The Unlawful Northern Law Shield

Oddly enough, I have read several different “slave” narratives and always have been disgusted of how inhumane the masters were towards their slaves. Yet it was after having read Fredrick Douglass’ narrative story- or at least the introduction part- that I found myself thinking about the legal system for the first time. In Douglass’ preface, he describes that although the Northern slaves were better treated than the Southern slaves, the owners still had no real concept of social and humane injustices. There is one passage enclosed where it tells the story of a slave being shot to death in Maryland by his wonder’s son, simply because the “servant” disobeyed his demand. Even in Maryland, where the Northern Law Shield seemed to be more advanced and respected than southern law. Although I was aware that slaves had no rights, it’s odd to think that the law had no protection, nor did they ever prosecute the owner’s under extreme cases of cruelty, such as the example given above. Instead the owners are allowed to do as they please, take the life of an innocent man and abuse their “servants” and remain unmolested by Northern law, “they cannot be put on trial, no matter how diabolic it (the actions taken against the slaves) is.” (Note: the barbaric and sickening scene in the first chapter of the book where the overseer- Mr. Plumber cuts the women, and had great pleasure of the women getting whipped until her back were covered in blood.)

For the most part of the narratives pertaining to this genre, the setting happens more in the Southern States, yet it seems rare for a depiction of how Northern slaves were treated. Although in the preface and throughout the first half of the book, the narrator clearly points out that he didn’t suffer as much as the other slaves in the other plantations, that his orders were more lenient and he wasn’t brutally mistreated as the slaves in the south, I still was shocked with the lack of social and lawful justice in the North, which seemed to contradict the image of the more public, more positive image of the East, “New England, cutting lose from the blood stained union…house of refuge for the oppressed.”

This book, in comparison to the more emotionally driven narrative of Harriet Jacobs’ “Incidents of Life a Slave Girl” really paints a more detailed picture of the laws- or therefore lack there of- and the shift (through a more Lawful and logistical objective) that happened in New England in comparison to the Southern states.