Chapter 58: Northerners rebel against the new Fugitive Slave Act.

The ink is hardly dry on the 1850 Compromise when a backlash materializes across the North, centered mainly in Boston. Even for those indifferent to the fate of black people, the notion of Southern bounty hunters, armed with shotguns and chains and wandering around their neighborhoods, is alarming – as is the legal demand to actively participate in the process, under the threat of fines.

On February 15, 1851 a mob enters the federal courthouse in Boston and forcibly removes Virginia run-away Shadrach Minkins and escorts him to freedom. Seven conspirators are tried but acquitted on all counts.

Two months later fugitive Thomas Sims leaves the court surrounded by 300 sabre wielding policemen and is put on a ship back to Charleston where he is greeted by 39 lashes then auctioned off to an owner in New Orleans.