This question is based on the accompanying documents (1-13).  The question is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents.  Some of the documents have been edited for the purposes of this question.  As you analyze the documents, take into account both the source of each document and any point of view that may be presented in the document.

Historical Context:
In an attempt to find a compromise that would save the Union, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law in September of 1850. The new law empowered slave owners or their agents to seize runaway slaves, backed up by simply their sworn testimony of ownership. Law-enforcement officials throughout the North were now required to arrest suspected fugitives and help return them to their owners. Anyone who aided an escaped slave or interfered with his or her arrest was subject to fine and imprisonment. Shadrach Minkins was the first escaped slave seized in New England under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law.

Task:
Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States history, answer the questions that follow each document in Part A.  Your answers to the questions will help you write the essay in Part B, in which you will be asked to:

• Discuss the effects of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in Salem and nearby communities

• Do you think the effects of the Fugitive Slave Act in Salem were unique? Why or why not?

Part A: Short-Answer Questions

Directions: Analyze the documents and answer the short-answer questions that follow each document in the space provided.

Document #1
The Fugitive Slave Act 1850

Section 7 - And be it further enacted , That any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant, his agent or attorney, or any person or persons lawfully assisting him, her, or them, from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor, either with or without process as aforesaid, or shall rescue, or attempt to rescue, such fugitive from service or labor, from the custody of such claimant... when so arrested, pursuant to the authority herein given and declared; or shall aid, abet, or assist such person so owing service or labor as aforesaid, directly or indirectly, to escape from such claimant...; or shall harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, after notice or knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive from service or labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of said offences, be subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months, ... and shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages to the party injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost as aforesaid, to be recovered by action of debt, in any of the District or Territorial Courts aforesaid, within whose jurisdiction the said offence may have been committed.

1. What is the main point of "Section 7" of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850?

Document #2
John Andrew Jackson. The Experience of a Slave in South Carolina . London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1862.
...--he was so anxious to catch me that he followed me to Boston--at least, I believe, from the description given by Mr. Forman, that it was he; but fortunately I had gone to Salem, which is 15 miles from Boston. Mr. Forman did not tell Anderson where I was, but merely told him that there was no such person as Jackson there. Anderson said, "I know better, here is the letter he wrote home, wishing to know what he can buy his father and mother for, and I now want to see him." This incensed the sailors, who said, "Here are the slave-hunters, hunting for niggers," and drove them from the house. Mr. Forman wrote to me at Salem, to warn me not to come to Boston, as they were hunting for me there. I remained at Salem, and worked in the tan yard there, turning the splitting machine, until I had saved one hundred dollars... But to proceed with my life. Just as I was beginning to be settled at Salem, that most atrocious of all laws, the "Fugitive Slave Law," was passed, and I was compelled to flee in disguise from a comfortable home, a comfortable situation, and good wages, to take refuge in Canada...

1. Describe Jackson's life as a fugitive slave.

2. Why did Jackson go to Canada?

Document #3
"Arrest in Salem, for Assisting in the Rescue of Shadrach." Salem Observer (22 February 1851)
Yesterday, about 12 o'clock, Deputy U. S. Marshal John H. Riley, with a posse of officers from Boston, arrested Alexander B. Burton, a colored barber, while at work in a shop near the depot of this city, on the charge of being concerned in the riot on Saturday last.

A rumor was started that Burton was arrested as a "fugitive," and quite a crowd gathered around the scene. The Boston Journal says three thousand people collected, but we are inclined to think that three hundred would be a large estimate. Previous to making the arrest, the Deputy Marshal informed the Mayor, of his purpose, and assured him that it was not intended to claim Burton as a fugitive. The Mayor ordered out a number of the Police, but there was no force of any kind used.

Burton was carried to Boston on the 121/2 train. He offered no resistance, and we hear he says he can prove an alibi . Sheriff Sprague accompanied the officers and prisoner as far as Lynn. The prisoner was taken before Commissioner B. F. Hallett.

We learn that Burton returned to the city last evening, having proved that he was in Salem on Saturday last.

1. Why was Burton arrested?

Document #4
"Suits for Damages against U.S. Officers, on Account of the late Arrests." Salem Observer (1 March 1851)
On Wednesday afternoon, a writ of trespass, brought by John G. King and Robert H. Morris, Jr., Counsellers of this city, and returnable at the Essex Common Pleas, was served upon the Hon. Geo. Lunt, U. S. District Attorney, against whom damages in $10,000 are claimed at the suit of Alexander P. Burton, the colored man who was arrested in Salem on a charge of aiding in the rescue and escape of the fugitive slave Shadrach. Mr. Lunt gave the required bail. On Thursday morning similar writs for damages in the same amount as above, brought by Messrs Sewall and List, also counsellers, of this city, were served upon George T. Curtis, Esq., U. S. Commissioner, and Patrick Riley, Esq., Deputy U. S. Marshal, in the matter of the arrest of Shadrach, alias Frederick Minkins.-- Bost. Atlas

1. Why is Burton suing U.S. Officers?

Document #5
"A Government Officer Arrested in Boston." The National Era (6 March 1851): 39.
A writ of attachment has first been served by Deputy Sheriff Coburn upon the goods and the estate of George F. Curtis, United States Commissioner, and Patrick Riley, Deputy United States Marshal, for $10,000 damages. This suit was brought on behalf of Shadrach, the alleged fugitive, alias Frederick Minkins, laborer. The suit charges that defendants did arrest and cause to be arrested, and did then beat and ill treat, the said plaintiff.

The defendants are held for trial in $10,000 each, to appear the April term of the court of common pleas. Several other Government and State officers will be arrested shortly. The ground upon which these suits are brought is, that the Fugitive Slave law is unconstitutional and that the officer prosecuting acted without authority.

1. Why are the government officers being sued?

Document #6
Letter from William Lloyd Garrison
To the Friends of the hunted American Slave in England:

BOSTON, MARCH 29, 1851.
In consequence of the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, at the last session of Congress, a general flight from the country of all fugitive slaves in the Northern States has become necessary as a matter of personal safety. Among the number thus compelled to leave is the bearer of this, Thomas H. Jones, a Wesleyan preacher, and pastor of a colored church in the neighboring city of Salem, who carries with him a narrative of his life for sale. My personal acquaintance with him is limited; but those among my friends who know him intimately speak of him as a most worthy man, and one peculiarly entitled to the sympathy and aid of those who love God and regard man. Though he is a man, "created a little lower than the angels"--exemplary in life--a servant and minister of Jesus Christ--in all the United States there is not a spot on which he can stand in safety from pursuing bloodhounds, and must flee to England to prevent being again reduced to the condition of a beast! May the God of the oppressed raise him up many friends abroad!
W.M. Lloyd Garrison

1. What was Garrison trying to accomplish with this letter?

2. Why does Thomas H. Jones have to leave Salem, Massachusetts?

Document #7
"A Fugitive Slave Case in Boston" New York Daily Times (26 May 1854).
Boston, Thursday, May 25.
Last evening, ...arrested an alleged fugitive slave named Anthony Burns, who was kept in custody during the night, and this morning, at an early hour, brought before the Commissioner for examination. The Court-room was but partially filled, officers having been placed at the door to prevent too great a crowd.

E. G. Parker appeared for complainant, and read the necessary documents from Circuit Court of Virginia, setting forth the claim of Col. Charles F. Suttle, of Alexandria, Va., to one Anthony Burns, a slave, who is described in the papers as being 23 or 24 years old, six feet high, with scars upon the cheek and right hand, which slave the said Suttle alleges escaped from his service on the 24 th of March last.

...It is said that during last evening, Burns had an interview with his former master, at which he consented to go back with him. All the proceedings were conducted with great decorum, no signs of disorder being manifested.

1. Why was Anthony Burns arrested?

2. Why does the article mention that "no signs of disorder" had been manifested?

Document #8
The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimke , ed. by Brenda Stevenson (Oxford University Press, 1988
Thursday, May 25 [1854]--Did not intend to write this evening, but have just heard of something that is worth recording;--something which must ever rouse in the mind of every true friend of liberty and humanity, feelings of the deepest indignation and sorrow. Another fugitive [Anthony Burns] from bondage has been arrested; a poor man, who for two short months has trod the soil and breathed the air of the "Old Bay State," was arrested like a criminal in the streets of her capital, and is now kept strictly guarded,--a double police force is required, the military are in readiness; and all this done to prevent a man, whom God has created in his own image, from regaining that freedom with which, he, in common with every other human being, is endowed. I can only hope and pray most earnestly that Boston will not again disgrace herself by sending him back to a bondage worse than death; or rather that she will redeem herself from the disgrace which his arrest alone has brought upon her. The weather is gloomy and my feelings correspond with it...

1. Why is Charlotte Forten upset by the arrest of Anthony Burns?

Document #9
The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimke , ed. by Brenda Stevenson (Oxford University Press, 1988
Friday, June 2.    Our worst fears are realized; the decision was against poor [Anthony] Burns, and he has been sent back to a bondage worse, a thousand times worse than death. Even an attempt at rescue was utterly impossible; the prisoner was completely surrounded by soldiers with bayonets fixed, a canon loaded, ready to be fired at the slightest sign. To-Day Massachusetts has again been disgraced; again she showed her submissions to the Slave Power; and Oh! With what deep sorrow do we think of what will doubtless be the fate of that poor man, when he is again consigned to the horrors of slavery. With what scorn must that government be regarded with cowardly assembles thousands of soldiers to satisfy the demands of slaveholders; to deprive of his freedom a man, created in God's own image, whose sole offense is the color of his skin! And if resistance is offered to this outrage, these soldiers are to shoot down American citizens without mercy; and this by express orders of a government which proudly boasts of being the freest in the world; this on the very soil where the Revolution of 1776 began; in sight of the battlefield, where thousands of brave men fought and died in opposing British tyranny, which was nothing compared with the American oppression of today. ... I can write no more. A cloud seems hanging over me, over all our persecuted race, which nothing can dispel.

1. What do the soldiers represent to Charlotte Forten? Why is their presence in Boston particularly odious to her?

2. What happened to Anthony Burns?

Document #10
"Speech of Charles L. Remond, at Syracuse," Frederick Douglass' Paper (13 October 1854)
...A time was when things appeared differently in Boston than they now do. When Frederick Douglass made the boast that Syracuse had made Jerry free, while Boston had let Burns go, why did he not state to the audience that, prior to the trial of Burns and Sims, a fugitive named Shadrach was arrested and a band of feeble men went into that Court House and set Shadrach free. The rescuers were tried and acquitted. If the impression is going about that Syracuse is all right on the anti-slavery question, he must differ. Five hours before Anthony Burns was carried off, word came from Worcester that if a thousand muskets were necessary to rescue Burns, they were ready... Some think anti-slavery about large enough to secure the colored men their rights; I do not; slavery is as busy now as it was twenty years ago. The aristocrat in Salem is a s bitter against us now as formerly. I conclude that a fugitive slave in Salem   is as much liable to be retaken as in Boston.

1. How does the arrest of fugitive slaves affect the way Charles Remond views the anti-slavery movement?

Document #11
Charles Emery Stevens, Anthony Burns: A History . (Boston: John P. Jewett and Co., 1856).
" 'BOSTON, June 2, 1856.

" 'To his Honor the Mayor, and Aldermen of the City of Boston:

        " 'Through all the excitement attendant upon the arrest and trial of the Fugitive by the U. S. Government, I have not received an order which I have conceived inconsistent with my duties as an Officer of the Police until this day, at which time I have received an order which, if performed, would implicate me in the execution of that infamous Fugitive Slave Bill. I therefore resign the office which I now hold as Captain of the Watch and Police, from this hour, 11 o'clock.'

1. Why does the Captain of the Watch resign his position?

Document #12
Theodore Parker, The Trial of Theodore Parker, for the "Misdemeanor" of a speech in Faneuil hall against Kidnapping, before the Circuit court of the United States at Boston, April 3, 1855, with the Defense, (n.p., 1855)
Gentlemen, when the kidnappers [fugitive slave catchers] came to Boston [and] were seeking to kidnap the Crafts, I took Ellen to my own house, and kept her there so long as the (Southern) kidnappers remained in the city. For the first time I armed myself, and put my house in a state of defense. For two weeks I wrote my sermons with a sword in the open drawer under my inkstand, and a pistol in the flap of the desk, loaded, ready, with a cap on the nipple...."A process was in the hands of the [federal] marshal... 'in the execution of which, he might be called upon to break open dwelling-houses, and perhaps to take life, by quelling resistance actual or ' threatened.'" I was ready for him. I knew my rights.

After the immediate danger was over ... William and Ellen must needs flee from America.

1. Why did Theodore Parker arm himself?

Document #13

1. What response do you think the author of this poster wanted from free African Americans? How do you know this?

2. How do you think government officials responded to this poster? How do you know this?

Part B: Essay

Directions: Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several paragraphs, and a conclusion.  Use evidence from at least five documents in the body of the essay.  Support your response with relevant facts, examples, and details.  Include additional outside information.

Historical Context:
In an attempt to find a compromise that would save the Union, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law in September of 1850. The new law empowered slave owners or their agents to seize runaway slaves, backed up by simply their sworn testimony of ownership. Law-enforcement officials throughout the North were now required to arrest suspected fugitives and help return them to their owners. Anyone who aided an escaped slave or interfered with his or her arrest was subject to fine and imprisonment. Shadrach Minkins was the first escaped slave seized in New England under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law.

Task:
Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States history, write an essay in which you: :

• Discuss the effects of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in Salem and nearby communities.
• Do you think the effects of the Fugitive Slave Act in Salem were unique? Why or why not?

Guidelines:
In your essay, be sure to:

• Address all aspects of the Task by accurately analyzing and interpreting at least five documents.
• Incorporate information from the documents in the body of the essay.
• Incorporate relevant outside information.
• Support the theme with relevant facts, examples, and details.
• Use a logical and clear plan of organization.
• Introduce the theme by establishing a framework that is beyond a simple restatement of the Task or Historical Context and conclude with a summation of the theme.