The legislature of Vermont passed a new Personal Liberty Bill - "An Act to Secure Freedom to All Persons Within this State" - and the governor signed it into law. In a direct challenge to the federal Fugitive Slave Law, the Act was explicit in its defense of escaped slaves, saying at one point that any slave reaching the state is deemed to be free and that anyone attempting to hold such a person shall be liable to a fine and fifteen years in prison. On May 10, 1861, the legislature repealed the law as "inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States." (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Charlton Thomas Lewis, Joseph H. Willsey, Harper's Book of Facts: A Classified History of the World; Embracing Science, Literature, and Art (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1895), 905.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating