A Fugitive Under His Roof

An Illinois resident was indicted under the state's criminal code for harbouring and secreting a Black man who, the prosecution said, was a slave owing service to a man in Missouri. The indictment's counts charged that he hid the man, harboured him, and prevented his lawful owner from retaking him. The state statute made it a misdemeanour to harbour or secrete any slave or servant owing service to another, with a fine of up to five hundred dollars. He was convicted and fined four hundred dollars. The prosecution said the state was entitled to punish those who thwarted its policy by hiding fugitives. The defence argued that the state law clashed with the Constitution's fugitive slave clause and the federal fugitive slave law, which already punished harbouring, so he could not be punished twice for one act.