The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required U.S. marshals in free states to capture people who were attempting to liberate themselves from slavery. While the act was meant to assuage the Southern malcontent at the admission of California as a free state in the same year, it prompted widespread protests in Northern cities from abolitionists who sought to prevent the enforcement of what they saw as a fundamentally evil law.
The fight against ICE has taken place in cities like Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Charlotte, where many of the same tactics used by abolitionists in the 19th century have been deployed. Then, like now, abolitionists would surround federal agents and demand that they leave town, organizing themselves into bands and engaging in secret communication—even going so far as to de-arrest individuals captured by federal agents. In 1851, Black abolitionists banded together to storm a Boston courthouse to liberate Shadrach Minkins, while in 1858, students and residents of Oberlin, Ohio, forcibly removed John Price from federal custody and sent him to safety in Canada.
Another way that the two moments parallel one another is the rise of religious resistance to federal law. Christians played a prominent role in the abolitionist movement, and their critiques of the state’s unjust laws resonate across the centuries and have become especially relevant to our moment. It seems like history is repeating itself, and if that’s the case, then Christians opposing ICE have plenty to learn from the abolitionists of the 19th century.
One case from the 19th century stands out to me as particularly resonant in this moment. In 1860, John Hossack was put on trial for his opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act. When an enslaved person, Jim Gray, attempted to liberate himself by escaping to Illinois, he was apprehended by U.S. Marshal Wm. H. Dougherty, who had to seek court approval to return him to a life of slavery in the South. Hossack and his fellow abolitionists surrounded those looking to arrest Gray and shouted to him, “If you want your liberty, come!” while abolitionists ushered Gray to a carriage waiting to take him to safety. This is perhaps a slightly more dramatic rendering of something I have seen several times, where ICE agents have been surrounded by concerned residents and, instead of detaining someone, ended up fleeing in their vehicles.