奴隶制运动
Broadside printed by Benjamin Roberts for the Boston Vigilance Committee. Boston Public Library, Rare Books and 手稿 Department, H.90.293.
谴责奴隶制，保护寻求自由的人
From his teenage years in the employ of Ellis Gray Loring through the end of the Civil War, 罗伯特•莫里斯 fought to end slavery and protect fugitives from slavery, 经常把自己置于极大的危险之中. He regularly participated in meetings, conventions, and committees dedicated to those goals. 莫里斯是波士顿警戒委员会的活跃成员, 通过提供食物来帮助逃亡者的跨种族团体, 钱, 避难所, 旅行费用, 法律代表, and an active network of spies who alerted the community about the presence of kidnappers and slave catchers. After the Fugitive Slave Act became law in September 1850, antislavery efforts redoubled. That law allowed federal officials to arrest suspected fugitives and return them to slavery with minimal legal process, 无陪审团审判, 也没有上诉的机会. Morris soon became a central figure in one of the major Boston cases to arise under the Fugitive Slave Act.
“Let us be bold, if any man flies from slavery, and comes among us. 当他找到我们时，我们会说，他已经走得够远了. 如果有人到新贝德福德来, 他们想把他带走, 你打电报给我们在波士顿, 我们会有三百人下来, and stay with you; and we won’t go until he’s safe.”
波士顿法院位于法院街26号. where Shadrach Minkins was taken after his arrest and then rescued. 由历史悠久的新英格兰提供.
Shadrach Minkins案
In May 1850, Shadrach Minkins escaped from slavery in Norfolk County, Virginia and settled in Boston. A few months later, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 became law, setting the city on edge. 2月15日上午, 1851, Minkins left for work at the Cornhill Coffee House in downtown Boston, 在法院街和华盛顿街的交叉路口附近. 那天上午晚些时候, 这时明金斯正在履行他的侍者职责, federal officials served him with an arrest warrant alleging that he was a fugitive from slavery in Virginia and took him to the nearby courthouse.
Newspaper clipping from Morris's scrapbook on the Minkins case and rescue trials. 由广州历史学会提供.
罗伯特·莫里斯，小理查德·亨利·达纳.埃利斯·格雷·洛林(莫里斯的法律导师)，约翰·G·莫里斯. 金(莫里斯来自塞勒姆的前雇主), and other lawyers from the Boston Vigilance Committee immediately volunteered to represent Minkins. 他们设法把诉讼推迟了三天. 联邦法警正在清理法庭, a group of rescuers grabbed Minkins from their custody and carried him into the street. 具体情况因账户而异, but Minkins ultimately escaped to 加拿大 and lived in Montreal until his death in 1875.
“罗伯特·莫里斯先生被捕.," 波士顿先驱报 1851年3月1日.
莫里斯受审
的 drama continued for 罗伯特•莫里斯 after Shadrach Minkins’s escape to 加拿大. President Millard Fillmore and many federal officials in Boston 被救援激怒了吗. 波士顿联邦检察官开始 arresting and indicting suspected participants in the rescue, including 罗伯特·莫里斯和 路易斯·海登. 莫里斯、海登和其他五人被起诉 violating Section 7 of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made it a 帮助逃犯逃跑的犯罪行为.
莫里斯的 first trial ended in a mistrial after one juror indicated that he was 不愿执行《逃奴法案. 在第二次审判中， 莫里斯的律师小理查德·亨利·达纳. 和约翰·帕克·黑尔，不得不这么做 contend with several eyewitnesses who testified to 莫里斯的 involvement. 的se witnesses alleged that Morris indicated to a group gathered outside of the courtroom that there was a good opportunity to act once the courtroom had emptied; that Morris was in a carriage with Minkins before it became necessary to proceed on foot due to the crowd in the street; and that Morris was walking down the street with his arm on minkin回来了. 达娜和黑尔认为这是违宪的 《电子游戏正规平台》的不适用性，重点是 inconsistencies in the various accounts, and gathered thirteen character 莫里斯的证人. 陪审团于11月12日裁定莫里斯无罪， 1851.
Account Book of Francis Jackson, Treasurer: 的 Vigilance Committee of Boston, 1850–1861. 马萨诸塞州历史学会收藏.
除了面对自己的审判, 莫里斯至少代表了另一名被指控的救援人员, 詹姆斯·斯科特. 莫里斯的 scrapbook of the case includes newspaper clippings and his handwritten notes on the testimony of witnesses in his and Scott’s cases.
的 Vigilance Committee covered the expenses related to Minkins’s representation and the trials of the alleged rescuers. In the aftermath of the rescue trials, Morris publicly maintained his innocence. 值得注意的是, 然而, 1889年刘易斯·海登去世后, 一位朋友分享了海登对1851年2月那一天的描述. 据朋友说, Hayden had described how he and 罗伯特•莫里斯 escorted Minkins to the nearby home of Elizabeth Riley, who hid Minkins in her attic until he could be transported out of Boston.
安东尼•伯恩斯. 美国国会图书馆.
在明金斯之前和之后
In the years before the Shadrach Minkins rescue and 莫里斯的 own acquittal in the rescue trial, 罗伯特·莫里斯为利文·杨保住了失去的工资, an eighteen-year-old sailor who had been enslaved aboard a ship despite a written contract with the captain. 在19世纪40年代末和50年代初, he raised 钱 to secure the acquittal of Captain Daniel Drayton, who was charged with helping 77 fugitives from slavery escape from Washington D.C.
In 1854, Morris and other Vigilance Committee lawyers volunteered to represent 安东尼•伯恩斯, 另一个在波士顿被捕的寻求自由的人. 当一群人试图营救伯恩斯时, 一个守卫法院的联邦法警, 詹姆斯Batchelder, 被杀. Burns was returned to slavery in Virginia, and the would-be rescuers were charged. 莫里斯也代表他们.
申请人身保护令 filed by Morris on behalf of 玛丽 Miranda. 马萨诸塞州最高司法法院档案.
In 1856, 莫里斯帮助玛丽·米兰达获得了自由, a young girl of color who had been formerly enslaved or perhaps indentured in the South. 玛丽, who was thirteen or fourteen at the time Morris filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on her behalf, 多年前被派往波士顿协助一位. 和夫人. 约翰W. 史密斯和他们的孩子. 她说史密斯一家认为她是奴隶, 限制了她的自由, and threatened her with jail if she had contact with any people of color. 法官于1856年11月下令释放玛丽.