Trial by Jury, or Kidnapping in New York: Fugitive Slaves, Black Protest, and Legal Change in the 1830s

that Massachusetts legislators had proposed a bill to provide jury trials for alleged

fugitive slaves. Directly below that item, the Enquirer printed news of the ongoing case

of alleged fugitive William Dixon in New York. Dixon had been briefly liberated when

more than one thousand black New Yorkers, dissatisfied with their legal options, attacked

his police escort on the steps of City Hall. Two months before that, New Jersey

legislators had passed their own law to provide jury trials at the request of any alleged

fugitive, fueling activists who sought similar measures in neighboring states. Those

activists and legislators chose that moment to seek new securities for black freedom. The

National Enquirer made manifest the connections among those pursuits across state lines.

How and why did such violent and transformative events in the law and politics of

slavery happen in that particular historical moment?

Black activists, many of whom were fugitive slaves, helped to radicalize

antislavery in the antebellum period. But what was the relationship between black protest,

radical abolitionism, and transforming laws regarding fugitive slaves? How exactly were

activist projects connected across local communities in places like New York, New

Jersey, and Pennsylvania? And how were extralegal acts like the rescue of William Dixon

linked to jury trial and personal liberty laws? By exploring these questions, this paper

seeks a fuller understanding of the geography of black politics, the ways ideas and

agendas moved within and between communities. This enriches our sense of black

identity, offering insight into the ways activists saw themselves in relation to colleagues

in other cities and states. Ultimately, this allows us to think about how the law and

politics of slavery and antislavery developed both locally and across the antebellum free

states.