Fugitive Slave Law of 1793
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The 1793 Fugitive Slave Law was written in response to a conflict between Pennsylvania and Virginia. Although the problem of fugitive slaves was addressed at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 (in Article IV, Section 2 in the final document), there was an assumption that interstate cooperation would allow this provision to be enforced. In reality, differences of moral attitudes and questions over legal responsibility for enforcement made the rendition of fugitives difficult. The particular case that forced the US Congress's hand in 1793 centered around John Davis. Pennsylvania's governor, Thomas Mifflin, sought the extradition of three Virginians accused of kidnapping Davis and taking him to Virginia. Virginia's governor, Beverly Randolph, refused the extradition request on the grounds that Davis was a fugitive slave subject to rendition. Mifflin objected claiming that Davis was free and should be protected. The 1793 Fugitive Slave Law that was written in response to this interstate struggle marked the first of several federal attempts to balance the rights of personal liberty and personal property.
Although slaves' legal status as property disqualified them from claiming constitutional rights, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 denied these rights to freed slaves as well. Escaped slaves were not allowed jury trials, and it was not uncommon for runaways to be refused permission to present proof of their freedom.
Text of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793
ART. 4. For the better security of the peace and friendship now entered into by the contracting parties, against all infractions of the same, by the citizens of either party, to the prejudice of the other, neither party shall proceed to the infliction of punishments on the citizens of the other, otherwise than by securing the offender, or offenders, by imprisonment, or any other competent means, till a fair and impartial trial can be had by judges or juries of both parties, as near as can be, to the laws, customs, and usage's of the contracting parties, and natural justice: the mode of such trials to be hereafter fixed by the wise men of the United States, in congress assembled, with the assistance of such deputies of the Delaware nation, as may be appointed to act in concert with them in adjusting this matter to their mutual liking. And it is further agreed between the parties aforesaid, that neither shall entertain, or give countenance to, the enemies of the other, or protect, in their respective states, criminal fugitives, servants, or slaves, but the same to apprehend and secure, and deliver to the state or states, to which such enemies, criminals, servants, or slaves, respectively below (sic).