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The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made it a crime for a citizen to harbor a runaway slave or to offer any assistance to slaves who had run away from their masters. The act was part of the compromise of ...

This opposition between federal authorities and local communities is hardly new. As a scholar of slavery and emancipation, I have studied the long history of African-American communities and how they ...

Historian Andrew Delbanco says the 1850 law paved the way for the Civil War by endangering the lives of both escaped slaves and free black men and women in the North. His book, 'The War Before The War ...

Over the past year, public debate over the issue of “sanctuary” cities has become increasingly commonplace but no less urgent. Local communities and institutions such as churches have been shielding ...