"Liberty Is Never Cheap": Emerson, "The Fugitive Slave Law," and the Antislavery Lecture Series at the Broadway Tabernacle

2003 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linck C. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Lecture Series ◽  
Fugitive Slave Law ◽  
Fugitive Slave

The Captive's Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Finkelman
Keyword(s):  
Fugitive Slaves ◽  
Fugitive Slave Law ◽  
Fugitive Slave

The Captive's Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery

The Civil War

1998 ◽  
pp. 173-187
Author(s):  
Sefton D. Temkin
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Underground Railroad ◽  
Fugitive Slave Law ◽  
Secession Crisis ◽  
Fugitive Slave

This chapter examines Isaac Mayer Wise during the secession crisis and the Civil War. When the possible dissolution of the Union first entered men’s minds, Wise was once again hoping to realize his plan of establishing a college, but the issues which led to secession must have forced themselves on his attention. Cincinnati stood on the border between free and slave states; its environs were the first stage on the ‘Underground Railroad’ by which slaves were taken to Canada for liberation; it was near the scene of attempts, sometimes the cause of riots, to arrest and return slaves under the Fugitive Slave Law. Yet the belief that the fires would cool was widespread, and Wise was by no means alone when he remarked that ‘the two extreme factions will be cooled down before the year ends’. The crisis did not abate, however.

In Nebraska

2008 ◽  
pp. 449-464
Author(s):  
John Roy Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Missouri River ◽  
Small Degree ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Dred Scott ◽  
Fugitive Slave Law ◽  
Fugitive Slave ◽  
First Time

This chapter details how John Roy Lynch's next station after being relieved from duty in Cuba was Omaha, Nebraska. When he crossed the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa, Lynch realized that for the first time in his life he had put foot on what may be called historic soil. It was the first time he had been that far west. Lynch had frequently passed through a number of the Western states, but had never before been as far west as the state of Nebraska. As a young man, he had read about the Missouri Compromise, the Dred Scott Decision, the Wilmot Proviso, the Kansas and Nebraska Bill, and the Fugitive Slave Law, all of which contributed in no small degree to what finally culminated in the War of the Rebellion. When Lynch reached the state of Nebraska, therefore, those important historical events were brought vividly to his memory.

The Sounds and Stages of Emerson’s Social Reform

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-232
Author(s):  
Nicole H. Gray
Keyword(s):  
Social Reform ◽  
National Anthem ◽  
Fugitive Slave Law ◽  
Fugitive Slave ◽  
Public Reaction

Nicole H. Gray, “The Sounds and Stages of Emerson’s Social Reform” (pp. 208–232) This essay argues that Ralph Waldo Emerson’s antislavery reform efforts in the 1850s depended on a theory of transformation and mediation that shares ground with his linguistic and philosophical experiments. I base this claim on a reading of the sounds and citations at work in one political address, delivered in 1854 as part of an extended public reaction to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. This essay takes up three different ways in which the structure of citation and revision (“recitation”) function in relation to this address. First, I discuss recitation in terms of critics’ conceptualization of Emerson’s general approach to language. Second, I consider Emerson’s recitation of a line from “La Marseillaise,” a revolutionary tune that became the French national anthem, in his journals and his speech. Finally, I turn to Emerson’s re-vision of his audience within this address, and in the space of his orations in general.

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