Posted by Citizen Bob on 11/07/06 20:33

On Tue, 07 Nov 2006 18:45:22 GMT, Paul Hyett
<pah@nojunkmailplease.co.uk> wrote:

>>The Fugitive Slave Act made it "illegal" to aid an escaped slave.

>Why was that law even passed, when the North was supposed to be
>anti-slavery?

Who said the North was "anti-slavery".

There was an active abolitionist movement in the North but it was in
the minority. Abolitionists pressured Lincoln to repeal the Fugitive
Slave Act but they were not in the majority so he refused, knowing
that if he did he would lose the election. Yet he did need the
abolitionist vote so he concocted the Emancipation Proclamation (after
forcing California to repeal its version) but this EP only applied to
the "rebel territories".

The North kept slaves throughout the War of Northern Agression and
thereafter until the 13th Am was passed. By contrast the Confederate
States of America freed the slaves a few months before Lee's
surrender.


--

"First and last, it's a question of money. Those men who own the earth
make the laws to protect what they have. They fix up a sort of fence or
pen around what they have, and they fix the law so the fellow on the
outside cannot get in. The laws are really organized for the protection of
the men who rule the world. They were never organized or enforced to do
justice. We have no system for doing justice, not the slightest in the world."
--Clarence Darrow

[Back to original message]