2019s ruling was reversed. The case continued in 1852, this time in a federal court, only to conclude in favor of the plaintiff and with Kaufman liable to approximately $4000 in damages and fines.<\/p>\n Kaufman\u2019s case occurred during a period of heavy debate in Pennsylvania regarding state sovereignty and the adherence to federal mandates including the Fugitive Slave Laws<\/a> of 1793 and 1850. Prior to the case seen in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania judges gave credence to the state\u2019s \u201ccommon law\u201d and \u201cclear right to declare that a slave brought within her territory becomes ipso facto<\/em> a freeman,\u201d as quoted<\/a> by a law journal in Paul Finkleman\u2019s An Imperfect Union: Slavery, Federalism, and Comity<\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/strong> traced the evolution<\/a> of state sovereignty in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n For a more detailed summary of the cases, the House Divided record<\/a> of the case provides access to several primary documents, including newspaper articles<\/a> and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court\u2019s decision<\/a> to reverse the ruling of the case. Finkleman\u2019s book puts Kaufman\u2019s trial into context, but his summary of the case will help those even vaguely familiar with its nuances. LexisNexis, though requiring a subscription, grants access not only to the court documents, but to modern scholarship on the case\u2019s wider importance in the debate on Federalism and state\u2019s rights. In Robert Kaczorowski\u2019s article \u201cFederalism in the\u00a021ST\u00a0Century<\/a>,\u201d the Fugitive Slave Laws emerge as the focal point for a much wider debate on the intent of the Founding Fathers with regard to state rights and federal mandates.<\/p>\n A historical marker is located at Front & 3rd Streets in Boiling Springs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania embraced the transportation and protection of fugitive slaves moving northward across the\u00a0Mason-Dixon Line. Daniel Kaufman (alternately spelled Kauffman),\u00a0born in Cumberland County in 1818, laid out designs for the town and helped make his presence known. His support for the Underground Railroad strengthened in Boiling Springs, as indicated by the\u00a0events of October 24, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[3992],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antebellum-1840-1861","tag-boiling-springs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}