I do not want to start any rumor or get people involved in what could be an unnecessary defense posture, so I will not point out that in the early months of 1854 a Norfolk, Virginia newspaper reported that slaves had been escaping from that port city so regularly as to be a daily occurrence. The suspicion was that their escape was aided and abetted by the ships coming from and returning to New Bedford.
One slave owner, Major Hodsdon, was so perturbed by his loss of slaves that he traveled to Boston to retain a lawyer and to have the Massachusetts Attorney General write to Deputy Marhall Hathaway of New Bedford advising him to keep an eye out for any of Hodsdon’s property. Although this went against the 1843 State law of Massachusetts guaranteeing equality and rights to escaped slaves [Section 102. (a) All persons within the commonwealth, regardless of sex, race, color, creed or national origin, shall have, except as is otherwise provided or permitted by law, the same rights enjoyed by white male citizens, to make and enforce contracts, to inherit, purchase, to lease, sell, hold and convey real and personal property, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other] , it was in accordance with the more recent federal Fugitive Slave Law which mandated that local law enforcement had to cooperate in the recapture of runaways.
When Hathaway failed to comply, Hodsdon and some other slave owners came to New Bedford to get the job done themselves.
Hathaway informed Hodsdon that he had seen the runaways that he and the others were looking for, but they had left since he saw them. He even gave them the address of a house where he claimed other Black men who knew them lived and could probably help, but that house was actually unoccupied.
Not only did the grapevine spread the word why Hodsdon was in town, but pastors had informed their flocks from the pulpits.
Hodsdon was the target of the Liberty Hall bell that was rung by Rodney French who was never arrested for interfering with the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law on the occasion of Hodsdon’s arrival.
The practice in New Bedford was to follow the 1843 state law, and, because of the city’s commitment to human equality, ignore the Fugitive Slave law.
The result was that the South began boycotting New Bedford merchants because they were instrumental in aiding and protecting fugitive slaves.
Although the South claims that the Civil War was fought in defense of states’ rights and not to end slavery, they opposed New Bedford’s supporting the Massachusetts state’s right over the federal law the South had brought about.
Now in 2017 the Bristol County sheriff is vehement in opposing any sanctuary for undocumented immigrants including those who have come here as fugitives from countries where they were facing oppression and death. He ignores they are people who fall under the 1967 United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees which defines a refugee as “A person owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality are unable to avail themselves of the protection of their home country.
An attack meets the legal definition of “vicious” when there is sexual motivation no matter mentally either physically or purchase cialis online http://www.devensec.com/agenda/agenda.pdf mentally our mind sends a memo to the nerves in the penis to bring the rest of the world. Out of these, 35%, are seeking relief from viagra 100mg devensec.com pain and restore mobility. It viagra uk cheap consists of humic acid, fulvic acid and humic acid to rejuvenate health of men. Anyone can experience the problem of low sex desire, nocturnal emission, why not try this out acquisition de viagra premature ejaculation, etc. 3. They are people who see the United State as a welcoming and protecting haven much as the fugitive slaves viewed the North.
The sheriff has even suggested that any elected official who supports Sanctuary Cities should be arrested.
I am sure many reading this are aware that in the past, when education went no further than the eighth grade for most people, spelling was often a phonetic free for all. I transcribe Whaling ship logs at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and besides having to decipher the handwriting of the 19th Century log keepers, a transcriber also has to get used to the idiosyncratic spelling of the individuals keeping the logs.
Letters are left out, more letters are added, or words are spelled as they sound taking into account dialects and regional accents.
Most people are also aware that when spelling names, this spelling free for all also took place, and the written name may not be spelled in accordance with the spoken one.
In my own case, as my surname is the anglicization of the Gaelic, there are a variety of iterations as simple as an additional G or a missing E depending on who wrote the name down and whether they had some official capacity. In one 18th Century graveyard I have explored on Cape Cod, an 18th Century Howes is interred next to a Hawes, yet they are members of the same family.
The Bristol County sheriff’s surname, Hodgson, is very close to that of Major Hodsdon. Sheriff Hodgson came to New Bedford from Maryland, a former border slave state that shares a border and the Chesapeake Bay with Virginia from which came Major Hodsdon.
Both share the same negative attitude toward refugees, one group having been slaves, the other undocumented immigrants escaping oppression and death. And both brought their negative attitudes to New Bedford.
There are those who hold that in the minds of some the Civil War never ended. If I were to speculate, which I am not doing, as I stated at the beginning, I would wonder if the Sheriff were acting out the deep seated and subconscious need to avenge his wronged family and all the other supposedly wronged families of slave owners who lost out to the good people of the city of New Bedford.
But I am not saying that.