An engagingly written, meticulously documented study of antislavery
ferment just north of the Mason-Dixon line in a region of
geographical, economic, cultural, and historical "edges."
In On the Edge of Freedom, David G. Smith breaks new ground by
illuminating the unique development of antislavery sentiment in
south central Pennsylvania-a border region of a border state with a
complicated history of slavery, antislavery activism, and unequal
freedom. During the antebellum decades every single fugitive slave
escaping by land east of the Appalachian Mountains had to pass
through the region, where they faced both significant opportunities
and substantial risks. While the hundreds of fugitives traveling
through south central Pennsylvania (defined as Adams, Franklin, and
Cumberland counties) during this period were aided by an effective
Underground Railroad, they also faced slave catchers and informers.
"Underground" work such as helping fugitive slaves appealed to
border antislavery activists who shied away from agitating for
immediate abolition in a region with social, economic, and kinship
ties to the South.
And, as early antislavery protests met fierce resistance, area
activists adopted a less confrontational approach, employing the
more traditional political tools of the petition and legal action.
Smith traces the victories of antislavery activists in south
central Pennsylvania, including the achievement of a strong
personal liberty law and the aggressive prosecution of kidnappers
who seized innocent African Americans as fugitives. He also
documents how their success provoked Southern retaliation and the
passage of a strengthened Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. The Civil War
then intensified the debate over fugitive slaves, as hundreds of
escaping slaves, called "contrabands" sought safety in the area,
and scores were recaptured by the Confederate army during the
Gettysburg campaign.
On the Edge of Freedom explores in captivating detail the fugitive
slave issue through fifty years of sectional conflict, war, and
reconstruction in south central Pennsylvania and provocatively
questions what was gained by the activists' pragmatic approach of
emphasizing fugitive slaves over immediate abolition and full
equality. Smith argues that after the war, social and demographic
changes in southern Pennsylvania worked against African Americans
achieving equal opportunity, and although local literature
portrayed this area as a vanguard of the Underground Railroad,
African Americansstill lived "on the edge of freedom." By the
1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was rallying near the Gettysburg
battlefield, and south central Pennsylvania became, in some ways,
as segregated as the Jim Crow South. The fugitive slave issue, by
reinforcing images of dependency, may have actually worked against
the achievement of lasting social change.
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