jazzeum
Four Star General
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2005
- Messages
- 38,257
I have been reading Eric Foner's The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (highly recommended, one of the books of the year, hands down) and an interesting adjunct on this question was the requirement that slaves were to be returned to their owners under the Fugitive Slave Act, one of the various acts enacted as part of the Compromise of 1850. This is part of what Butler and others were trying to circumscribe.
In March 1862, Congress approved a new article of war that forbade army an navy officers from returning fugitive slaves under threat of court martial, which President Lincoln then signed into the law. This, in effect, superseded the Fugitive Slave Act. The article didn't differentiate between fugitive slaves from loyal or disloyal owners or those who escaped in Union and Confederate states.
In March 1862, Congress approved a new article of war that forbade army an navy officers from returning fugitive slaves under threat of court martial, which President Lincoln then signed into the law. This, in effect, superseded the Fugitive Slave Act. The article didn't differentiate between fugitive slaves from loyal or disloyal owners or those who escaped in Union and Confederate states.