In 1850 the federal government passed the Fugitive Slave Law. This was pushed through congress by powerful southern legislators and was designed to stop the flow of runaway slaves to the north. Once in a northern free state, a slave was free and basically lost to the slave owner. This thing bothered the white bosses of the south, many of who were congressmen, so, you can see how that turned out.
The Fugitive Slave Law stated that any runaway slave found in the north should be returned to their southern owners as well as stating that northern whites would be liable to help in any way possible, while providing stiff levies for turning a blind eye and even harsher for actually helping runaways. This began to scare off some of the less bold abolitionists in the underground railroad.
Enter William Still, a freedman living in Philly, who knew the law rather well. He was also a busy underground railroad worker, ferrying many hundreds of people to the "north" at first, and then, after 1850, all the way to Canada.
Now, Jane Johnson enters the picture. She was a slave who worked for a former ambassador to Nicaragua. She, with two of her children (a third had been sold a few years prior to this year), she was brought with John Wheeler, the former ambassador, into Philadelphia on the way to NY top catch a ship for a return voyage to Nicaragua.
Jane Johnson had no intention of going to New York, or Nicaragua, or having anymore of her kids sold at someone else's whim. She'd planned to escape once they reached New York, but she was literate and knew of William Still's love of the Pennsylvania's legal loophole.
The Fugitive Slave Law had very specific proscriptions for how to deal with
runaway slaves. It didn't have anything to say about slaves brought into the state of Pennsylvania, which was a free state. It was determined that if a slave was brought from the south into Pennsylvania with their "owner", they could choose to leave the control of that person and declare themselves free. They could also choose not to, but you can imagine how often that happened.
Maybe more than you think. The chances are better that nobody really knew about the loophole. But, in a sensational legal event, Jane Johnson got mention of her passing moments in Philadelphia to William Still, who sped across town to meet their group. As Wheeler and Jane were getting onto a ferry, Still showed up with five big dock workers (all freedmen). He told her, "You're in Pennsylvania, and if you'd like to be free, you would be." She responded that she wanted to be free, wherein the dock workers restrained Wheeler while Still and Jane took out for safer pastures.
In the trial that ensued, Philadelphia, while free, wasn't an serious abolitionist city, but took offense to the federal judge Kane, a pro-slavery friend of Wheeler, imposing an interpretation of a federal statute that was ambiguous in favor of the view of the south.
If the north had to respect the "property" laws of the south, wouldn't the south have to respect the "freedom" laws of the north?
Jane Johnson herself testified in the trial of William Still, who was being tried for kidnapping a slave. She fully exonerated him when she testified that she had always intended to leave Wheeler and would rather die than return.
Passmore Williamson, the white counterpart to Still and the leader of Pennsylvania's abolitionists, spent a longer time in lockup--five months--having been found guilty of contempt of court.
Jane Johnson lived the remaining 18 years peacefully in Boston. Some scholars have alleged that she was the true author of
The Bondwoman's Narrative, the given author's name being Hannah Craft. The story mirrors Jane's life experience rather closely and has accurate period facts. If she was the true author, it would be the first novel written by a woman slave ever discovered.
Here's a
link about the whole episode.
