hat would be similar to Kansas deciding that the cattle driven up from Texas were wildlife and should be set free.
We all agree that a slave represented an enormously valuable commodity, and big bucks could equally well be had capturing runaways and selling them South.
Yet, this does not seem to have been common practice in the North, even adjacent to slave holding States. And Northern juries, as mentioned, simply ignored the law when it came to returning runaways.
On this general topic, one of the proudest incidents in that whole war, when the residents of Greencastle, Pa., south and west of Gettysburg, collectively flipped the bird at the Army of Northern Virginia, risking their lives over the issue of the local Free Blacks.
The ANV comes down through history largely un-tainted, and rightfully so. But when they went into Pennsylvania elements of their cavalry acted as slave-catchers, free-born and runaway alike....
For now, all that Jenkins was concerned with was removing the fifty or so black women and children out of Chambersburg. Before being transported south, they kept them in Greencastle.
When they were brought into the town, they were lightly guarded. Only a chaplain and four soldiers oversaw the wagons. A number of conscientious residents, perhaps even the Lincoln-man who was called an “abolitionist” by Jenkins the previous day, make a charge at the guards. They quickly disarmed them and took them to the jail. All of the black prisoners were freed.
It didn’t take long for Jenkins to catch wind of this bit of direct action (though it might have been the following day). He demanded $50,000 to compensate him for the people he was trying to kidnap, claiming they were his own property. The town council of Greencastle refused to pay him, and he threatened to burn down the town in retaliation.
Fourteen of the freed blacks approached the town council and offered to give themselves up to Jenkins to spare the town, but the council refused. Jenkins’ mind, however, was quickly brought to other fronts on the following day and never came back to Greencastle.
When passing though going north, I often stop in at Greencastle when I can....
Birdwatcher
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
