Latest news with #FugitiveSlaveAct
Axios
3 days ago
- Politics
- Axios
How Boston remembers Anthony Burns, a man forcefully returned to slavery
On this day 171 years ago, federal officials escorted a man in chains downtown to remove him from Massachusetts. Anthony Burns, then age 20, had escaped bondage in Virginia only to be forcefully returned. Why it matters: Burns' arrest became a flashpoint for Boston at a time when the nation was starkly divided, and historical reenactments and discussions are keeping his legacy alive nearly two centuries later. Between the lines: The nation was starkly divided over slavery. Depending on whom you asked, Burns was either kidnapped by a Virginia slave owner with the help of federal officials or returned to his rightful owner, per National Park Service archives. Anti-slavery activists debated whether the Fugitive Slave Act or a "higher law" should take precedence in a state that had abolished slavery decades earlier, says Shawn Quigley, lead ranger for the National Parks of Boston. State of play: National Park Service rangers in Boston revive that debate in their town meeting programming, including a recent reenactment of a May 26, 1854, meeting anti-slavery activists held in Faneuil Hall. Rangers pass out cards and ask the audience to deliver various arguments, Quigley says. The latest event was at the Old South Meeting House, with support from Revolutionary Space, but the Burns events will resume weekly once a restoration project at Faneuil Hall wraps up later this month. What they're saying: "The history of Faneuil Hall in Boston is not just the American Revolution, and it's a continuation of the American Revolution," Quigley tells Axios. Flashback: While activists debated in Faneuil Hall, they got word that a group of radical abolitionists tried to break down the courthouse entrance to rescue Burns. The abolitionists failed, and a federal marshal was fatally shot. Burns lost his case in court, but the day he was removed from Boston surrounded by federal troops, more than 50,000 people in Boston protested — equivalent to nearly half of the city's population at the time, Quigley says. A far smaller coalition led by the Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston tracked down Burns and paid for his freedom in 1855. Burns returned to Boston briefly before studying at Oberlin College in Ohio and becoming a pastor in Canada. Today, the nation is again divided over its collective identity. Now, instead referring to slave catchers, activists are calling immigration agents " kidnappers," like in the arrest of Tufts international student Rümeysa Öztürk, while supporters hail the detention of pro-Palestinian protesters and call them terrorists. Americans nationwide, including in Massachusetts, can't agree on immigration policies, LGBTQ+ issues, or diversity, equity and inclusion efforts — all at a time when the federal government is embattled over federally funded research, its workforce and national parks resources. National Parks of Boston workers, including Quigley, wouldn't discuss the current political climate, citing restrictions under the Hatch Act. What Quigley did say is that he wants people to consider the programming like the Burns discussions as an example of how the nation's revolutionary spirit has persisted after all these years.
Boston Globe
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
What part of ‘unjust law' don't you understand?
Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up 'All of them,' Advertisement Yet in other contexts, Trump and his aides are far kinder to those who 'broke our nation's laws.' During the 2024 presidential campaign, for example, Trump repeatedly referred to the prisoners convicted for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol as ' Advertisement When the government last month Today, of course, virtually everyone would agree that abolitionists like Booth were right to defy an unjust law in the face of federal pressure. The defenders of Judge Dugan regard her as standing firmly in that tradition. Advertisement Those who share Trump's views on immigration, on the other hand, indignantly reject the comparison. ' Yes, that is obvious — slavery and undocumented immigration differ profoundly. But the analogy between the Fugitive Slave Act and contemporary border enforcement doesn't rest on comparing the conditions of the people affected. It rests on the government's role in criminalizing their presence, denying them sanctuary, and punishing those who aid them. More than that, it focuses on a perennial ethical question: Is obeying the law always the moral choice? Again and again, American history provides painful reminders that not all laws are just and legality is not the same as morality. It is easy now to dismiss the Fugitive Slave Act as an assault on human dignity and to applaud those who subverted it. But in its time it was the law of the land, supported even by many Americans who detested slavery. The same is true today. The law of the land allows undocumented immigrants to be deported; the Trump administration claims it has the authority to do so summarily, without due process of law. Yet even if the White House is right about the law, the law itself may be in the wrong. And while the rule of law is deeply rooted in our tradition, so is resistance to bad laws. Law commands respect but not blind obedience — especially when history is watching. Advertisement Jeff Jacoby can be reached at
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Wisconsin has a history of fighting injustice. Judge Dugan is the latest example.
The federal government arrested and criminally charged Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan last week. The arrest of Judge Dugan, in a state courthouse, is an unfounded power play — an effort to intimidate — by the Trump administration. It raises profound policy questions and threatens the fair administration of justice. It also stirs deep echoes from Wisconsin history — ones unflattering to the administration. More than 170 years ago, in Wisconsin's first years as a state, another dispute about the extent of federal power played out in Milwaukee. Congress had passed a law, the Fugitive Slave Act, requiring states that did not recognize slavery (like Wisconsin) to help facilitate the return of escaped slaves. Joshua Glover had escaped enslavement on a Missouri plantation. He was living and working in Racine. Nearly two years after Glover's escape, in the spring of 1854, the plantation owner learned that Glover was in Racine. He had federal marshals sent to arrest Glover and return him to servitude. Glover never returned to Missouri. Upon his arrest, he was transferred to a Milwaukee jail to await a hearing. (Even at one of our country's lowest points, due process was recognized as essential to the rule of law.) An abolitionist newspaper editor, Sherman Booth, rallied a crowd, which broke Glover out of jail and helped him set sail for Canada, where he lived the remainder of his life in freedom. The federal government arrested Booth on charges of assisting Glover's escape in violation of the Fugitive Slave Act. Booth's lawyer challenged the arrest, both because it was executed based on an administrative warrant rather than one issued by a court (a matter of significant discussion again today) and because Booth deemed the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional. A single justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court heard the case in the first instance. He ruled for Booth. The full Wisconsin Supreme Court reviewed the ruling and affirmed it. That began a showdown about states' rights and the limits of federal power. A federal grand jury was convened and returned new charges against Booth and the individual who had actually broken down the jailhouse door to free Glover from custody. After both men were convicted, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered them released. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed both Wisconsin rulings, and a long and complex tug-of-war ensued with Wisconsin's legislature and courts resisting the federal position. The matter was finally resolved, on the eve of Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, when President James Buchanan pardoned Booth. Today, the facts are different, but the instinct to abuse federal power is the same — as is Wisconsin's instinct to resist. Wisconsin has a deep history that favors both demanding due process and protecting individual liberty. The nineteenth century Wisconsinites who stood firm in the face of federal pressure were ultimately vindicated. Judge Dugan now finds herself in that lineage. Based on the limited information publicly available, the government's case against Judge Dugan appears factually and legally flimsy. According to the complaint, Judge Dugan directed federal agents to clear their warrant and activities with the Chief Judge of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court. And she directed the object of the warrant into a public hallway where federal agents were waiting. If the agents had wanted to arrest him immediately, they could have; instead, after a bit of bumbling, they arrested their target outside of the courthouse. At most, Judge Dugan may have caused the administration's agents a minor inconvenience and a slight detour. This inconvenience does not become obstruction of justice — no matter how much the Trump administration pounds the table. Like Samuel Booth generations earlier, Judge Dugan stood up for liberty and due process, and federal efforts to prosecute her are drawing public condemnation. Opinion: Changes to Social Security would cost average Wisconsin resident $7,000 a year Why would the Trump administration charge the case at all on these facts? To create public theater and promote intimidation. The administration, handed one loss after another by federal judges across the country on its draconian and unconstitutional approach to immigration enforcement, has found a flimsy excuse to lash out at a different judge. Attorney General Pam Bondi made this abundantly clear in her remarks about the case, labeling judges opposing Trump as 'deranged' and characterizing Judge Dugan's arrest as 'sending a very strong message.' Like the effort to return Joshua Glover to slavery, this is a bad case, built on bad law, pursued for bad reasons. We don't yet know every detail about the decision to target Judge Dugan. But we know enough. Her lawyer, who was President George W. Bush's appointed U.S. Attorney for Wisconsin's Eastern District, said Friday that Judge Dugan will "defend herself vigorously and looks forward to being exonerated." He also noted that she 'has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge.' In that, she is squarely aligned with a storied Wisconsin tradition. Wisconsin has been here before. Our state didn't fold then. We shouldn't now. Jeffrey A. Mandell is President & General Counsel of Law Forward. Norman Eisen is Co-founder and a Board member of State Democracy Defenders Fund. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: WI shouldn't fold to Trump on Judge Dugan case | Opinion
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alabama House committee approves bill targeting immigrants
The Hernandez Family joins a protest against anti immigration bills now proposed before Congress in Birmingham, Alabama,, on Saturday February 22, 2025. An Alabama House committee Wednesday approved legislation targeting immigrants. (Andi Rice for Alabama Reflector) The House Judiciary Committee Wednesday approved legislation that requires law enforcement to verify people's immigration status during a stop if they have 'reasonable suspicion' they are not authorized to be in the country. SB 53, sponsored by Sen. Wes Kitchens, R-Arab, also makes it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for someone to knowingly transport a person without proper authorization into the state. 'The intent of this bill, what we are trying to do, is to provide tools for our law enforcement officers,' Kitchens told members of the committee. 'If someone has broken the law, if the person has been arrested and taken to jail, to give the law enforcement officers and the jails, county, municipal, state jails, the authority they need to be able to verify immigration status when that individual was there.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Jasmin Hernandez-Alamillo, the community health coordinator for the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, a group that advocates for immigrants, attended the meeting and said he felt 'utter devastation' at the vote. 'They are not recognizing human beings as human beings,' he said. 'That makes me extremely upset because I come from immigrants. My family are immigrants. I work with immigrants every single day, and they do not see us as humans.' The committee approved Kitchens' bill one week after the committee hosted a public hearing in which members heard from several who spoke against the legislation, with one pastor telling the committee it violates Christian values, and a second person saying it could prevent people from obtaining the necessary paperwork to bring their children back to their home country in the event they are deported. The Senate approved the legislation in February, after the body removed language related to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, that forced the public to assist slave catchers return people to bondage to the south. The bill offers several exceptions for people who are transporting people who are not legally authorized to live in the U.S. into Alabama, such as attorneys transporting clients to different immigration facilities or educators escorting their students for a school related activity. Members of the House Judiciary Committee approved other exemptions to the crime of human smuggling as part of an amendment. One is for health care providers transporting patients, if people are transporting people for religious or charitable reasons, or people that an attorney who represents an individual authorizes. 'Many times people are already afraid of law enforcement and are already afraid to tell them, 'Hey, something is going on, something is going wrong in my community, I need help.'' Hernandez-Alamillo said. ' Particularly as it involves human trafficking, and I think this will dampen those efforts to try and eliminate that issue in our society.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
CNN
07-04-2025
- Politics
- CNN
National Park Service removes references to Harriet Tubman from ‘Underground Railroad' webpage
An image of and quote from Harriet Tubman have been removed from a National Parks webpage about the 'Underground Railroad,' following several prominent changes to government websites under the Trump administration. The National Parks Service webpage for the 'Underground Railroad' used to lead with a quote from Tubman, the railroad's most famous 'conductor', a comparison on the Wayback Machine between the webpage on January 21 and March 19 shows. Both the quote and an image of Tubman have since been removed, along with several references to 'enslaved' people and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The Washington Post first reported on the changes. The webpage now leads with commemorative stamps of various civil rights leaders with text including the phrase 'Black/White Cooperation.' Whereas previously, the article started with a description of enslaved peoples' efforts to free themselves and the organization of the Underground Railroad after the Fugitive Slave Act, the article now starts with two paragraphs that emphasize the 'American ideals of liberty and freedom' and do not specifically mention slavery. Tubman's removal from the 'Underground Railroad' page 'is both offensive and absurd,' Fergus Bordewich, a historian and the author of a book about the Underground Railroad, told CNN Sunday. He described the new webpage as 'diminished in value by its brevity.' 'To oversimplify history is to distort it,' Bordewich went on. 'Americans are not infants: they can handle complex and challenging historical narratives. They do not need to be protected from the truth.' Janell Hobson, a professor of women's studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York, described Tubman as 'one of our greatest American heroes and definitely the greatest liberator in this nation' in an email to CNN. 'I hope that National Parks Service realize they owe it to her and other heroes like her to stand in the truth of what this history has been,' she said. There is a separate National Park Service webpage dedicated to Harriet Tubman, who was born into slavery in Maryland before fleeing to Philadelphia. She returned to Maryland over a dozen times to help free other slaves, guiding them through the 'Underground Railroad,' a secret network of routes and safe houses. The park service webpage on Tubman does not seem to have been changed since January 28, 2025. CNN has reached out to the National Park Service for comment. The past few months have also seen other controversial changes to government websites as the Trump administration enacts a campaign to eliminate DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion. The removal of the words 'transgender' and 'queer' from a National Parks Service webpage about Stonewall Monument in New York City triggered protests in February. In March, the Pentagon seemingly took down a page about Jackie Robinson, the trailblazing baseball player who became the first Black Major League Baseball athlete in the modern era, before restoring it. Articles about topics seemingly unrelated to DEI – including the Holocaust, cancer awareness, and sexual assault – have also been removed from Pentagon webpages. Pentagon officials were instructed to search for keywords like 'racism,' 'ethnicity,' 'LGBTQ,' 'history' and 'first' when identifying articles and photos to remove, multiple defense officials previously told CNN. In his second term, President Donald Trump has taken multiple steps to take control of American cultural and historical institutions, gutting the board of trustees at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC and targeting the Smithsonian Institution in an executive order in late March. In his order, Trump specifically identified the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Smithsonian American Art Museum as carrying exhibits and promoting language he deemed inappropriate.
