Book contents
- The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America
- The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Origins to 1838
- Part II 1838–1850
- 2 Under Siege
- 3 Bondage and Dignity
- 4 Free Soil
- Part III 1850–1860
- Epilogue
- Appendix
- Index
4 - Free Soil
Prigg, Latimer, and Open Resistance in the Upper North
from Part II - 1838–1850
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2019
- The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America
- The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Origins to 1838
- Part II 1838–1850
- 2 Under Siege
- 3 Bondage and Dignity
- 4 Free Soil
- Part III 1850–1860
- Epilogue
- Appendix
- Index
Summary
The chapter concludes the section by describing the relatively open operations of the Underground Railroad in the Free Soil Region. The roots of a distinct Free Soil culture of violence based on open defiance lay in the emergence of an African American ethos of self-assertion and community self-defense and in the abolitionist movement’s break with the culture of dignity, which led the movement to embrace the use of restrained violence to defend the “free soil” of the North. As a consequence, Underground activists in the region pioneered new and more open modes of operation. In Upper North strongholds such as Detroit; Oberlin, OH; central New York State; and Boston, abolitionists and vigilance committees publicly announced the passage of fugitives from enslavement and their efforts to provide assistance. The chapter concludes by examining the region’s increasingly open and successful defiance of state and federal fugitive slave laws, paying particular attention to the communal, interracial, and public nature of the resistance with which activists defended the region against the intrusion of slave catchers, regardless of the latter’s behavior.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020