delegates chose owen lovejoy as their candidate but only by a slim margin. captioning performed by vitac candidate. but over that summer, lincoln became convinced that lovejoy's popularity within his part of the state would make it unwise for the party not to back him, and they did decide to fully back him. and when the general election was held, lovejoy was overwhelmingly elected. he defeated democratic candidate barry osgood. lovejoy, now 46, was as radical as any anti-slavery man ever elected to congress. slaveholders considered his name anathema.

in 1856, although democrat james buchanan had won the white house and the democrats controlled congress, as the majority party, they still had to deal with a formidable group of political rivals. lovejoy made his first lengthy speech in the house chamber on february 7th, 1858, "let the mason-dixon line disappear, let the country be one united whole," he said, "the rights of all equally respected." he attacked the dred scott decision and supreme court justice roger tawny's interpretation of the constitution. if human beings are property, lovejoy pointed out, why had the federal government declared the slave trade as piracy? "the new york times" made the speech the lead story called "human beings not property." the speech became the basis of lovejoy's re-election campaign.

on april 5th, 1860, lovejoy delivered his most controversial speech about slavery in congress. it resulted in a tumultuous fray on the house floor. he was barely finished with the first paragraph before a southern congressman rose with clenched fists and swirling canes, northern congressmen leaped to their feet to defend lovejoy. lovejoy left the podium and walked towards the southerners, which was technically against the house rules. he continued his fiery remarks attacking the immorality of slavery. he later told his wife "i poured on a rainstorm of fire and brimstone as hot as i could." as the uproar continued, insults were shouted throughout the room. at one point barksdale of mississippi shouted at lovejoy, "you shall not come upon this side of the house!"

congressman singleton called out, "and a negro thief in the bargain." george n. martin crawford stepped away from his desk and cocked his pistol. the fray continued but lovejoy finally decided to gradually move back to the podium, but he called out "no one can intimidate me." finally, once he was back at the podium the house chair was able to establish a degree of order. lovejoy finished his speech by saying that slave owners ruled the same as pirates, "every slave has a right to freedom, every slave has a right to run away. i cannot go into a slave state and open my lips in regard to the question of slavery." "no," yelled martin of virginia, "we would hang you." that night and for the next few days washington was abuzz with what had happened. telegraph operators relayed the news of the uproar across the

nation. lovejoy told a friend a few days later, the fire eaters made a row and helped me to notoriety. in the summer of 1860, abraham lincoln won the nomination for presidency on the third ballot of his party's convention in chicago. lovejoy made over 100 speeches for lincoln during that campaign and later said he never worked harder for anyone in his life than he did that year for lincoln. lovejoy himself easily won re-election to the house, was congratulated by party leaders for being instrumental in helping lincoln's victory and election to the white house. in 1862, lovejoy returned to his congressional district. it had been reconfigured. this posed real problems for him politically, indeed he only held on to one of his old third county districts, a third county -- counties, excuse me.

lovejoy faced a very difficult campaign and when the final votes were counted, he was barely re-elected to congress. during the civil war lovejoy returned to illinois in order to help raise five illinois army volunteer companies. he strongly backed efforts to arm black troops during the war. he worked hard to prevent radical abolitionists from being too critical of lincoln's war policy. in february of '62 he introduced a bill for the establishment of a department of agriculture. lovejoy was also one of the primary architects of the homestead act. this bill gave 160 acres of land to any man or woman who paid a small registration fee and lived on the homestead for five years. and during this same time frame lovejoy helped pass legislation that finally ended the slave trade in the district of columbia. in the winter of 1863, lovejoy

started to experience poor health. even though his physical well-being continued to decline seriously over the next several months, he pressed hard for the war effort. he vigorously supported lincoln's plans for re-election. but on the 16th of march, 1864, ailing badly from liver and kidney disease, owen lovejoy died in brooklyn heights, new york. when portrait artist francis carpenter informed lincoln and the white house of lovejoy's death, the president responded, "lovejoy was the best friend i had in congress." thank you. we have time for a few questions. i hope it will not be like english class when no one raises their hand. yes?

>> i'm curious if you could talk about underground railroad routes. there was no central coordinator in cincinnati, explaining how to go. was this just by happenstance those routes were followed? >> well, the answer to that question is, sometimes these underground railroad activities were fairly well-coordinated. many of these people in a certain region of a state were familiar with each other. as anti-slavery societies and state anti-slavery organizations started to form across the north these organizations would meet periodically at least once a year, and that would give people the opportunity, people who were anti-slavery, to meet one another, become familiar with one another, and not all, but many of those people took the more radical step of involving themselves with the underground railroad. and of course, this meant that

they were able to make plans or semi-plans on how they might operate. so i would answer your question by saying that in some cases, they were reasonably well-organized, but in other instances and in other parts of the country, they were not, and sometimes a fugitive slave would be aided by an underground railroad operator, be sent on his or her own way, travel alone for a while, then come into contact with somebody who is not necessarily an abolitionist, but had some degree of sympathy in terms of what these people were experiencing, would give them a little aid, they'd go along their way for a while, and sometimes they would find another underground railroad operator. but please understand, we'll never know the total number of fugitives escaped. but we know that many, many of them made their way to freedom, as i mentioned in my remarks, on their own. sometimes these trips took incredibly long times. yes?

>> what was the impact of the federal fugitive slave act of 1850 on the underground railroad and lovejoy? >> fergus borgowich, my good who is an underground railroad scholar, has written a book "bound for canaan," i think the best book written about the underground railroad in years. and fergus is currently working on a book about the great debate of 1850. in 1850 southerners were so upset with abolitionist activities and underground railroad actions that one of the key components of the compromise of 1850 was a much stronger anti-slavery fugitive slave law. the first fugitive slave law was passed by congress in 1793, the same year that the cotton gin

was patented, i always thought there might be a connection. but a much stronger fugitive slave law was passed in 1850 by the united states congress, signed by president fillmore. this came as a body blow to abolitionists. people who had been involved with the anti-slavery movement considered this a very real setback. it also made many of them very, very angry, and in many ways, i believe that between 1850 and the time the civil war breaks out, the effect of that fugitive slave law was to instill into abolitionists a higher degree of resolve, and indeed underground railroad activity was strengthened after that. remember this, the underground railroad heads out of the south in every direction. if you live in illinois, we tend to think of fugitive slaves rightfully headed northwards

towards canada. in fact, fugitive slaves escaped in any direction they could. they went into arkansas and texas and down into mexico. they escaped on boats into the caribbean sea, and seacraft that went up along the sea, the eastern seacoast. in some cases, fugitive slaves who were taken abroad by their masters waited until they were in foreign lands to escape. fergus? >> owen, one of the knottiest problems in researching the underground railroad is how many people it actually assisted thwart a lot of us. >> yes. >> i'm curious what you might be able to say based on your research about the volume of people who might have been assisted by lovejoy on other routes in that vicinity? >> i smile, fergus, because my brother-in-law, dr. maurice eaton, is a statistician at the university of minnesota.

when i was writing my book on the western illinois underground railroad, i started to develop two or three different ways i could analyze the numbers. when i read them to my brother-in-law he said "my goodness, that's terrible, don't use it." and so i've always been a little leery at guessing at those numbers. but we do know this. we can look at certain regions where there were underground railroad operators who kept specific records. a knox college trustee by the name of samuel geld wright kept a wonderful diary of his life living in western illinois. and it's a real piece of gold for a person who does the kind of research that you and i take part in. and in wright's diary he actually alludes to hard numbers. in one of his entries he says, i aided a fugitive slave today in making 21 in number who have passed through this region since i've lived here.

i probably would be better off asking you if you might want to answer your own question, but i'm a little leery of making an estimate on those numbers, but i'll say this. as you well know, it's one of the things that fascinates all of us who have studied this subject. feeling for the underground >> during the time especially in the underground railroad, was it talked about in newspapers? >> oh, absolutely. absolutely. there are a number of ways that you have to dig into the subject, and fergus is right, this is a very difficult subject to research because for the most part, these people were secretive about what they were up to. with some exceptions, like owen lovejoy. but the fact of the matter is, there were numerous accounts of fugitive slaves escaping.

there were -- some sections of newspapers had reward posters, advertisement after advertisement, talking about it, but in addition, newspapers were keen on giving accounts of fugitive slaves who were escaping. a court case that was going on. and full-blown abolitionists took the opportunity to insert stories in newspapers of the american anti-slavery society had publications that were, of course, designed to speak solely to the subject of anti-slavery issues. and many of the people who wrote stories for these kind of journals were very clear about their commitment and their organization with others. so there were a variety of ways in slave states, most of them of course could not read or write, but some fugitive -- some slaves could read and write, and they would sometimes get a hold of

newspapers, even on a plantation, and would become aware of the underground railroad that way. >> that addresses my next question, if i were a slave on a plantation, especially deep south, how would i know about the underground railroad? how would i find my way? >> the fact of the matter is, this is what makes the story so heroic in many ways because many of these fugitive slaves escaped had only the slightest idea of how they might get away. now, it is true that in those days, unlike today, people, even people who were not literate, were very familiar with the stars. so they knew how to find polaris, they knew how to find the north star. they knew at nighttime on a clear night, you could head in that direction by finding the north star. many of them knew or became informed of the fact that particularly if you moved into an area like iowa and illinois,

and other rivers in the north, you could move as i said against the current of the river. to answer your question a bit further, however, there are some wonderful irony in the fact that there are slave stories reported after the civil war that slaves who worked particularly -- not field hands but so-called house slaves who worked close to the owner's property sometimes heard slave owners and their friends complaining about underground railroad operators, sometimes mentioned them by name and the towns they lived in so there were even some occasions when slaves who were planning to escape learned about underground railroad locations or operators that way. but for the most part, they took off and were on their own, and much of what happened is that they came upon underground railroad operators by pure chance. yes?

>> i'm a little surprised at the radical hotbed of abolitionism as knox college got to be selected as one of the sites because of the lincoln/douglas debate. i thought they tried to keep their distance from the radicals so i'm just wondering how that came to be. >> sure, when douglas was so instrumental in passing the kansas-nebraska act, it backfired in many ways on him and caused him some real problems in illinois. he was concerned about whether or not he would be re-elected to the senate in illinois in '58. so for that reason, douglas was interested in maybe having these debates. on the other hand, abraham lincoln was not very well-known in 1858, and the effect of the debates really catapulted his name and reputation across the nation. so lincoln was interested in having these debates because it would enhance his name and increase familiarity with his name throughout illinois.

so in '58, both of them and both of their political allies on both sides decided that these debates would be beneficial to each of them. there were seven debates because there were seven political -- congressional districts in illinois at that time, and when illinois at that time. and when lincoln and douglass come to galesburg, lincoln knew very well what president mott and i know and the knox alums in the room today know, which is lincoln knew very well about galesburg and knox college's reputation. he knew he was on very good ground that day. and though you must understand there were many, many supporters of douglass in the audience that day, lincoln had a very friendly crowd that day and at one point he turns to douglass and says, "you are blowing out the moral

lights around us." you're putting us in the dark if you consider any person to be a slave owner and another person to be a slave. he took a moral stand on the issue of slavery that he had only alluded to in one of the earlier debates briefly. but in galesburg he really put it on moral grounds. he followed it up with the sixth debate in quincy with that same moral theme and in alton, illinois at the last debate he delivers in my view his most elegant remarks of any of the seven debates in regard to slavery's immorality. i think we have time maybe for one more question. >> [ inaudible ]. in 1848 -- how much were they involved in the underground

railroad? >> i know they were involved in the underground railroad in pennsylvania. and the reality is the american anti-slavery society was very aware of what you just mentioned, that many of these german immigrants were opposed to slavery and in fact the american anti-slavery intentionally sent anti-slavery agents that were hired to lecture for them into parts of pennsylvania with that very idea in mind. well, thank you very much. i've appreciated your attention. [ applause ] >> american history tv is at the annual meeting of the organization of american historians in milwaukee. and joining us is paul finkelman, who is a professor of

law and public policy at the albany law school. thanks for being here. >> oh, it's a delight to be with c-span. >> and you are here because you're participating in a panel that's called new perspectives on the 19th century slave trade. >> right. >> what did you talk about in your discussion today? >> well, the panel talked about two pieces of the slave trade. one was the kidnapping of black children from mostly philadelphia but also other places where they were free. and this is something that historians have known a lot about but there has not been very much research. and so two of the panelists were able to discuss research that is ongoing about kidnapping gangs. and this is really kind of an early version of trafficking people because you have free people who are -- you have free people who are grabbed off the streets, thrown into ships, taken to delaware, maryland, and from there transported further

south. >> because delaware, maryland would have allowed the slave trade. >> well, they wouldn't. what's interesting -- it's illegal everywhere. kidnapping free people is illegal. even in mississippi it's illegal to kidnap a free person. the difference is that pennsylvania's in the process of ending slavery. most of the blacks in pennsylvania by 1810 are free. and so free black children who are on the streets of pennsylvania are free, but in maryland and delaware slavery's an ongoing institution. so the presumption of the law changes. once you get into a slave state, the presumption is that if you're african-american you are a slave. and so if someone is taking a black child through maryland, nobody's going to intervene and say why are you carting this black child off? if the black child is chained, no one's going to say why are you carting this black child off? they'll assume the child was a

slave. whereas if you're doing it in pennsylvania you would be stopped by all kinds of people saying why are you kidnapping this child? >> who's behind these gangs? >> people who are professional criminals. the most interesting one is a woman named patty cannon. and patty cannon has a gang of kidnappers including some mixed-race people, that is, people who are both of not and european descent who help entice children on the theory that the children will be more comfortable with somebody who appears to be african-american. that's one piece of it. the more interesting piece in some ways -- although i shouldn't say the more interesting piece because they're both interesting. and that tells us something about human trafficking, which has been going on for a very long time, and also suggests the trafficking in children, which is an international problem today, is nothing new. and maybe it's easier to traffic children because they are less able to assert their rights, they're less able to escape, less able to fight back. so that's one piece of it. the other piece of the panel was

about the interstate and the intrastate renting of slaves. and this is really fascinating. because it turns out that significant numbers of slaves at some time in their life are rented out. the most common time when you're rented out would be when your master dies. the worst day of a slave's life is the death of the master because when the master dies it means the master's estate is going to be dispersed among the heirs. and that means slave families are going to be broken up, slave communities are going to be broken up, slaves are going to be separated from the people they've always known, from the people that they have always lived-w probably the most famous example is thomas jefferson. >> how did it work? who handled the renting? how did this work? >> well, what happens is someone di dies, they have a will. the deceased person has a will. the will names an executor. and the first thing the executor does is to pay off the debts of

the estate and then to disburse the property. that can take many years. that doesn't happen instantaneously. and often the way to disburse the property is to sell slaves, auction them off to various parties. again, the most famous example probably in american history is the settling of thomas jefferson's estate, where close to 200 slaves are auctioned off in one day. four or five of jefferson's slaves get free one of them his blacksmith is freed and jefferson says in his will that the blacksmith cannot only be free but live on monticello and have his blacksmith's tools and live in his cabin with his family. only thing is jefferson forgot to free his family. so the day he got free he saw his family, his wife and children auctioned off to a number of different buyers. that's the end point of settling

the estate. but the middle point from the death of the master to the settling of the estate, the executor has to do something with slaves. and often the easiest thing to do is to rent them out to other people. so that a man dies, leaving 15 slaves, his widow will eventually get a use of some of these slaves. his children will eventually get the slaves. while they're sorting this out, the executor comes in and says, you know, i'm just going to take these slaves and rent them out and have a steady cash flow. so what we find is almost every american slave, or a vast majority of them at some point in their life are rented out to someone else. now, here's where it gets intere interesting. we're in the middle of the sesquicentennial of the civil war. one of the great questions that is always asked is why do so many non-slave-holding southern white men fight and die to preserve slavery? slavery is the cause of the war. and if people don't believe me,

they can go look at the declaration of the causes of secession by any one of the southern states, south carolina, georgia, texas. they all say the same thing. we're leaving the union to protect slavery. but what does the rank-and-file non-slave holder do this? people always ask me that. well, we now have an answer. many of these non-slave holders are in fact slave renters. so they're involved in the slave economy. they're renting slaves. they're using slavery. slavery is important to their livelihood. even if they don't yet own slaves. one kind of modern example would be why do people who don't own homes believe in the private ownership of homes? because they're renting a home now and someday they hope to buy a home. >> more from american history tv. up next a discussion on the app listist and women's suffrage movements. then a look at the life of john willis menard, who was the first african-american elected to the

u.s. congress. >> sunday on "q & a." >> i don't regard this as just a biography of lyndon johnson. i want each book to examine a kind of political power in america. and i'm saying this is a kind of political power. seeing what a president can do in a moment of great -- in a time of great crisis. great crisis. how he gathered all -- what does he do to get legislation moving, to take command in washington? that's a way of examining power in a time of crisis. i said i want to do this in full. i suppose it takes 300 pages. so i couldn't -- i just said let's examine this. >> robert caro on the passage of power, volume 4 in the years of lyndon johnson, his multivolume biography of the 36th president. this sunday at 8:00 on c-span's "q & a." and look for our second hour of conversation with robert caro, sunday may 20th.

>> each week american history tv sits in on a lecture with one of the nation's college professors. you can watch the classes here every saturday at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern and sundays at 1:00 p.m. this week ohio state university history professor joan cash-in looks at the been listist and women's rights movements and slavery in the early part of the 19th century. this class is from a course on jeffersonian and jacksonian america. it's an hour and a half. >> okay. well, last time we were talking about the american west, the far west, the settlement, the transmississippi. today we're going to switch topics and talk about the abolitionist movement. a reform movement that really begins to gather steam in the 1830s. a movement that has as its goal the abolition of slavery, meaning the full, complete emancipation of all