“A War Between Officers”: The Enforcement of Slavery in the Northern United States, and Of the Republic for Which It Stands, Before the Civil War

• Published in: Studies in American political development 1998-10, Vol.12 (2), p.343-382
• Main Author: ORREN, KAREN
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: American Civil War; Federal states; Freedom; Law enforcement; Slavery; Slaves; U.S.A
• ISSN: 0898-588X; 1469-8692
• DOI: 10.1017/S0898588X98001564

I will begin this essay with a fugitive slave case in my home state of California, Ex parte Archy, decided by the state Supreme Court in 1858.9 Cal. 147 (1858). A full narrative of the case is in Paul Finkel man, “The Law of Slavery and Freedom in California, 1848–1860,” California Western Law Review 17 (1981): 437–464. While he lived in Mississippi, Archy (Lee), nineteen years old, was the slave of a man named Charle s Stovall. In 1857, Stovall brought Archy with him to California on a visit for health reasons, planning to stay no more than eighteen months. Having sold his wagon and team before crossing the Sierras, Stovall bought a farm, moved to Sacramento, and open ed a school. He hired Archy out to another man, but after a few weeks, when the slave became ill, he put him on a river steamer to San Francisco with the intention of shipping him back to Mississippi in the custody of an agent. Archy escaped.