On this episode of Our American Stories, when Catherine Thompson escaped slavery in Maryland, she built a new life in New Jersey and gave birth to a son born free. But after a slave catcher lured her into a trap in Philadelphia, she faced an impossible choice: surrender her child or risk them both being dragged back into slavery. She refused to let go. Her courage exposed the brutal reality of the Fugitive Slave Act.

Elliot Drago of the Jack Miller Center shares the remarkable story of Catherine Thompson, whose ordeal became one of many that awakened Northerners to the human cost of slavery and helped build the movement that ultimately destroyed the Fugitive Slave Act.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)