Prigg v. Pennsylvania

The Court held that the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 overrode a Pennsylvania anti-kidnapping law, though states could not be compelled to help enforce it.

Overview

Edward Prigg, a Maryland slave catcher, seized Margaret Morgan and her children in Pennsylvania and carried them back to Maryland without the state certificate required by a Pennsylvania personal liberty law, and he was convicted of kidnapping. Justice Joseph Story, writing for the Court, held that the power to legislate on fugitive slaves belonged exclusively to Congress, voiding the state law, but added that state officials could not be required to enforce the federal act. Northern states responded by forbidding their officials to take part, and Southern anger at that resistance produced the much harsher Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.