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SALISBURY, MD---Dr. Richard J.M. Blackett, Andrew Jackson Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, inaugurates Salisbury University’s 2019 African American History Month celebration with the presentation “Taking Leave: How Fugitive Slaves Influenced the Debate Over the Future of Slavery.”

He speaks at 7 p.m. Thursday, February 7, in the Wicomico Room of the Guerrieri Student Union.

Exploring the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Blackett discusses how fugitive slaves resisted the law, exacerbating a brewing conflict over the future of slavery.

The act penalized law enforcement officials who did not arrest alleged runaway slaves and rewarded those who did. Because those accused of being escaped slaves were not afforded trials or given legal rights in court, this effectively resulted in the legal kidnapping of some free African Americans and their conscription into slavery.

The federal law remained active for 11 years until Congress enacted the Confiscation Act of 1861, banning slaveholders from re-enslaving captured runaways.

Sponsored by the Fulton Public Humanities Program, ³ÉÈ˶¶ÒõHonors College, History Department, Multicultural Student Services Office, Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture, and Charles R. and Martha N. Fulton School of Liberal Arts, admission is free and the public is invited.

For more information call 410-548-3836 or visit the ³ÉÈ˶¶Òõwebsite.