Margaret Morgan (slave)

Margaret Morgan (c. 1774 – 1858) was an enslaved woman whose freedom, and that of her children, became the subject of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842). This case significantly weakened the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and contributed to the growing tensions leading up to the Civil War.

Morgan was enslaved in Maryland by the heirs of John Ashmore. She later moved to Pennsylvania with her owner's daughter, Nancy Ashmore, who had married. Pennsylvania had passed gradual abolition laws, meaning that children born to enslaved mothers after a certain date would be free after a period of indentured servitude. However, someone enslaved prior to the law's enactment remained enslaved.

Despite not being formally freed, Morgan lived in Pennsylvania for several years, marrying Jerry Morgan, a free Black man, and having children. In 1837, Margaret Morgan's former owner's heirs, concerned that she and her children might claim freedom based on Pennsylvania law, dispatched slave catchers, led by Edward Prigg, to Pennsylvania to seize Morgan and her children as fugitive slaves. They were apprehended without a warrant and taken back to Maryland.

Pennsylvania charged Prigg with kidnapping under the state's anti-kidnapping law. Maryland defended Prigg's actions, arguing that they were justified under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which mandated the return of fugitive slaves. The case eventually reached the Supreme Court.

In Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court, led by Justice Joseph Story, ruled in favor of Prigg. The Court held that the Fugitive Slave Act was constitutional and that the federal government had exclusive power over the capture and return of fugitive slaves, invalidating Pennsylvania's personal liberty law. While the Court affirmed the federal government's authority, it also held that state officials were not obligated to assist in the recapture of fugitive slaves.

The Prigg v. Pennsylvania decision had far-reaching consequences. It emboldened slaveholders to pursue fugitive slaves in free states and weakened the protection offered by state laws. The ruling also contributed to increasing resistance to slavery in the North, as many Northerners refused to cooperate with federal efforts to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, ultimately fueling the sectional conflict that led to the Civil War. The legal status of Margaret Morgan and her children after the case remains unclear in available historical sources.