– On September 18, Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Law, empowering enslavers to recapture formerly enslaved fugitives who have settled in free states.
– Sojourner Truth publishes her autobiography Narrative of Sojourner Truth.
– In December, Tubman executes her first rescue mission: the liberation of her niece Kessiah Jolley Bowley and her two children. Her work as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad – guiding others directly or giving out instructions on the way north – will take place over the course of the decade.
