Many
abolitionists, such as Emerson and Harriet Beecher Stowe, were inflamed by the 1850 Fugitive
Slave Law, thinking it a step backwards into barbarity. Many, such as Stowe, thought slavery was
withering on the vine and would eventually disappear. The new law was a wake-up call that that
would not happen. Emerson called it a disgrace and said it had
the illuminating power of a sheet of lightning at midnight. It showed truth [of the
country's support of evil].
It legislated stiff fines and
jail time for anyone caught helping a fugitive slave, and denied any black person apprehended as
a runaway slave from a jury trial to determine whether he actually was a runaway and not a free
black. It also offered bounties to those who rounded up fugitive slaves. It is all too easy to
see how blacks who were free could be sold into slavery. It is also easy to see how those whites
who in good conscience wanted to help blacks to freedom would be outraged at having their
actions harshly criminalized.
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