Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of SlaveryR. J. M.Blackett. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013.

Abstract

Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery R. J. M. Blackett. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013.This compact and highly-readable book focuses on cases of escapes from slavery in the years surrounding the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. Despite the uniqueness of the time period leading up to the Civil War, today's readers will see striking similarities between the events described in this book and modern American culture, most notably, a bitterly divided public and polarizing political debates which are carried out in the media.The volume's three main chapters address, respectively, a case study of the flight and attempted recapture of a slave (Henry Banks) from Virginia, the handling- and effects-of multiple Pennsylvania cases pertaining to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the struggles between fugitive slaves and their allies and those who sought to preserve slavery. The author assumes that the reader has rudimentary knowledge of the Underground Railroad, the Fugitive Slave Law, and the geography of slavery in the US.Blackett builds a strong case for viewing fugitive slaves as self-motivated agents actively and ardently pursuing liberty, preferring to live free under threat of recapture and punishment than to continue living under slavery. The author emphasizes that while there were whites and free black people assisting fugitives at many points along the path to freedom, we should not underestimate the efforts and determination of the fugitive slaves themselves. Blackett hints that early works on this subject placed too much emphasis on the roles played by white Quakers; he prefers to follow more recent works which give proper recognition to the escapees.Additionally, author weaves an argument which ties the actions of escapees to national and international political debates over slavery, showing how the pursuit and recapture of fugitive slaves under the Fugitive Slave Act led to much-publicized legal proceedings that media in free and slave states used to inflame passions on the issue. Large numbers of local residents often involved themselves in these trials, which made for bigger media coverage. In the case of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where slavery sympathizer Richard McAllister had been appointed to oversee fugitive slave cases in the area, years of perfunctory rulings in favor of slave owners led to such negative public sentiment that after McAllister left the job in disgrace, no one else would replace him. …