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America or Africa?

Slavery, as a controversial issue in America, is most often associated with the Civil War. However, the issue had been hotly contested since the founding of our nation. Officially, resistance to slavery in the United States began with the foundation of the first Abolitionist Society by Anthony Benezet in 1775. An abolitionist was a person who wanted to put an end to slavery, they wanted to abolish it. Numerous events over the next 75 years would cause slavery to become the central issue in arguments between Northern and Southern states.

Specifically, during the 1850’s, black people in America were subject to a piece of legislation called the Fugitive Slave Act. It was part of a larger piece of legislation called the Compromise of 1850 designed to satisfy the desires of both Northern and Southern states. At the time California was being admitted to the Union as a free state, slaves would not be allowed there. To appease slave-state politicians, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. Under this Act, fugitive slaves and those alleged of being fugitive were not entitled to a trial by jury nor could they testify on their own behalf. Federal commissioners who had to enforce the law would receive ten dollars if they returned a slave to his or her owner but only five dollars if they set them free. Lastly, anyone who was convicted of helping a fugitive would be fined $1,000 and/or imprisonment for six months.

As a result of this act being passed, abolitionist sentiment soared in Northern states. In the South, abolitionists were setting up a secret network of people who were willing to aide fugitive slaves in escaping their masters. This network became known as the Underground Railroad. The people who guided slaves along the Underground Railroad were called conductors. One of the most famous conductors was Harriet Tubman. Herself an escaped slave, Harriet would return to the South time and time again to escort escaped slaves to freedom. Stopping along the way at safe houses, or “stations,” the fugitives would work their way toward Northern states or even Canada.

So, imagine you are an escaped slave and you have escaped from the South. You have arrived in New Bedford, Massachusetts and must now decide what you want to do. Should you stay in New Bedford or should you return to Africa?

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