Much descriptive detail can often be found in the published reports of trials. A volume is devoted to the Oberlin-Wellington case, and several volumes have been published on the Burns trial. For the Prigg and Hanway cases, and others of importance, the records of the Supreme Court and lower courts have been consulted. Most of the important cases were tried in State courts or before commissioners, and the only reports are fugitive pamphlets, of which many have been consulted and cited.
In the study of public sentiment and for the weighing of argument the speeches of _Phillips_, _Sumner_, _Seward_, _Giddings_, _Webster_, _Mann_, _Rantoul_, _Loring_, and others, are of the greatest value. They often throw light upon obscure cases, and the fugitive slave stories brought in as illustrations have sometimes led to the discovery of interesting and forgotten cases.
A valuable aid in reconstructing in the mind the conditions of the slavery struggle are the reminiscences of participants. _Rev. James Freeman Clarke's Antislavery Days_ and _Mr. Parker Pillsbury's_ book have been helpful in these chapters. A pamphlet by _Mr. Austin Bearse_ describes the Fugitive Slave Laws in Boston, and relates the work of the Vigilance Committee in protecting escaped negroes. The books of _Still_, _Smedley_, and _Coffin_, on the workings of the Underground Railroad, are composed chiefly of reminiscences, and have furnished many essential facts.
The reports of the various antislavery societies, especially of those of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, have also been examined with profit as to the work among the refugees in Canada, etc. For the colonial period the publications of the Massachusetts and New York Historical Societies are exceedingly important, and have been freely drawn upon.
Not much has been gathered from periodicals. _Poole's Index_ was used and occasionally something of importance was discovered. Thus _The Freedman's Story_ in the _Atlantic Monthly_ has furnished one of the most striking of the stories about resistance to escapes. Such articles are few, and occur long after the slavery period, when such disclosures were no longer unpopular. _The Magazine of American History_ contains Several articles. Among newspapers, the _Liberator_ is without doubt the most complete record of the extreme antislavery sentiment toward the fugitive slave laws and their workings. Each case as it occurs is fully commented upon, and in addition there is each week a column or two of atrocities, and among them stories of fugitives are often given. The Harvard College Library contains a complete file, which I have examined; and references to the Liberator are therefore frequent throughout the work. The colonial newspapers are of little value, except for the conclusions which may be drawn from the advertisements for runaways. Newspapers of that time were so limited in scope, that an affair so unimportant to them as a fugitive slave case would scarcely appear.