Caution!! Colored People of Boston: Kidnappers & Slave Catchers

Historic abolitionist warning poster from April 24, 1851, cautioning "COLORED PEOPLE OF BOSTON, ONE & ALL" to avoid conversing with the "Watchmen and Police Officers of Boston" who were empowered to act as "KIDNAPPERS AND Slave Catchers." This powerful broadside was posted following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required Northern law enforcement to capture and return escaped enslaved people to Southern slaveholders. The poster warns that Boston police "have already been actually employed in KIDNAPPING, CATCHING, AND KEEPING SLAVES" and urges free Black Bostonians to "Keep a Sharp Look Out for KIDNAPPERS, and have TOP EYE open." This document reveals the terror that the Fugitive Slave Act brought to Northern Black communities, where even free Black people could be kidnapped and sold into slavery. The bold typography emphasizes the urgency and danger. A crucial piece of abolitionist resistance and documentation of how slavery's reach extended into free states, available in three sizes with your choice of black or silver aluminum frame.