Slavery in the Law

Constitution, 1787
Major Pierce Butler
Delegate to the Constitutional Convention from South Carolina, 1787

Rev. Manasseh Cutler
Representative of N.W. ordinance preventing expansion of slavery

Gen. Charles Pinckney
Delegate from South Carolina responsible for extending the slave trade

Delegate James Wilson
Delegate from Pennsylvania to the Constitutional Convention, 1787

Fugitive Slave Law, 1850
Rep. Henry Clay
Leading Congressman and speaker from Kentucky, author of "Mo. Compromise"

Sen. John C. Crittenden
Senator from Kentucky, author of a "Compromises of 1860"

Sen. Stephen A. Douglas
Senator, responsible for Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

Pres. Millard Fillmore
President, responsible for the "Compromises of 1860"

Pres. Abraham Lincoln
President, many anti-slavery issues

Rep. Robert Smalls
First black congressman after the Civil War

Pres. George Washington
President, freeing slaves on his plantation

Rep. David Wilmot
Proposed “Proviso” limiting expansion of slavery

Mrs. Henry Pinckney
Responsible for the “Gag Rule” of 1836

Gen. Robert E. Lee
Commander of the Army of Virginia, 1861-1865

Sen. Charles Sumner
Leading radical reconstructionist from Massachusetts

Rep. Thaddeus Stevens
Leading radical reconstructionist from Pennsylvania

Dred Scott
Major slave case goes to Supreme Court and decision

Chief Justice Taney
Supreme Court Justice presided over "Dred Scott Case", 1858

Joseph Cinqué
Leader of the Amistad slaves freed in 1841

Jane Bryant
Slave freed by legal case in Illinois

Booker T. Washington
Black slave educator in Alabama

Slave Girl
Female slave sold in Ohio witnessed, 1834

Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court case on “Jim Crow” laws, 1896

Castner Hanaway
Tried for "Christiana Tragedy" case in Pennsylvania, 1851

Olaudah Equiano
First slave to write autobiography of Atlantic slave trade

Josiah Henson
Slave escaped to Canada to form community

William Parker
Escaped slave in "Christiana Tragedy" case, 1851