A Letter to the American Slaves from those who have fled from American Slavery

This episode is a reading from the convention meeting minutes for the Fugitive Slave Law Convention in Cazenovia, New York, August 21-22, 1850. The convention was held to condemn the Fugitive Slave Act which was soon to pass in Congress. The Act made it legal for bounty hunters to capture “fugitive slaves” in free states and take them back into slavery. Attended by prominent abolitionists including Frederick Douglas, the Edmonson sisters and 50 other Black people who had fled slavery, it was the largest gathering of “fugitive” formerly enslaved people in the United States.