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Passed by first territorial legislature of Iowa. The law required Negroes and Mulattoes to obtain from a court a certificate stating they were free. The person had to post a five hundred dollar bond as guarantee of their good behavior. A fine of five to one hundred dollars could be charged to anyone who hired a mulatto who had failed to obtain a certificate or post the required bond. Slaveholders could pass through Iowa with their slaves and fugitive slaves were to be arrested and returned.
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This was enacted by the Iowa territorial legislature. Local anti-slavery societies and Liberty parties tended to subordinate questions of Negro rights to issues on slavery.
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When Quakers in Salem,(Henry County) Iowa considered hiring Negro mechanics for work in their village, a petition to the legislature requested repeal of the 1839 law concerning hiring or harboring blacks. Another petition from Washington County residents asked for repeal of the entire law. Neither was reported out of the Judiciary committee to which they were referred.
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First Liberty party ticket in Iowa appears in Henry County.
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The final draft allowed Negroes to settle in Iowa, but denied them rights of suffrage, militia service, or ability to hold legislative office.
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The resulting constitution, which served Iowa from 1846 to1857, imposed restrictions on blacks and mulattoes similar to what had been in the constitution of 1844, essentially carrying the Black Laws over into the statehood period.
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At annual anti-slavery society meeting, delegates called for a state Liberty party to be formed in early 1847 and sent several petitions to the legislature during the winter of 1846-1847.
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Iowa anti-slavery men hired St. Clair as a lecturer in the fall of 1847 after he had recently organized abolitionist activity in Illinois. Residing in Fort Madison, he became editor of a new abolitionist paper, The Iowa Freeman, which eventually became a Free Soil paper and moved to Mount Pleasant.
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Under chairmanship of Eli Jessup, a Quaker from Salem, committees of the new party were formed along with creation of a state central committee and recommendation for a Liberty newspaper to be established.
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Met at Salem (Henry County) Iowa and put forth complete tickets for state and national offices then at stake. This action was spurred by near silence of the major parties on slavery and was reinforced by failure of the Whig State Convention on May 11th to take a strong stand against slavery
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Free Soilers in southeastern Iowa (Des Moines, Henry, and Lee Counties) met in convention and declared their unwillness to unite with the Whigs, which they concluded had abandoned anti-slavery principles.
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Met one week before the Whig state convention to select a list of candidates. Delegates hoped Whigs would respond with measures to attract Free Soil vote such as a strong anti-slavery platform or support for Free Soil candidates. Whigs ignored the overatures.
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Selected Dr. George Shedd as candidate for 1st District Congress
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Seeing decline in opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act, Free Soilers organized non-political meetings to protest the law. Three in Danville (Lee County) on December 27th, 1850, January 16 and January 24, 1851 went against the anti-slavery men. They found supporters of the Fugitive Slave Act had packed the meetings and easily outnumbered anti-slavery opponents in resolutions voted upon.
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The state legislature prohibited Negro immigration into Iowa. Those already here could remain, but any subsequent migrants to Iowa were to depart within three days and were subject to a fine of two dollars a day and imprisonment if they remained in Iowa. Twelve years later, in a test case, a district court judge ruled that the law was a violation of both the state and national constitutions and was therefore not binding. One year later the legislature repealed it.
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Meeting in Crawfordsville, Iowa, the church body called for “unconditional and immediate abolition of slavery,” with members actions toward the fugitive slave act to “obey God rather than man and abide the consequences.”
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Meeting in Denmark, Iowa, members declare that a higher law than man-made law should guide their acts and that members do nothing to aid in apprehending fugitive slaves.
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In Washington, Iowa, anti-slavery delegates adopt 28 resolutions, half of which are against the new fugitive law, slavery’s existence, and extension of slavery into the territories. Other mass gatherings took place on July 4th at Columbus City and Salem.
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The minister represented Iowa at a Northwestern Christian Anti-Slavery Convention.
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The delegation included Samuel Luke Howe of Mt. Pleasant, Asa Turner of Denmark, Joseph Whithan of Quasqueton, and D. P. Nichols of Charleston.
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With George Shedd as president, delegates resolved that “slavery and freedom cannot long exist together” under the new Fugitive Slave Act.
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Meeting in Van Buren County, persons attended resolved to send petitions to state and national legislatures asking for repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act
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This time Dodge extends boundaries on the north to 43°30’, which was the latitude of Iowa’s northern boundary. Referred to Senate Committee on Territories.
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Among changes is a stipulation that “all questions pertaining to slavery in the Territories, and in the new States to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the decision of the people residing therein, through their appropriate representatives.” This amounts to abandonment of Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibiting slavery in Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30’.
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The bill specifically declared that Section Eight of the Missouri Compromise had been “superseded” by principles of the Compromise of 1850 and was therefore “inoperative.” It also would create two territories, Kansas and Nebraska, out of the Nebraska country.
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The bill specifically declared that Section Eight of the Missouri Compromise had been “superseded” by principles of the Compromise of 1850 and was therefore “inoperative.” It also would create two territories, Kansas and Nebraska, out of the Nebraska country.
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The second resolution spoke of the “binding force” of he Missouri Compromise as a “final settlement,” while a third resolution “emphatically disapprove of the efforts. . . being made in Congress to legislate slavery into the Territory of Nebraska.”
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In the longest section of the address, Grimes attacked the “infamous attempt to nationalize slavery” and of how Iowa would not tolerate slavery in Nebraska territory. The address quickly became a campaign issue after Whig newspapers published it in early April.
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Issue dominates ensuing campaign in Iowa and surprising Democratic losses result from narrow margin of victories.
