By the 1850s, the Robbins family and fellow abolitionists were angry. The nation had passed a Fugitive Slave Act that allowed slavecatchers, with the cooperation of the authorities, to openly operate in Boston to grab free Blacks and self-emancipated men and women off the street.
In this two-part “Backstories” conversation, historians Kathleen Dalton and Dean Grodzins talk about the Fugitive Slave Act and how Black and white anti-slavery leaders worked together to create a coalition to resist and thwart these slavecatchers.
Boston Thwarts Kidnappers in the 1850s-All Hell Breaks Loose (YouTube, 51 min.)
The Constitution, Early Fugitive Slave Laws, & Rise of an Unpopular Anti- Slavery Abolition Movement (YouTube, 35 min.)