"It outlaws me, and I outlaw it!" Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law in Syracuse, New York

Howard Holman Bell's generalization that "the decade of the `fifties was one in which the Negro sought in various ways to work out his own destiny"(7) is illustrated in the actions of the black community of Syracuse. As in other places throughout the North, they were willing to become "more radical, more self-contained, and more independent" with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.(8) Thus, its members did not rule out the use of violence in their resistance to the law. One of the resolutions of the September meeting stated that a man threatened with arrest under the act "is justifiable in resorting to any means, even if it be the taking of the life of him who seeks to deprive of us of what is dearer than life." Other resolutions pledged to "take the scalp of any government hound, that dares follow on our track", and should slave hunters approach their families to "slay them as we would any other legalized land pirates."(9) Others also emphasized the law of the land as their chief concern, although they encouraged resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law because they believed that it was not constitutional. Charles Wheaton, who was a Liberty Party man, told the members of the convention, "Your proud state is to be made the hunting ground for the dealers in human flesh." He called for the state of New York to unite against the law, attacking the constitutionality of the law's provisions, specifically concerning the denial of trial by jury.(17) Charles Sedgewick, who had helped to organize the new Free Soil party in Syracuse, addressed the crowd on the unconstitutional nature of the law as well, calling for defiance of what he termed "the vilest law that tyranny ever devised."(18) He claimed that "good citizens were under no obligation to sustain it...and should anyone fleeing from bondage seek an asylum at his house, let no `agent or attorney' of any pretended owner spirit him away."(19) Reverend Robert R. Raymond, one of the town's ministers, echoed this pledge, inviting any "persons fleeing from oppression" to his house, as it was his duty as a minister of God to "oppose this most unrighteous law."(20) The Star also held a "Law and Order" meeting that the paper declared to be "the largest and most enthusiastic gathering ever assembled in Syracuse," but in the same article the paper admits that disunity existed due to the presence of "the disorganizers - Abolitionists, quasi Abolitionists...The lawbreakers of the recent riot" at the meeting.(71) The