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Rescues, Petitions, Texas- Black Abolitionists- Quarles

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Black Abolitionists chp 9 Benjamin Quarles ~"Before the ship's owner could arrest them under the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law, a group of 6 black women rushed into the state Supreme Court . While the attorney for Morris was addressing the judge, Someone in the spectator's section shouted, "Go, go." Whereupon A colored woman "of great size," who scrubbed floors for a living, threw her arms around the neck of one officer, Immobilizing him while the other colored people rushed to the bench and bore Eliza and Polly Ann down the courthouse steps and shoved them into a waiting carriage.

Eliza and Polly Ann were never recaptured, and their abettors went scot-free, although the Sheriff C.P. Sumner, father of Charles Sumner (movie Lincoln starring Tommie Lee Jones) was criticized for permitting such a breach of the peace. 

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