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Digital Bookshelf: Digital Texts: Fugitive Cases


Anonymous.  The state of Ohio vs. Forbes and Armitage, arrested upon the requisition of the government of Ohio, on charge of kidnapping Jerry Phinney, and tried before the Franklin Circuit Court of Kentucky, April 10, 1846.  [n.p., 1846]

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Source Type: Fugitive Case


Anonymous.  Trial of Henry W. Allen, U.S. deputy marshall, for kidnapping, with arguments of counsel & charge of Justice Marvin, on the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law, in the Supreme Court of New York.  Syracuse, Daily Journal office, 1852.

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Source Type: Fugitive Case


Anonymous.  Boston slave riot, and trial of Anthony Burns : containing the report of the Faneuil Hall meeting, the murder of Batchelder, Theodore Parker's lesson for the day, speeches of counsel on both sides, corrected by themselves, verbatim report of Judge Loring's decision, and, a detailed account of the embarkation.  Boston: Fetridge and Company, 1854.

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Source Type: Fugitive Case

Editor's Rating:  Essential

The forced rendition of fugitive slave Anthony Burns from Boston, Massachusetts to Norfolk, Virginia on June 2, 1854 proved to be one of the most searing events of the antebellum fugitive crisis.  Thousands of onlookers jeered and cried as federal troops guarded his return to slavery. The pamphlet focuses on this infamous "embarkation" and also on the unruly mass meeting at Fanueil Hall on May 26, 1854 that followed Burns's arrest and led to violence which resulted in the death of James Batchelder, one of the hired slave patrollers who had tracked the slave to Boston.  The pamphlet was published, however, before Pastor Leonard A. Grimes successfully organized congregants in a black baptist church in Boston to help purchase Burns's freedom for $1,300 on February 22, 1855.


Anonymous.  The trial of Emanuel Myers, of Maryland, for kidnapping certain fugitive slaves, had at Carlisle, Pennsylvania November, 1859.  [Carlisle? 1859]

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Source Type:  Fugitive Case


Anonymous.  In the matter of George Gordon's petition for pardon: John Jolliffe, counsel for petitioner. Cincinnati, OH: Gazette Company Steam Printing House, 1862.

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Source Type: Fugitive Case


Brent, Robert J.  Report of Attorney General Brent, to His Excellency, Gov. Lowe, in relation to the Christiana treason trials, in the Circuit Court of the United States, held at Philadelphia.  Annapolis: T. E. Martin, 1852.

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Source Type:  Fugitive Case


Brown, David W.  Passmore Williamson vs. John K. Kane. : action for false imprisonment, before the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County / argument of Joseph J. Lewis, Esq. of Westchester, on the part of the plaintiff, delivered at Media, December 17th and 18th, 1856 ; phonographically reported by David W. Brown.  Philadelphia: : Merrihew & Thompson, Printers, 1857.

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Source Type: Fugitive Case


Browne, Peter A.  A review of the trial, conviction, and sentence, of George F. Alberti, for kidnapping.  [Philadelphia [?],  1851].

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Source Type: Fugitive Case


Cannon, Arthur.  Case of Passmore Williamson : report of the proceedings on the writ of habeas corpus, issued by the Hon. John K. Kane, judge of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in the case of the United States of America ex rel. John H. Wheeler vs. Passmore Williamson, including the several opinions delivered, and the arguments of counsel / reported by Arthur Cannon.  Philadelphia : Uriah Hunt & Son, 1856.

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Source Type: Fugitive Case

Editor's Rating: Essential

The Passmore Williamson case, involving the imprisonment of a white Vigilance Committee member in Philadelphia in 1855 for assisting in the escape of Jane Johnson and her daughters from Col. John H. Wheeler, a southern slaveholder and US diplomat who was traveling through Philadelphia, proved to be one of the more important episodes of the antebellum fugitive crisis.  The story is also featured prominently in William Still's Underground Railroad (1872).  And the struggles of Jane Johnson and her family provide the major plotline for Lorene Cary's modern novel, The Price of A Child (1995).


Chase, Salmon P. Reclamation of fugitives from service : an argument for the defendant, submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States, at the December term, 1846, in the case of Wharton Jones vs. John VanzandtCincinnati, OH: R.P. Donogh & Co., 1847.

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Source Type:  Fugitive Case


Hensel, William Uhler. The Christiana Riot and the Treason Trials of 1851: An Historical Sketch. Lancaster, PA: The New Era Printing Company, 1911.  Click Here

Source Type:  Fugitive Case


McDougall, Marion Gleason. Fugitive Slaves (1619-1865). Boston: Ginn & Company, 1891.

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Source Type:  Fugitive Case

Editor's Rating:  Essential

Strictly speaking, this compliation by Marion McDougall Gleason is a reference work rather than a primary source.  The book contains a vast inventory of summaries of fugitive cases in American courts from 1619 to 1865.


Member of the Philadelphia Bar.  A history of the trial of Castner Hanway and others, for treason, at Philadelphia in November, 1851. Philadelphia, U. Hunt & sons, 1852.

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Source Type:  Fugitive Case


Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.  Narrative of facts in the case of PassmoreWilliamson. Philadelphia : Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, 1855.

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Source Type:  Fugitive Case


Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.  The Arrest, trial, and release of Daniel Webster, a fugitive slave.  Philadelphia:  Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, 1859.

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Source Type: Fugitive Case


Peters, Richard.  Report of the case of Edward Prigg against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, argued and adjudged in the Supreme Court of the United States, at January term, 1842 : in which it was decided that all the laws of the several states relative to fugitive slaves are unconstitutional and void, and that Congress have the exclusive power of legislation on the subject of fugitive slaves escaping into other states / by Richard Peters, reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.  Philadelphia : Stereotyped by L. Johnson, 1842.

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Source Type: Fugitive Case

Editor's Rating: Essential

The Supreme Court's decision in the Prigg case in 1842 ushered in a new era of tension between northern and southern states over the recapture of fugitive slaves.


Robbins, James J.  Report of the trial of Castner Hanway for treason, in the resistance of the execution of the Fugitive slave law of September 1850. Before Judges Grier and Kane, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. Held at Philadelphia in November and December, 1851. Philadelphia, King & Baird, 1852.

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Source Type:  Fugitive Case

Editor's Rating:  Essential

The Christiana "Riot" of September 11, 1851 and the subsequent treason trial in November-December 1851 was one of the most pivotal episodes in the antebellum fugitive crisis.  A Maryland slave owner named Edward Gorsuch died while unsuccessfully attempting to recapture four of his runaway slaves in southern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The treason charges brought against Castner Hanway and 37 other men, both white and black, who resisted Gorsuch and his party, remains the largest single treason trial in American history.  Hanway was acuitted by the jury after almost immediately after the trial concluded.  Prosecutors then released the other accused figures and southerners raged against northern indifference to the new fugitive slave law.


Seward, William H.  In the Supreme Court of the United States : John Van Zandt, ad sectum Wharton Jones : argument for the defendant.  Albany : Weed and Parsons, 1847.

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Source Type:  Fugitive Case


Shipherd, Jacob R.  History of the Oberlin-Wellington rescue / compiled by Jacob R. Shipherd ; with an introduction by Henry E. Peck and Ralph Plumb.  Boston: J.P. Jewett and Co., 1859.

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Source Type:  Fugitive Case


Stevens, Charles Emery.  Anthony Burns: A History.  Boston, MA: John P. Jewett, 1856.

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Source Type:  Fugitive Case


Stone, James W.  Trial of Thomas Sims, on an issue of personal liberty, on the claim of James Potter, of Georgia, against him, as an alleged fugitive from service : arguments of Robert Rantoul, Jr., and Charles G. Loring, with the decision of George T. Curtis, Boston, April 7-11, 1851 / phonographic report by Dr. James W. Stone.  Boston : Wm. S. Damrell & co., 1851.

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Source Type: Fugitive Case


Webster, Delia A.  Kentucky Jurisprudence : a history of the trial of Miss Delia A. Webster at Lexington, Kentucky, Dec'r 17-21, 1844 before the Hon. Richard Buckner on a charge of aiding slaves to escape from that commonwealth, with miscellaneous remarks, including her views on American slavery / written by herself. Vergennes : E.W. Blaisdell, printer, 1845.

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Source Type:  Fugitive Case


 

 

 

 

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