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The Seventh Amendment guaranteed jury trials in civil cases. The Sixth Amendment requires that trials be before an “impartial jury” and that defendants have a right to subpoena witnesses on their behalf and have assistance of counsel. This appeared, to many people, to be a bribe to buy justice for the slaveowner.

Under that law a judge received $5.00 if he decided in favor of freedom, and $10.00 if he decided in favor of the slaveowner. Under the 1850 law the alleged fugitive was not allowed testify on his or her own behalf, even to assert a case of mistaken identity. The Fifth Amendment declares that no person can “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” But there was no due process in fugitive slave cases.

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Storming a private home with weapons drawn in violation of the Fourth Amendment illustrated how the violence of slavery threatened the liberties of the free people, black and white, in the North, while denying fundamental due process to blacks accused of being fugitives, including many free people. Garner and the rest of her family were subsequently taken back to Kentucky to be re-enslaved. During this raid, which clearly violated the Fourth Amendment, Garner succeeded in killing her daughter, rather than see her returned to slavery. For example, in 1856 a group of Kentucky slave catchers and a federal marshal stormed into the private home of a free African American in Cincinnati without a warrant, to seize Margaret Garner and her family. In clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, the law allowed slave catchers without warrants to seize blacks in public and to invade private homes or buildings in the search of fugitive slaves. However, the 17 laws authorized private individuals to “seize or arrest” alleged fugitives without any warrant or other judicial scrutiny. The warrant has to be based on a sworn statement describing the person or evidence to be seized or the place to be searched.

The Fourth Amendment guarantees the right of the people “to be secure in their persons” from “unreasonable searches and seizures.” No search or seizure under the authority of the federal government can take place without a warrant issued by a judge. 'Eaton Democrat' (Eaton, OH), February 7, 1856. The fugitive slave laws clearly violated the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh amendments, as well as the Constitution’s protection of the right to the writ of habeas corpus. These laws denied alleged slaves fair trials, due process of law, or even the right prove their freedom in court. However, Congress flagrantly ignored the Bill of Rights in the Fugitive Slave Laws of 17. For the most part the amendments worked relatively well. Among other things, the amendments prohibited Congress (but not the states) from limiting freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religious practice, or denying people fair trials and due process of law. Drafted by James Madison in 1789 but modified by debate in the House and the Senate, the amendments responded to fears that the new national government might trample on basic liberties. Today marks the 229 th anniversary of that ratification. On DecemSecretary of State Thomas Jefferson certified that ten proposed amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, had been ratified. Benedict, 1839), 19.ĭivision of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library 'American Anti-Slavery Society, American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839' (New York: S.

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