ABSTRACT
In 1860, the US government requested the extradition of a suspected murderer from Canadian soil. John Anderson had killed a man in Mississippi and fled to British Canada. Following Anglo-American extradition law, Canadian officials began proceedings for Anderson’s return. What the US secretary of state had failed to mention, however, was that Anderson had been a slave. He had stabbed the man standing between him and his escape to free soil. For onlookers who rallied to Anderson’s side, extraditing Anderson would violate Britain’s promise to welcome refugees of all sorts. Scholars have tended to set abolitionism apart from discussions of human rights. This essay uses the contemporary responses to Anderson’s arrest to explore the relationship between humanitarianism and popular and official discussions of human rights. As Anderson’s case highlights, abolitionism entailed universal human obligations from an early point, and moral responsibility, international relations, and law were deeply intertwined.
