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Toni Morrison and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Veronica C. hendrick John Jay College of Criminal Justice City University of New YOrk

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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.

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MARGARET GARNER a Boone County, Kentucky Slave - her tragic story by Thomas Satterwhite Noble, 1867

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There are three laws that created the transition from servant to slave 1662 Negro womens children to serve according to the condition of the mother 1664 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' 1705 An act declaring the Negro, Mulatto, and Indian slaves within this dominion, to be real estate [1]

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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] [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[1]

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[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]. Scenario evidenced in two slave narratives: Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs

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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, #[1] Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897)

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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 [1] 1705 Virginia--An act declaring the Negro, Mulatto, and Indian slaves within this dominion, to be real estate [1] [1]

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1664Maryland 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].[1] Durante Vita 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][1] Maryland State Archives,

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1664Maryland 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. 1664Maryland An Act Concerning Negroes & other Slaues [1].[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][1] Maryland State Archives,

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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

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Thomas Satterwhite Noble The Price of Blood, 1868

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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

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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.

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1833 --The American Anti- Slavery 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.

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Frederick Douglass, 1818-1895 1845 Frederick Douglass autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is published.

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Fugitive Slave Law It allows slave owners to pursue fugitive slaves across state lines and it becomes a criminal offense to help fugitive slaves.

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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.

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1852--Uncle Toms Cabin, written by abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published.

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Iron Mask and Collar for Punishing Slaves, Brazil, 1817-1818 Saint Anastacia Some of Morrisons film images come from Brazilian slavery rather than the US system

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1861-1865 Civil War.

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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.

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April 10, 1865 November 6, 1860 Shot on April 14, 1865

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1865 The 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishes slavery in the United States.

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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. 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.

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Thank You Veronica C. hendrick John Jay College of Criminal Justice City University of New York