1850
Boston, Massachusetts, MA · On map
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 mandated that all citizens assist in capturing escaped slaves and denied Black people the right to testify in their own defense, leading to increased kidnappings of free Black people[1]. In Boston, abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Thomas Wentworth Higginson organized resistance, including the 1851 rescue of escaped slave George Baker, who was saved from federal agents[1]. The Act intensified conflicts between abolitionists and federal authorities, exemplifying the violent resistance to slavery in the North.
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