what was surprising was that not all black men were property. What was foul was the money motive that would cause people in the north to kidnap free black men in the north and sell them in the south.... what was really foul was the way the people in the south treated black people, whether they had once been free or had been born in slavery notwithstanding.
Kidnapping of Free People of Color
While students may know about the Underground Railroad, which moved enslaved persons north to freedom, they may know less about the reverse movement of free African Americans in the north who were moved south and forced into slavery. Last week we shared
The Documents Behind Twelve Years a Slave, the story of Solomon Northup’s kidnapping into slavery. The newly released movie
Twelve Years a Slave is based on Northup’s autobiography. Northup’s story may be the most well known, but he was by no means the only one who endured this calamity.
The nature of this crime makes it impossible to know how many free African Americans were kidnapped and enslaved. Many of the kidnapped African Americans were sold “down the river” and, unlike Solomon Northup, no one heard from them again. Today we share a document from the Center for Legislative Archives in the National Archives that illustrates the devastating problem of pre-Civil War kidnapping of free African Americans.
The number of free African Americans in the north increased after the American Revolution, due to emancipation laws in northern states, private manumissions, and the ability of some slaves to buy their own freedom. These free African Americans were easy prey for kidnappers, who, under the guise of the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act, kidnapped and sold them into slavery. Some slave catchers did not take the time to ensure that the identity of the person they captured matched the one they were legally allowed to seize.
Letter from Quaker Elisha Tyson to Rep. McKim regarding the kidnapping of free people of color, December 5, 1811; Records of the U.S. House of Representatives.
(Continued)
http://blogs.archives.gov/education/2013/11/12/kidnapping-of-free-people-of-color/
