Brown Bag-Running toward Abolition: Fugitive Slaves, Legal Rights, and the Coming of the Civil War

This talk tells the story of the long political fight over the legal rights of accused fugitive slaves in the United States. That conflict—fought as often in Congress as before local judges—revealed fundamental weaknesses in the Constitution’s ability to keep peace in a half-slave, half-free nation. Abolitionists saw this opportunity and thrust the fight into electoral politics. It was central to the long- and short-term origins of the American Civil War.