mar 1, 1842 - Prigg v. Pennsylvania

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Congress had passed the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law, which gave slave owners the right to cross state lines in order to reclaim runaways. Intended to protect the rights of slave owners, the law had the secondary effect of threatening the liberty of free African Americans, who were sometimes seized by slave catchers and forced into bondage. In 1826, Pennsylvania passed anti-kidnapping laws, making it more difficult for African Americans to be removed from the state under false pretenses.

n 1837, Edward Prigg entered the state of Pennsylvania as the agent of Margaret Ashmore, a slave owner from Maryland, on a mission to find Ashmore's escaped slave Margaret Morgan. According to Pennsylvania law, in order to remove Morgan from the state Prigg had to acquire certain documents from local authorities. After officials told him that he lacked sufficient evidence of ownership to legally remove Morgan and her two children, Prigg took matters into his own hands and seized the family without state permission. Convicted under Pennsylvania's anti-kidnapping statute, Prigg appealed his case on the grounds that the law was unconstitutional. Pennsylvania's anti-kidnapping statute, he argued, violated both Article IV of the Constitution and the federal Fugitive Slave Law of 1793.

The Court held that Pennsylvania had wrongly convicted Prigg. Both the majority opinion and the dissenting views in Prigg v. Pennsylvania ultimately favored federal over state law -- and upheld the rights of slave owners. The Court's decision provoked outrage across the North, spurring the creation of "personal liberty laws" -- forbidding state officials from participating in the return of fugitive slaves -- throughout Northern states. Without the cooperation of the North, the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act lost all efficacy. Within the decade, however, a new Fugitive Slave Act was adopted. Under the terms of the 1850 law, federal officials were stationed in non-slave holding states to enforce the return of runaway slaves.

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