Toni Morrison and the
Fugitive Slave Act
of 1850
Veronica C. hendrick
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
City University of New YOrk
Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony
Wofford, February 18, 1931 in Lorain,
Ohio.
Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in
1988. This story describes a slave who
found freedom, but killed her infant
daughter to save her from a life of slavery.
She won the National Books Critics Award
for Song of Solomon, a tale of the
renunciation of materialism and the
strength of brotherly love.
She was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 1993.
MARGARET GARNER a Boone County, Kentucky Slave - her tragic story
by Thomas Satterwhite Noble, 1867
There are three laws that created the transition from
servant to slave
1662
1664
1705
• Negro womens children to serve according to the
condition of the mother
• All Negroes or other slaues already within the
Prouince And all negroes and other slaues to bee
hereafter imported into the Prouince shall serue
Durante Vita'
• An act declaring the Negro, Mulatto, and Indian
slaves within this dominion, to be real estate [1]
1662 — Virginia law establishes that children
of black mothers are slaves if their mothers
are slaves, free if their mothers are free.
1662-ACT XII. Negro womens children to serve according to the
condition of the mother[1]
Whereas some doubts have arrisen whether children got by any
Englishman upon a negro woman should be slave or ffree, Be it
therefore enacted and declared by this present grand assembly,
that all children borne in this country shalbe held bond or free
only according to the condition of the mother, And that if any
christian shall committ ffornication with a negro man or woman,
hee or shee soe offending shall pay double the ffines imposed
by the former act. [Original spelling retained]
[1] Statutes at Large, Laws of Virginia, vol. 2
Scenario evidenced in
two slave narratives:
Frederick Douglass and
Harriet Jacobs
[My mother] left me without the slightest intimation of who
my father was. The whisper that my master was my father,
may or may not be true; and, true or false, it is of but little
consequence to my purpose whilst the fact remains, in all
its glaring odiousness, that slaveholders have ordained,
and by law established, that the children of slave women
shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers; and
this is done too obviously to administer to their own lusts,
and make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable
as well as pleasurable; for by this cunning arrangement,
the slaveholder, in cases not a few, sustains to his slaves
the double relation of master and father [italics mine].
Even if he could have
obtained permission to
marry me while I was a
slave, the marriage would
give him no power to
protect me from my
master. It would have
made him miserable to
witness the insults I should
have been subjected to.
And then, if we had
children, I knew they must
‘follow the condition of the
mother.’[1] Jacobs, #
Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897)
1705 Virginia--An act declaring the Negro,
Mulatto, and Indian slaves within this
dominion, to be real estate [1]
Be it enacted, by the governor, council and burgesses of
this present general assembly, and it is hereby enacted
by the authority of the same; That from and after the
passing of this act, all negro, mulatto, and Indian slaves,
in all courts of judicature, and other places, within this
dominion, shall be held, taken, and adjudged, to be real
estate (and not chattels;) and shall descend unto the
heirs and widows of persons departing this life, according
to the manner and custom of land of inheritance, held in
fee simple.
[1] Statutes at Large, Laws of Virginia, vol. 3
1664—Maryland legalizes slavery. A Maryland
statute attempts to enforce a law that all
blacks, even those who are free, would be
slaves and all blacks born would be slaves
regardless of the status of their mother.
An Act Concerning Negroes & other Slaues[1].
Bee itt Enacted by the Right Honble, the Lord proprietary by
the audice and Consent of the upper and lower house of thise
present Generall Assembly that all Negroes or other slaues
already within the Prouince And all negroes and other slaues
to bee hereafter imported into the Prouince shall serue
Durante Vita'
[1] Maryland State Archives,
1664—Maryland legalizes slavery. A Maryland statute attempts to
enforce a law that all blacks, even those who are free,
would be slaves and all blacks born would be slaves
regardless of the status of their mother.
The key to this act is that the servants will serve “Durante Vita”—
for the duration of their lives.
1664—Maryland An Act Concerning Negroes & other Slaues [1].
Bee itt Enacted by the Right Honble, the Lord proprietary by the
audice and Consent of the upper and lower house of thise
present Generall Assembly that all Negroes or other slaues
already within the Prouince And all negroes and other slaues to
bee hereafter imported into the Prouince shall serue Durante Vita'
[1] Maryland State Archives,
In the American colonies in 1730, nearly 25
percent of the slaves in the Carolinas were
Cherokee, Creek, or other Native Americans.
From the 1500s through the early 1700s, small
numbers of white people were also enslaved by
kidnapping or for crimes/debts.
http://innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html
Thomas Satterwhite Noble The Price of Blood, 1868
An act declaring the Negro, Mulatto, and Indian
slaves within this dominion, to be real estate
October 1705
I. FOR the better settling and preservation of estates within this
dominion,
II. Be it enacted, by the governor, council and burgesses of this
present general assembly, and it is hereby enacted by the
authority of the same; That from and after the passing of this act,
all negro, mulatto, and Indian slaves, in all courts of judicature,
and other places, within this dominion, shall be held, taken, and
adjudged, to be real estate (and not chattels;) and shall descend
unto the heirs and widows of persons departing this life,
according to the manner and custom of land of inheritance, held
in fee simple.
http://www.toptags.com/aama/docs/vact1705.htm
1808--The Atlantic
slave trade is
banned by the
U.S.
1817 Spain signs a treaty
agreeing to end the slave
trade north of the equator
and to end it south of the
equator in 1820.
The American Colonization Society is established.
Its goal is to help African Americans return to Africa.
1833 --The American AntiSlavery Society is founded by
William Lloyd Garrison and
others.
1836--The U.S. House of
Representatives adopts the
“gag rule” which
automatically tables
abolitionist material.
1837-Pennsylvania and Mississippi
take away the right of blacks to vote.
1845—
Frederick
Douglass’
autobiography,
The Narrative of
the Life of
Frederick
Douglass is
published.
Frederick Douglass,
1818-1895
Fugitive Slave Law
It allows slave owners to
pursue fugitive slaves
across state lines and it
becomes a criminal
offense to help fugitive
slaves.
1850 — Compromise of 1850 establishes a Fugitive
Slave Law giving greater power to federal authorities
in exchange for admission of California to the union as
a free state.
1852--Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by abolitionist
Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published.
Some of Morrison’s film
images come from
Brazilian slavery rather
than the US system
Iron Mask and
Collar for
Punishing
Slaves, Brazil,
1817-1818
Saint Anastacia
1861-1865 — Civil War.
1863 President Lincoln issues the
Emancipation Proclamation
freeing slaves in the Confederate States.
‘That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons
held as slaves within any State or designated part of a
State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion
against the United States shall be then, thenceforward,
and forever free; and the executive government of the
United States, including the military and naval authority
thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such
persons and will do no act or acts to repress such
persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may
make for their actual freedom.’
April 10, 1865
November 6, 1860
Shot on April 14, 1865
1865 — The 13th Amendment to the
Constitution abolishes slavery in the United
States.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
An act to enforce the constitutional right to
vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district
courts of the United States of America to
provide injunctive relief against
discrimination in public accommodations,
to authorize the Attorney General to
institute suits to protect constitutional rights
in public facilities and public education, to
extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to
prevent discrimination in federally assisted
programs, to establish a Commission on
Equal Employment Opportunity, and for
other purposes.
Thank You
Veronica C. hendrick
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
City University of New York