Northup's Case Of Northup And The Fugitive Slave Law

1381 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Research in african american literature

1. Northup’s was a very skilled violin player and he had played his entire life. Since Northup was very skilled at the violin two men approached him in Saratoga and said they were part of a circus. These two men wanted Northup to join the circus so they took him to Washington but these two men were not part of the circus they were slave traders. They drugged Northup and placed him in handcuffs and chains then took him to the south. I think these two men purposely tricked Northup in to believing they were part of this music circus so they could get him away from his family, friends, and home which would make it easier to kidnap him.

2. I believe that the Fugitive Slave Law could be related to Northup being kidnapped. I think this because the slave trader Burch, told Northup to get his “free papers” so he would be able to show he was a free slave once they entered the slave states. I think Burch did so he could get Northup’s trust. Once drugged Bruch used the Fugitive Slave Law to say, that Northup was a run away slave and was taking him back to his master. Burch also beat Northup until he stopped talking about being a free man and from New York because selling a free man was a federal offense.

3. Starting his years as a slave in the Capitol really baffled Northup and it made it worse because he was …show more content…

Christmas holidays in Northup narrative was portrayed as a time when the slaves were not in constant labor. Epps would allow them between 3-6 days off. The slaves look forward to the Christmas holidays. The slaves get a “Christmas supper” that they all look forward to. This aspect of slavery is very surprising. I wouldn’t think that the slave owners would allow their slaves this much free time as well as freedom. All throughout the year, these slave owners beat and torture their slaves but when Christmas time comes around, they treat them like one of their own. I feel this type of treatment should be all year long instead of just during the Christmas

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Slavery's Constitution By David Waldstreicher

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery’s Constitution by David Waldstreicher can be identified as a very important piece of political analytical literature as it was the first book to recognize slavery 's place at the heart of the U.S. Constitution. Waldstreicher successfully highlights a number of silences which most of the general public are unaware of, for example, the lack of the word “slavery” in the Constitution of the United States of America. Also, the overwhelming presence and lack of explicit mention of the debate of slavery during the construction of the document.

    Read More

  • Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    The North is popularly considered the catalyst of the abolitionist movement in antebellum America and is often glorified in its struggle against slavery; however, a lesser-known installment of the Northern involvement during this era is one of its complicity in the development of a “science” of race that helped to rationalize and justify slavery and racism throughout America. The economic livelihood of the North was dependent on the fruits of slave labor and thus the North, albeit with some reluctance, inherently conceded to tolerate slavery and moreover embarked on a quest to sustain and legitimize the institution through scientific research. Racism began to progress significantly following the American Revolution after which Thomas Jefferson himself penned Notes on the State of Virginia, a document in which he voiced his philosophy on black inferiority, suggesting that not even the laws of nature could alter it. Subsequent to Jefferson’s notes, breakthroughs in phrenological and ethnological study became fundamental in bolstering and substantiating the apologue of racial inadequacy directed at blacks. Throughout history, slavery was indiscriminate of race and the prospect acquiring freedom not impossible; America, both North and South, became an exception to the perennial system virtually guaranteeing perpetual helotry for not only current slaves but also their progeny.

    Read More

  • Prigg V. Pennsylvania: Kidnapping and Slavery

    2669 Words  | 6 Pages

    The difficulties of legislating on fugitive slaves has always been finely intertwined with kidnapping. The colonies, upon their establishment, found that indentured servants and slaves were the quickest ways to establish a solid class of laborers necessary to survive in the New World. This lack of a working class and the growth of the institutions of indentured servitude and slavery in the colonies established a strong legal precedence in attempting to protect against the loss of labor in the form of runaway servants. Laws in Virginia would double the contract length of ...

    Read More

  • Patty Cannon: The Failures Of Free African Americans And Slaves

    1304 Words  | 3 Pages

    Solomon Northup was one of the few that escaped the grasps of slavery. He wrote his own book, 12 Years a Slave, and even had a movie crea...

    Read More

  • Manifest Destiny: The Abolitionist Movement

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    Behind the scenes of Manifest Destiny, what really transformed the country was the ability to move products across great distances and the Erie Canal was a huge turning point for economic growth in America. Opened in 1825, the Erie Canal was the engineering breakthrough of the nineteenth century: Its four waterways would connect manufacturing and eastern ports with the rest of the country. Farmers could now ship their goods, they could move out, come down the Hudson River and this way of commuting became a part of a global economy. This Moment would bring about the thought of expansion which will become the fuse to enormous economic growth that will ultimately in the next century, become the belief of manifest destiny. The nation that both reflected the pride which reflected American nationalism, and the idealistic image of social perfection through God and the Church caused the nation to separate.

    Read More

  • Legal Theories Of Natural Law And The Fugitive Slave Law

    2161 Words  | 5 Pages

    In 1850, congress made the Fugitive Slave Law. The law mandated that all slaves that escaped from the South had to be returned to their rightful owner. After the Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court case the blacks were not considered citizens of the United States. In the court case of United States v. Morris, a slave named Shadrach was being held for a hearing, because he escaped from Norfolk, Virginia to Boston. The Fugitive Slave Law mandated that Shadrach needed to be sent back to Norfolk to his rightful owner. A large crowd came into the courtroom and helped Shadrach escape to Canada. Eight of the people who helped Shadrach escape were charged with violating the Fugitive Slave Act. The jurors acquitted the emancipators even though they were clearly guilty. Using the legal theories of Natural Law, Legal Realism, and Positivism I will explore the ruling of the Morris jury.

    Read More

  • Inhumane American Slavery In The Film 12 Years A Slave

    1477 Words  | 3 Pages

    The movie really begins when Northup is kidnapped by Merrill Brown, who pretends to be a talented entrepreneur. Merrill Brown and his accomplice, Abram Hamilton, drug Northup and sell him to James H. Burch. Northup, expecting to wake up in his hotel room for the circus show, is sadly mistaken. He immediately tells Burch, that he is a free-slave and that there has been a mistake, but Burch corrects him with his first beating. Afterwards, Northup is then sent on his to Theophilus Freeman. As it was stated earlier, Freeman changes Northup’s name to Platt. William Ford

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Fugitive Slave Act Of 1850

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed by Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850 between the North and South. This act required that any and all escaped slaves were to be returned to their owners and that all officials and citizens were ordered to cooperate with this law. Anyone that did not follow this law would be condemned as a criminal and subject to harsh punishment. Many states tried to counteract both of these laws by passing personal liberty laws. Solomon Northup is the most popular case; he was a freedman who was coaxed into going into Washington, D.C. and was kidnapped into slavery.

    Read More

  • Slavery and Fredrick Douglas

    1698 Words  | 4 Pages

    Northup, Solomon. (1853). Twelve Years a slave: Narrative of Solomon Northrup, a Citizen of New York,

    Read More

  • Events Leading To The Civil War

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Fugitive Slave Act was part of the Compromise of 1850. This act required that authorities in the North had to assist southern slave catchers to retrieve and return slaves to their owners. Southerners favored this act because they saw no slavery in the territories to the west, by the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act it would help preserve slavery in the south. This act allowed southern slave owners to get their slaves back when they escaped to the North that is why this act was important and critical to southern survival. The view of this act by the North was the opposite, especially from those who were black, they feared this act. The blacks in the North were terrified that this act would make it so they could be ushered back to the south even if they were innocent. This led to the creation of resistance groups in the North.

    Read More

  • Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

    1673 Words  | 4 Pages

    Obviously during the time period when slavery occurred, there were opposing opinions about the topic: majority of the South was proslavery and majority of the North was antislavery. Solomon Northup’s first person account provided insight into what truly happened in slavery and was able to uncover a piece of the larger story of America. Along with being personal, his story was also unique, as he was able to tell his story from both the perspective of a free man and of a slave. He was able to expose the true aspects of slavery through his themes of namelessness, inhumanity, struggle, distrust, defiance, and the desire for freedom. Northup also told the reader of his good and bad experiences throughout this time, so he or she really got a decent effect of what he went through. This book seemed to open the eyes of society on such a sad, controversial topic.

    Read More

  • The Deep South Experience

    1074 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... described his wife Anne, “It is difficult to tell whether the red, white, or black predominates” (4). While in the Deep South, Northup offered greater insight into common interaction between slaves and local tribes. Acquainted through Northup’s work on Indian Creek, a cordial relationship between Northup and a “remnant of the Chickasaws or Chickopees” (46), was soon established. Often after a day of work, Sam, a fellow slave, and Northup would watch Native American dances and feasts. Although the natives were not spoken of in high esteem and were described as living a “wild mode of life” (46), united by the Louisiana rivers, the events Northup described gave credence to the existence of harmonious native and black relations. As result of their close locality to Indian and Mexican territories, Deep South slaves established unique cultural and political perceptions.

    Read More

  • 12 Years a Slave

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a free man in a world where blacks were either in jail or in slavery, Northup was indeed lucky. However, his fortunes turned when two men approached him and offered him substantial payment to join their travelling music show (Northup 29). Unknown to Northup, the two white men intended to drug him and sell him as a slave. They were successful and soon Northup found himself a slave despite having papers at home to prove that he was a free man. For 12 years, Northup served under a number of masters in the south, some of whom were utterly cruel and some whose humanism he admired. Eventually, he came into contact with an abolitionist who contacted his family who were then able to send a state agent to reclaim him.

    Read More

  • Solomon Northup's Twelve Years A Slave

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years A Slave, tells his life story as a free black man from the North who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Pre-Civil War. He is a violinist that is tricked to attending a gig at a circus for money. Instead he is drugged and sold into slavery in the South. His master starts to call him Platt even though it’s not his real name. During the next twelve years he survived as human property of several different cruel slave masters. He talks about his life as a slave and how no one should be treated that way. In January 1853, Northup was finally freed by one of his closest Northern friends who came to his rescue. His friends were white themselves and knew that Solomon shouldn’t of been kept a slave. He finally returns home to his family in New York and there, wrote his memoir in Twelve Years A

    Read More

  • Natural Law: The Abolition Of Negro Slavery

    221 Words  | 1 Pages

    Natural law is the basic foundation for all human society and occurs naturally for all individuals. Natural law constitutes laws which are equitable to all members of society. In other words, laws that an individual wants will also be applied to everyone else equally. Personal liberty is a right which every individual strives to obtain. In their address to the National Assembly in favor of the abolition of the slave trade, the Society of the Friends of Blacks divulges that these rights have only been given to the French people. “You have declared them, these rights; you have engraved on an immortal monument that all men are born and remain free and equal in rights” (Friends, 107). The Abolition of Negro Slavery or Means for Ameliorating Their

    Read More

More about Northup's Case Of Northup And The Fugitive Slave Law

Open Document