자유인의 독립선언 －1857년 오하이오 인신자유법－ (Freemen’s Declaration of Independence: The Ohio Personal Liberty Laws of 1857)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국서양사학회
· 수록지 정보 : 서양사론 / 116호 / 243 ~ 277페이지
· 저자명 : 허현

초록

This study examines Ohio abolitionists’ struggle to adopt personal liberty laws from the repeal of the state Fugitive Slave Law of 1839 to the adoption of personal liberty laws securing legal protection for fugitive slaves and free blacks and challenging the federal fugitive slave laws. Although the Ohio Fugitive Slave Law was repealed in 1843, its repeal did not lead to the adoption of a follow-up measure for the protection of blacks, fugitive and free, as was becoming common in other Northern states. From 1843 on, the struggle to adopt personal liberty laws defined antislavery politics in Ohio. Unlike the general trend across the North, in which Free Soil and Republican political antislavery focused on the restriction of slavery in the western territories, slave-centered abolitionism remained dominant in Ohio. Even when sectional conflicts escalated and Republican leaders stressed the necessity of political compromise and conciliation, antislavery radicals in Ohio persisted in radical antislavery campaigns to repudiate the federal fugitive slave laws and adopt personal liberty laws. Considering the existence of strong proslavery interests, it is quite possible that the pro-southern and anti-black elements in Ohio were strong enough to crush every attempt to adopt even moderate personal liberty laws. Further, given the conservatism of the Whigs and their frequent anti-abolitionist moves in state legislature, it came as no surprise that the Whigs’ fear of a personal liberty law and its radicalism frustrated antislavery forces in their campaigns to pass personal liberty laws. The Whigs harbored strong suspicion that radical personal liberty laws would create unfolding political and economic crises between Ohio and the neighboring slaveholding states,to say nothing of threatening Unionism.
Despite the anti-abolitionists’ antagonism, the persistence of personal liberty politics (including challenges to the constitutionality of the federal Fugitive Slave Law), the dissolution of the Whigs, the growth of the Republican Party, and the assertion of the states’ sovereignty against the Slave Power finally broke down the walls of anti-abolitionism in Ohio and led to the passage of personal liberty laws in 1857.
Ohio abolitionists intended personal liberty laws not merely to provide assistance to fugitive slaves but to undermine the system which enslaved them. The belated adoption of the personal liberty laws in 1857 rather dramatized the transformation of the Ohio legal mind compelled by the indomitable Ohio abolitionists.

영어초록

This study examines Ohio abolitionists’ struggle to adopt personal liberty laws from the repeal of the state Fugitive Slave Law of 1839 to the adoption of personal liberty laws securing legal protection for fugitive slaves and free blacks and challenging the federal fugitive slave laws. Although the Ohio Fugitive Slave Law was repealed in 1843, its repeal did not lead to the adoption of a follow-up measure for the protection of blacks, fugitive and free, as was becoming common in other Northern states. From 1843 on, the struggle to adopt personal liberty laws defined antislavery politics in Ohio. Unlike the general trend across the North, in which Free Soil and Republican political antislavery focused on the restriction of slavery in the western territories, slave-centered abolitionism remained dominant in Ohio. Even when sectional conflicts escalated and Republican leaders stressed the necessity of political compromise and conciliation, antislavery radicals in Ohio persisted in radical antislavery campaigns to repudiate the federal fugitive slave laws and adopt personal liberty laws. Considering the existence of strong proslavery interests, it is quite possible that the pro-southern and anti-black elements in Ohio were strong enough to crush every attempt to adopt even moderate personal liberty laws. Further, given the conservatism of the Whigs and their frequent anti-abolitionist moves in state legislature, it came as no surprise that the Whigs’ fear of a personal liberty law and its radicalism frustrated antislavery forces in their campaigns to pass personal liberty laws. The Whigs harbored strong suspicion that radical personal liberty laws would create unfolding political and economic crises between Ohio and the neighboring slaveholding states,to say nothing of threatening Unionism.
Despite the anti-abolitionists’ antagonism, the persistence of personal liberty politics (including challenges to the constitutionality of the federal Fugitive Slave Law), the dissolution of the Whigs, the growth of the Republican Party, and the assertion of the states’ sovereignty against the Slave Power finally broke down the walls of anti-abolitionism in Ohio and led to the passage of personal liberty laws in 1857.
Ohio abolitionists intended personal liberty laws not merely to provide assistance to fugitive slaves but to undermine the system which enslaved them. The belated adoption of the personal liberty laws in 1857 rather dramatized the transformation of the Ohio legal mind compelled by the indomitable Ohio abolitionists.

참고자료

· 없음