Christian Abolitionists Have Always Disobeyed Laws

Clergy members kneel as they take part in a rally on the day of a general strike to protest President Donald Trump's deployment of thousands of immigration enforcement officers on the streets of Minneapolis, Minn., Jan. 23, 2026. Credit: Reuters/Tim Evans

It might seem like the mission to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement is unique, but there are important parallels between this movement and the 19th-century fight to abolish slavery. As we seek to follow the gospel and make a new world, it is worth turning to abolitionists from the 19th century as we look for examples of how to win the fight against tyranny and wickedness, even if it takes longer than our lifetime.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required U.S. marshals in free states to capture people who were attempting to liberate themselves from slavery. While the act was meant to assuage the Southern malcontent at the admission of California as a free state in the same year, it prompted widespread protests in Northern cities from abolitionists who sought to prevent the enforcement of what they saw as a fundamentally evil law.

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