When the Slave Catchers Came to Town: Cultures of Violence along the Underground Railroad.

UNDERGROUND Railroad (U.S. history); ANTISLAVERY movements; VIOLENCE; FUGITIVE slaves; SLAVEHOLDERS; FUGITIVE slave catchers; NINETEENTH century

The article focuses on the culture of violence within the secret coalition of abolitionists in the United States before the Civil War known as the Underground Railroad. Topics include how fugitive slaves impacted the political crisis of the 1850s, the Southern slaveholders that traveled North to capture fugitive slaves, and the backlash experienced by slaveholders and slave catchers by Northern communities.