Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 - wikipedia Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 For the slave act of 1793, see Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Long title An Act to amend, and supplementary to, the Act entitled `` An Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping from the Service of their Masters, '' approved February twelfth, one thousand seven hundred and ninety - three. Enacted by the 31st United States Congress Citations Statutes at Large 9 Stat. 462 Legislative history Signed into law by President Millard Fillmore on September 18, 1850 Major amendments Repealed by Act of June 28, 1864, 13 Stat. 200 An April 24, 1851 poster warning the `` colored people of Boston '' about policemen acting as slave catchers. Part of a series on Slavery Contemporary Child labour Child soldiers Conscription Debt Forced marriage Bride buying Wife selling Forced prostitution Human trafficking Peonage Penal labour Sexual slavery Wage slavery Historical Antiquity Ancient Rome Babylonia Ancient Greece Topics and practices Atlantic slave trade Middle Passage Arab slave trade Ghilman Mamluk Saqaliba Aztec Blackbirding Byzantine Empire Coolie Corvée labor Field slaves in the United States House slaves Kholop Medieval Europe Panyarring Thrall Serfs History Russia Slave market Slave raiding Child soldiers Naval Galley slave Impressment Pirates Shanghaiing Slave ship By country or region Sub-Saharan Africa Contemporary Africa Slavery on the Barbary Coast Barbary slave trade Slave Coast Angola Chad Ethiopia Mali Mauritania Niger Somalia South Africa Sudan Seychelles North and South America Americas indigenous U.S. Natives Brazil Lei Áurea Canada Caribbean Barbados Code Noir Cuba Haiti revolt Restavek Latin America Puerto Rico Trinidad United States colonial maps female partus penal labor Slave codes interregional Human trafficking Virgin Islands Central, East, and South Asia Human trafficking in Southeast Asia Bhutan China Booi Aha Laogai India Debt bondage Chukri System Japan comfort women South Korea Yankee princess North Korea Vietnam Australia and Oceania Blackbirding in Australia Human trafficking in Australia Slave raiding in Easter Island Human trafficking in Papua New Guinea Blackbirding in Polynesia Europe and North Asia Sex trafficking in Europe Britain Denmark Dutch Republic Germany in World War II Malta Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Spain colonies Sweden North Africa and West Asia Iran Libya Human trafficking in the Middle East Ottoman Empire Yemen Religion Bible Christianity Catholicism Mormonism Islam 21st century Judaism Bahá'í Faith Opposition and resistance Timeline Abolitionism U.K. U.S. Anti-Slavery International Blockade of Africa U.K. U.S. Colonization Liberia Sierra Leone Compensated emancipation Freedman manumission Freedom suit Abolitionists Slave Power Underground Railroad songs Slave rebellion Slave Trade Acts International law 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution Related Common law Indentured servitude Unfree labour Fugitive slaves laws Great Dismal Swamp maroons List of slaves owners Slave narrative films songs Slave name Slave catcher Slave patrol Slave Route Project Treatment in U.S. breeding court cases Washington Jefferson Adams Lincoln 40 acres Freedmen 's Bureau bit Emancipation Day The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave - holding interests and Northern Free - Soilers. The Act was one of the most controversial elements of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a `` slave power conspiracy ''. It required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate. Abolitionists nicknamed it the `` Bloodhound Law '' for the dogs that were used to track down runaway slaves. Contents 1 Background 2 New law 2.1 Nullification 2.2 Effects 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links Background Events leading to the American Civil War Slavery Northwest Ordinance Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions Battle of Negro Fort Missouri Compromise Tariff of 1828 Nat Turner 's slave rebellion Nullification Crisis The Amistad Prigg v. Pennsylvania Texas annexation Mexican -- American War Wilmot Proviso Manifest destiny Underground Railroad Nashville Convention Compromise of 1850 Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Uncle Tom 's Cabin Kansas -- Nebraska Act Ostend Manifesto Bleeding Kansas Caning of Charles Sumner Dred Scott v. Sandford The Impending Crisis of the South Brown 's raid on Harpers Ferry 1860 presidential election Crittenden Compromise Secession of Southern States Star of the West Corwin Amendment Battle of Fort Sumter By 1843, several hundred slaves a year were successfully escaping to the North, making slavery an unstable institution in the border states. The earlier Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was a Federal law which was written with the intent to enforce Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, which required the return of runaway slaves. It sought to force the authorities in free states to return fugitive slaves to their masters. Many Northern states wanted to circumvent the Fugitive Slave Act. Some jurisdictions passed `` personal liberty laws '', mandating a jury trial before alleged fugitive slaves could be moved ; others forbade the use of local jails or the assistance of state officials in the arrest or return of alleged fugitive slaves. In some cases, juries refused to convict individuals who had been indicted under the Federal law. The Missouri Supreme Court routinely held with the laws of neighboring free states, that slaves who had been voluntarily transported by their owners into free states, with the intent of the masters ' residing there permanently or indefinitely, gained their freedom as a result. The Fugitive Slave Law dealt with slaves who escaped to free states without their master 's consent. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Prigg v. Pennsylvania ( 1842 ), that states did not have to offer aid in the hunting or recapture of slaves, greatly weakening the law of 1793. After 1840, the black population of rural Cass County, Michigan, grew rapidly as families were attracted by white defiance of discriminatory laws, by numerous highly supportive Quakers, and by low - priced land. Free and runaway blacks found Cass County a haven. Their good fortune attracted the attention of southern slaveholders. In 1847 and 1849, planters from Bourbon and Boone counties in northern Kentucky led raids into Cass County to recapture runaway slaves. The raids failed but the situation contributed to Southern demands in 1850 for passage of the strengthened Fugitive Slave Act. Southern politicians often exaggerated the number of escaped slaves and often blamed escapes on Northerners interfering with Southern property rights. Since there was no way to confirm the number of runaway slaves, Congress enacted stricter laws regarding fugitive slaves in the United States. New law Print by E.W. Clay, an artist who published many proslavery cartoons, supports the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. In the cartoon, a Southerner mocks a Northerner who claims his goods -- several bolts of fabric -- have been stolen. `` They are fugitives from you, are they ? '' asks the slaveholder. Adopting the rhetoric of abolitionists, he continues, `` As to the law of the land, I have a higher law of my own, and possession is nine points in the law. '' In response to the weakening of the original fugitive slave act, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 penalized officials who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave, and made them liable to a fine of $1,000 ( about $29,000 in present - day value ). Law - enforcement officials everywhere were required to arrest people suspected of being a runaway slave on as little as a claimant 's sworn testimony of ownership. The suspected slave could not ask for a jury trial or testify on his or her own behalf. In addition, any person aiding a runaway slave by providing food or shelter was subject to six months ' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Officers who captured a fugitive slave were entitled to a bonus or promotion for their work. Slave owners needed only to supply an affidavit to a Federal marshal to capture an escaped slave. Since a suspected slave was not eligible for a trial, the law resulted in the kidnapping and conscription of free blacks into slavery, as suspected fugitive slaves had no rights in court and could not defend themselves against accusations. The Act adversely affected the prospects of slave escape, particularly in states close to the North. One study finds that while slave prices rose across the South in the years after 1850 it appears that `` the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act increased prices in border states by 15 % to 30 % more than in states further south '', illustrating how the Act altered the chance of successful escape. Nullification In 1855, the Wisconsin Supreme Court became the only state high court to declare the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional, as a result of a case involving fugitive slave Joshua Glover and Sherman Booth, who led efforts that thwarted Glover 's recapture. In 1859 in Ableman v. Booth, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the state court. In November 1850, the Vermont legislature passed the `` Habeas Corpus Law, '' requiring Vermont judicial and law enforcement officials to assist captured fugitive slaves. It also established a state judicial process, parallel to the federal process, for people accused of being fugitive slaves. This law rendered the federal Fugitive Slave Act effectively unenforceable in Vermont and caused a storm of controversy nationally. It was considered a `` nullification '' of federal law, a concept popular in the South among states that wanted to nullify other aspects of federal law, and was part of highly charged debates over slavery. Noted poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier had called for such laws, and the Whittier controversy heightened angry pro-slavery reactions to the Vermont law. Virginia governor John B. Floyd warned that nullification could push the South toward secession, while President Millard Fillmore threatened to use the army to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act in Vermont. No test events took place in Vermont, but the rhetoric of this flare - up echoed South Carolina 's 1832 nullification crisis and Thomas Jefferson 's 1798 Kentucky Resolutions. `` Jury nullification '' occurred as local Northern juries acquitted men accused of violating the law. Secretary of State Daniel Webster was a key supporter of the law as expressed in his famous `` Seventh of March '' speech. He wanted high - profile convictions. The jury nullifications ruined his presidential aspirations and his last - ditch efforts to find a compromise between North and South. Webster led the prosecution against men accused of rescuing Shadrach Minkins in 1851 from Boston officials who intended to return Minkins to his owner ; the juries convicted none of the men. Webster sought to enforce a law that was extremely unpopular in the North, and his Whig Party passed him over again when they chose a presidential nominee in 1852. Effects The Fugitive Slave Law brought the issue home to anti-slavery citizens in the North, as it made them and their institutions responsible for enforcing slavery. `` Where before many in the North had little or no opinions or feelings on slavery, this law seemed to demand their direct assent to the practice of human bondage, and it galvanized Northern sentiments against slavery. '' Moderate abolitionists were faced with the immediate choice of defying what they believed to be an unjust law, or breaking with their own consciences and beliefs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom 's Cabin ( 1852 ) to highlight the evils of slavery. Many abolitionists defied the law openly. Reverend Luther Lee, pastor of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Syracuse, New York, wrote in 1855 : I never would obey it. I had assisted thirty slaves to escape to Canada during the last month. If the authorities wanted anything of me, my residence was at 39 Onondaga Street. I would admit that and they could take me and lock me up in the Penitentiary on the hill ; but if they did such a foolish thing as that I had friends enough on Onondaga County to level it to the ground before the next morning. This was far from empty rhetoric. Several years before, in the Jerry Rescue, Syracuse abolitionists freed by force a fugitive slave who was to be sent back to the South ; they successfully smuggled him to Canada. The case of Anthony Burns was an example of an unsuccessful attempt by opponents of the Fugitive Slave Law to use force to free a captured slave. Other famous examples include Shadrach Minkins in 1851 and Lucy Bagby in 1861, whose forcible return in 1861 has been cited by historians as important and `` allegorical. '' Pittsburgh abolitionists organized groups whose purpose was the seizure and release of any slave passing through the city, as in the case of a free black servant of the Slaymaker family, erroneously `` rescued '' by black waiters in a hotel dining room. Other opponents, such as African - American leader Harriet Tubman, simply treated the law as just another complication in their activities. One important consequence was that Canada became a major destination for escaped slaves ; the black population of Canada increased from 40,000 to 60,000 between 1850 and 1860 and many reached freedom by the Underground Railroad. In Pittsburgh, for example, during the September following the passage of the law, organized `` squads '' of escaped slaves set out for Canada -- armed and sworn to `` die rather than be taken back into slavery '' -- with more than 200 men leaving by the end of the month. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, General Benjamin Butler justified refusing to return runaway slaves under this law because the Union and the Confederacy were at war : he confiscated the slaves as contraband of war and set them free, figuring that the loss of workers would also damage the Confederacy. As the war continued with little progress for the Union side, slavery came to be seen as an institution that needed to be undermined to weaken the Confederacy 's economy. As such the US Congress eventually passed legislation that forbade US forces to return runaway slaves to their masters, and President Abraham Lincoln consolidated that shifting attitude towards slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation that made the institution 's destruction an official war goal. Thus the spirit and letter of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 were completely abandoned. See also Fugitive slave laws Prigg v. Pennsylvania Ableman v. Booth Fugitive Slave Law Convention of 1850, Cazenovia, New York Underground Railroad Emancipation Proclamation Slave Trade Acts Incidents involving fugitive slaves : Passmore Williamson William Still Christiana incident ( or riot ), 1851 Joshua Glover Jerry Rescue Notes ^ Jump up to : Nevins, Allan ( 1947 ). Ordeal of the Union : Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847 -- 1852. 1. Collier Books. ISBN 002035441X. ISBN 978 - 0020354413 Jump up ^ Thomas D. Morris ( 1974 ). Free Men All : The Personal Liberty Laws of the North, 1780 - 1861. p. 49. Jump up ^ Stampp, Kenneth M. ( 1990 ). America in 1857 : A Nation on the Brink. Oxford University Press. p. 84. Missouri courts on a number of occasions had granted freedom to slaves whose owners had taken them for long periods of residence in free states or territories Jump up ^ Wilson, Benjamin C. ( 1976 ). `` Kentucky Kidnappers, Fugitives, and Abolitionists in Antebellum Cass County Michigan ''. Michigan History. 60 ( 4 ) : 339 -- 358. Jump up ^ Gara, Larry. Underground Railroad. National Park Service. p. 8. ^ Jump up to : Williams, Irene E. ( 1921 ). `` The Operation of the Fugitive Slave Law in Western Pennsylvania from 1850 to 1860 ''. Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine. 4 : 150 -- 60. Retrieved 2013 - 05 - 21. Jump up ^ Meltzer, Milton ( 1971 ). Slavery : A World History. New York : Da Capo Press. p. 225. ISBN 978 - 0 - 306 - 80536 - 3. Jump up ^ Lennon, Conor ( 2016 - 08 - 01 ). `` Slave Escape, Prices, and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 ''. The Journal of Law and Economics. 59 ( 3 ) : 669 -- 695. doi : 10.1086 / 689619. ISSN 0022 - 2186. Jump up ^ `` Booth, Sherman Miller 1812 - 1904 ''. Dictionary of Wisconsin biography. wisconsinhistory.org. 2011. Retrieved June 28, 2011. Jump up ^ Houston, Horace K., Jr. ( 2004 ). `` Another Nullification Crisis : Vermont 's 1850 Habeas Corpus Law ''. New England Quarterly. 77 ( 2 ) : 252 -- 272. JSTOR 1559746. Jump up ^ Collison, Gary ( 1995 ). `` ' This Flagitious Offense ' : Daniel Webster and the Shadrach Rescue Cases, 1851 - 1852 ''. The New England Quarterly. 68 ( 4 ) : 609 -- 625. JSTOR 365877. Jump up ^ Groom, Winston ( 2012 ). Shiloh, 1862. Washington, D.C., USA : National Geographic. p. 50. ISBN 9781426208744. Jump up ^ HEDRICK, JOAN D. ( 1994 ). Harriet Beecher Stowe : a life. New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 509639 - 2. Jump up ^ Hedrick, Joan D. `` Stowe 's Life and Uncle Tom 's Cabin ''. utc.iath.virginia.edu. Retrieved June 28, 2011. Jump up ^ Lee, Luther ( 1882 ). Autobiography of the Rev. Luther Lee. New York : Phillips & Hunt. p. 336. Retrieved 21 May 2013. Jump up ^ `` The Jerry Rescue ''. New York History Net. Retrieved June 28, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Anthony Burns captured ''. Africans in America. pbs.org. 2011. Retrieved June 28, 2011. Jump up ^ Robbins, Hollis ( June 12, 2011 ). `` Whitewashing Civil War History ''. The Root. Archived from the original on February 9, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2012. Jump up ^ Landon, Fred ( 1920 ). `` The Negro migration to Canada after the passing of the fugitive slave act ''. The Journal of Negro History. 5 ( 1 ) : 22 -- 36. doi : 10.2307 / 2713499. JSTOR 2713499. Jump up ^ Goodheart, Adam ( April 1, 2011 ). `` How Slavery Really Ended in America ''. The New York Times. Retrieved November 9, 2011. References Campbell, Stanley W ( 1970 ). The Slave Catchers : Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850 - 1860. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press. Fehrenbacher, Don E. ( February 8, 2001 -- December 19, 2002 ). The Slaveholding Republic : An Account of the United States Government 's Relations to Slavery. Oxford University Press / NetLibrary, Incorporated. ISBN 9780198032472. Retrieved February 11, 2013. Franklin, John Hope ; Schweninger, Loren ( 1999 ). Runaway Slaves : Rebels on the Plantation. Oxford University Press. `` Fugitive Slave Law '' ( 2008 ) Nevins, Allan ( 1947 ). Ordeal of the Union : Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847 -- 1852. 1. Collier Books. ISBN 002035441X. ISBN 978 - 0020354413 Further reading Basinger, Scott J. `` Regulating slavery : Deck - stacking and credible commitment in the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 ''. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 19.2 ( 2003 ) : 307 - 342. Campbell, Stanley W. The Slave Catchers : Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850 -- 1860 ( U North Carolina Press, 2012 ). Hummel, Jeffrey Rogers, and Barry R. Weingast. `` The fugitive slave act of 1850 : Symbolic gesture or rational guarantee. '' ( 2006 ). online Landon, Fred. `` The Negro migration to Canada after the passing of the fugitive slave act. '' Journal of Negro History 5.1 ( 1920 ) : 22 - 36. online Smith, David G. On the Edge of Freedom : The Fugitive Slave Issue in South Central Pennsylvania, 1820 - 1870 ( Fordham Univ Press, 2013 ). Snodgrass, M.E. The Underground Railroad Set : An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations. ( M.E. Sharpe, 2008 ). Walker, Christopher David. `` The fugitive slave law, antislavery and the emergence of the republican party in Indiana. '' ( PhD, Purdue, 2013 ). online External links Wikisource has original text related to this article : Fugitive Slave Act Complete text of the Fugitive Slave Law Compromise of 1850 and related resources at the Library of Congress `` Slavery in Massachusetts '' by Henry David Thoreau Runaway Slaves a Primary Source Adventure featuring fugitive slave advertisements from the 1850s, hosted by The Portal to Texas History Serialized version of Uncle Tom 's Cabin in The National Era by the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Underground Railroad People William L. Chaplin Levi Coffin Richard Dillingham Calvin Fairbank Thomas Garrett Laura Smith Haviland Daniel Hughes William Cooper Nell Harriet Forten Purvis Robert Purvis John Rankin Hetty Reckless Gerrit Smith William Still Harriet Beecher Stowe Charles Turner Torrey Sojourner Truth Harriet Tubman Frances Harper Delia Webster Places List of Underground Railroad sites houses churches Levi Coffin House Bialystoker Synagogue Bilger 's Rocks Wilson Bruce Evans House Cyrus Gates Farmstead Sites in Indiana Allen Chapel Town Clock Church Kelton House F. Julius LeMoyne House John Rankin House Gerrit Smith Estate John Freeman Walls Historic Site Events Pearl incident ( 1848 ) Jerry Rescue ( 1851 ) Uncle Tom 's Cabin ( 1852 book ) Dred : A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp ( 1856 book ) Oberlin -- Wellington Rescue ( 1858 ) Thirteenth Amendment ( 1865 ) Topics Songs of the Underground Railroad Abolitionism in the United States Abolitionism opponents of slavery African - American opponents publications Fugitive slaves Fugitive slave laws 1850 Quilts Signals lawn jockey Slave catcher The Underground Railroad Records ( 1872 book ) Related National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park visitor center The Railroad to Freedom : A Story of the Civil War ( 1932 book ) A Woman Called Moses ( 1978 miniseries ) Roots of Resistance ( 1989 documentary ) The Quest for Freedom ( 1992 film ) Freedom : The Underground Railroad ( 2013 board game ) Underground ( 2016 TV series ) See also : Slavery in the United States and Slavery in Canada GND : 1154453189 LCCN : n94049341 NARA : 10664607 NLA : 50704281 VIAF : 175883565 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fugitive_Slave_Act_of_1850&oldid=841138331 '' Categories : 1850 in American politics 1850 in American law Extradition in the United States Presidency of Millard Fillmore Slavery legislation United States slavery law Hidden categories : All articles with specifically marked weasel - worded phrases Articles with specifically marked weasel - worded phrases from September 2015 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from September 2015 All accuracy disputes Articles with disputed statements from September 2015 Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Čeština Deutsch Français Italiano עברית Latina Русский Suomi Українська 4 more Edit links This page was last edited on 14 May 2018, at 06 : 57. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who was involved in the fugitive slave law
Answer: Southern slave-holding interests