This lecture will uncover the long, fraught history of laws that policed fugitives from slavery in Connecticut. Leaders in Connecticut enacted laws designed to restrict the mobility of African Americans and empower enslavers to reclaim freedom seekers from across the institution’s history in the state. Amid the gradual abolition of slavery in Connecticut, Black and white residents alike were increasingly subjected to the enforcement of federal fugitive slave laws in the state. Those laws, particularly the infamous 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, put African Americans in the state at risk of being kidnapped into slavery. Connecticut abolitionists appealed to the state government to resist federal intervention and secure the legal rights of the state’s Black community through a series of “personal liberty laws.” The conflict that ensued casts new light on the downfall of American slavery and carries important lessons for today about how state governments can protect their residents.
Evan Turiano is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Law at Trinity College. He received his Ph.D. in History from the Graduate Center, City University of New York in 2022. His writing has appeared in the Journal of the Civil War Era, Reviews in American History, and the Washington Post. Dr. Turiano has been a visiting research fellow at Yale’s Beinecke Library, the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. His first book will examine political and legal fights over freedom seekers and how they shaped the course of American legal history.
The Witness to History: Slavery in Guilford initiative explores the history of slavery in Guilford, examines its lasting legacy, and shares its findings with the community.
This program is free and open to all.
Please register.