Discussion
Recently read (reread?) Abraham Lincoln's letter to Joshua Speed from August 1855
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln2/1:339
which includes that "When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty" line.
There's a line in there that led me to https://www.kansasmemory.gov/item/display.php?item_id=6835&f=00972354 .
1/n
The Kansas territory was north of the 36°30′ parallel, so, per 1820's Missouri Compromise, a *free* territory (that is, a territory where slavery was prohibited).
That's the basis for Lincoln saying in this letter: "By every principle of law, ever held by any court, North or South" (as of August 1855), any Black person who's entered Kansas -- including slaves brought there by their owners -- is free.
But proslavery forces wanted to change that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleeding_Kansas
2/n
Lincoln points out that the Kansas territorial legislature has passed a law prohibiting -- on penalty of death -- informing Black people of their legal rights. That's "The Act to Punish Offences Against Slave Property", passed ten days before Lincoln's letter.
https://www.kansasmemory.gov/item/display.php?item_id=6835&f=00972354
Morbidly fascinating how the law phrases that.
3/n
According to that law, it was a crime to "entice, persuade or induce any slave to escape from the service of his master or owner, in this Territory" (plus a bunch of other similar acts). & It became a crime to, in speech or writing, "assert or maintain that persons have not the right to hold slaves in this Territory" or to write or locally circulate "any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet or circular, containing any denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in this Territory".
4/n
That's how it was phrased. It wasn't phrased as "it's illegal to tell people their rights." It was phrased in a way that presupposed particular falsehoods regarding who had what rights, and then prohibited stating certain facts or denying the falsehoods.
5/5
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