Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Act of the United States Congress}}

{{Expand|date=January 2007}}

{{For|the slave act of 1793|Fugitive Slave Act of 1793}}

[[Image:Slave kidnap post 1851 boston.jpg|thumb|250px|An April 24, 1851 poster warning colored people in Boston about policemen acting as slave catchers.]]

{{Use American English|date=June 2025}}

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 United States|Southern]] [[slavery|slaveholding]] interests and [[northern United States|Northern]] [[United States Free Soil Party|Free-Soilers]].

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2018}}

{{Infobox U.S. legislation

| shorttitle =

| othershorttitles =

| longtitle = An Act to amend, and supplementary to, the Act entitled "[[Fugitive Slave Act of 1793|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.

| colloquialacronym =

| nickname =

| enacted by = 31st

| effective date =

| public law url =

| cite public law = {{USPL|31|60}}

| cite statutes at large = {{usstat|9|462}}

| acts amended =

| acts repealed =

| title amended = <!--US code titles changed-->

| sections created = <!--{{USC}} can be used-->

| sections amended =

| leghisturl =

| introducedin = Senate

| introducedbill = [https://www.congress.gov/bill/31st-congress/senate-bill/23 S. 23]

| introducedby = [[James Murray Mason|James M. Mason]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]–[[Virginia|VA]])

| introduceddate = January 4, 1850

| committees = [[United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary|Senate Judiciary]]

| passedbody1 = Senate

| passeddate1 = August 23, 1850

| passedvote1 = [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/31-1/s246 27-12]

| passedbody2 = House

| passedas2 = <!-- used if the second body changes the name of the legislation -->

| passeddate2 = September 12, 1850

| passedvote2 = [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/31-1/h377 109–76]

| conferencedate =

| passedbody3 =

| passeddate3 =

| passedvote3 =

| agreedbody3 = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->

| agreeddate3 = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->

| agreedvote3 = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->

| agreedbody4 = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->

| agreeddate4 = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->

| agreedvote4 = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->

| passedbody4 =

| passeddate4 =

| passedvote4 =

| signedpresident = [[Millard Fillmore]]

| signeddate = September 18, 1850

| unsignedpresident = <!-- used when passed without presidential signing -->

| unsigneddate = <!-- used when passed without presidential signing -->

| vetoedpresident = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->

| vetoeddate = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->

| overriddenbody1 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->

| overriddendate1 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->

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| overriddenvote2 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->

| amendments = Repealed by Act of June 28, 1864, {{USStat|13|200}}

| SCOTUS cases =

}}

[[File:Slave kidnap post 1851 boston.jpg|thumb|upright|An April 24, 1851 poster warning the "colored people of Boston" about policemen acting as slave catchers.]]

{{slavery}}

The '''Fugitive Slave Act''' or '''Fugitive Slave Law''' was a [[statute]] passed by the [[31st United States Congress]] on September 18, 1850,<ref name="cobb">{{cite web|url=https://time.com/4039140/fugitive-slace-act-165/|title=One of American History's Worst Laws Was Passed 165 Years Ago|last=Cobb|first=James C.|date=18 September 2015|publisher=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=17 September 2018}}</ref> as part of the [[Compromise of 1850]] between [[Southern United States|Southern]] [[Slavery in the United States|interests in slavery]] and [[northern United States|Northern]] [[Free Soil Party|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 the slave-owner and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate.<ref name="Nevins">{{cite book

A significant source of conflict between Southern [[slave state]]s and Northern [[free state]]s was the lack of assistance given by Northerners to Southern slave-owners and their agents, who were seeking to recapture [[Runaway slaves|escaped slaves]]. Many Southerners viewed this as support for [[abolitionism]], and resented Northern officials' refusal to respect Southern [[states' rights]]. In contrast, most Northern states had abolished slavery within their borders, and many Northern officials did not want their local institutions to be used to support the enforcement of Southern states' slavery laws. They viewed efforts to compel such assistance as an infringement of Northern states' rights.

|last1=Nevins

|first1=Allan

|author-link=Allan Nevins

|title=Ordeal of the Union: Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847–1852

|year=1947|volume=1|publisher=Collier Books |isbn=978-0020354413}}</ref> The Act contributed to the growing polarization of the country over the issue of slavery. It was one of the factors that led to the founding of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] and the start of the [[American Civil War]].<ref>{{Cite web|access-date=May 1, 2025|date=May 1, 2025|url=https://podcast.charlescwcooke.com/episodes/episode-86-joshua-glovers-freedom|title=Episode 86: Joshua Glover's Freedom|first1=Charles C. W.|first2=Michael|last1=Cooke|last2=Jahr|work=The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast}}</ref>

==Background==

{{Events leading to US Civil War}}

By 1843, several hundred enslaved people per year escaped to the North successfully, making slavery an unstable institution in the [[Border states (American Civil War)|border states]].<ref name="Nevins" />{{page needed|date=February 2022}}

The earlier [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1793]] was a federal law that was written with the intent to enforce [[FederalArticle governmentFour of the United States Constitution#Clause 3: Fugitive Slave Clause|Federal]]Article law4, whichSection enforced2, aClause section3 of the [[United States Constitution]], thatwhich required the return of runawayescaped slaves. It sought to force the authorities in free states to return fugitive slaves to their mastersenslavers. In practice, however, the law was rarely enforced.

SomeMany Northernfree states wanted to disregard the Fugitive Slave Act. Some jurisdictions passed "[[personal liberty laws]]", mandating a jury trial before alleged fugitive slaves could be moved. Otherwise, theywhile feared free blacks (who could vote in ten of the 13 states at the time of the adoption of the Constitution) could be kidnapped into slavery. Other statesothers forbade the use of local jails or the assistance of state officials in the arrestarresting or returnreturning offugitive such fugitivesslaves. In some cases, juries simply [[Jury nullification|refused to convict]] individuals who had been indicted under the Federalfederal law.<ref>{{cite Moreover,book locals|last=Thomas inD. someMorris areas|title=Free activelyMen foughtAll: attemptsThe toPersonal seizeLiberty fugitivesLaws andof returnthe themNorth, to1780–1861 the South|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LJmyWcP0YzIC&pg=PA49 |year=1974 |page=49 |publisher=The Lawbook Exchange |isbn=9781584771074}}</ref>

The [[Missouri State Supreme Court]] routinely held that transportationenslaved ofpeople slaveswho had been relocated into neighboring free states automaticallyalong madewith themtheir free.enslavers Thegained [[Supremetheir Courtfreedom ofas thea United States|U.Sresult.<ref>{{Cite Supremebook Court]]|quote=Missouri ruled,courts inon ''[[Prigga v.number Pennsylvania]]''of (1842),occasions thathad statesgranted didfreedom notto haveslaves towhose profferowners aidhad intaken thethem huntingfor orlong recaptureperiods of slaves,residence greatlyin weakeningfree thestates lawor ofterritories 1793.

|title=America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink |first=Kenneth M. |last=Stampp |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1990 |page=84}}</ref> The 1793 act dealt with slaves who escaped to free states without their enslavers' consent. The [[Supreme Court of the United States]] ruled in ''[[Prigg v. Pennsylvania]]'' (1842) that states were not required to aid in the hunting or recapture of slaves, significantly weakening the law of 1793.

After 1840, the Black population of [[Cass County, Michigan]] proliferated as families were attracted by White defiance of discriminatory laws, by numerous highly supportive Quakers, and by low-priced land. Free and escaping Blacks found Cass County a haven. Their good fortune attracted the attention of Southern slavers. In 1847 and 1849, planters from [[Bourbon County, Kentucky|Bourbon]] and [[Boone County, Kentucky|Boone counties]], Kentucky led [[Kentucky raid in Cass County (1847)|raids into Cass County]] to recapture escaped slaves. The attacks failed, but the situation contributed to Southern demands in 1850 to pass a strengthened fugitive-slave act.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Benjamin C. |last=Wilson |title=Kentucky Kidnappers, Fugitives, and Abolitionists in Antebellum Cass County Michigan |journal=[[Michigan History (magazine)|Michigan History]] |year=1976 |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=339–358}}</ref>

Southern politicians often exaggerated the number of people escaping enslavement, blaming the escapes on Northern abolitionists, whom they believed to be inciting their allegedly happy slaves and interfering with Southern property rights. According to the ''Columbus'' ''Enquirer'' of 1850, the support from Northerners for fugitive slaves caused more ill will between the North and the South than did all the other causes combined.<ref name=Agitate>{{cite journal |title='Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!' The Great Fugitive Slave Law Convention and its rare Daguerrotype |first=Hugh C. |last=Humphreys |journal=[[Madison County Heritage]] |number=19 |date=1994 |pages=3–66}}</ref>{{rp|6}}

==New law==

[[File:Cartoon Supporting the Fugitive Slave Act (1851).jpg|thumb|left|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 slaver. 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."<!-- should I retouch the image to be legible? -->]]

In the response to the weakening of the original fugitive slave act, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 made any [[United States Marshals Service|Federal marshal]] or other official who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave liable to a fine of $1,000. Law-enforcement officials everywhere now had a duty to arrest anyone suspected of being a runaway slave on no more evidence than 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 fee for their work.

In response to the weakening of the original Fugitive Slave Act, Democratic senator [[James M. Mason]] of Virginia drafted the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which penalized officials who did not arrest fugitive slaves and made them liable to a fine of $1,000 ({{Inflation|US|1000|1850|fmt=eq|r=-1}}). Law-enforcement officials everywhere were required to arrest suspected escaped slaves on as little as a [[claimant]]'s sworn testimony of ownership. {{lang|la|[[Habeas corpus]]}} was declared irrelevant. The commissioners before whom the alleged fugitive slaves were brought for a hearing (no jury was permitted, and the slaves could not testify<ref name="williams1921">{{Cite journal | volume = 4 | pages = 150–160 | last = Williams | first = Irene E. | title = The Operation of the Fugitive Slave Law in Western Pennsylvania from 1850 to 1860 | journal = Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine | access-date = May 21, 2013 | year = 1921 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qA8QAQAAMAAJ&q=Fugitive+Slave+Law+of+1850&pg=PA150 }}</ref>) were compensated $10 ({{Inflation|US|10|1850|fmt=eq|r=-1}}) if the subject was proven to be a fugitive and only $5 ({{Inflation|US|5|1850|fmt=eq|r=-1}}) if he determined the proof to be insufficient.<ref>{{cite news

===Effects===

|title=The Fugitive Slave Law

In fact the Fugitive Slave Law brought the issue home to anti-slavery citizens in the North, since it made them and their institutions responsible for enforcing slavery. Even moderate abolitionists were now faced with the immediate choice of defying what they believed an unjust law or breaking with their own consciences and beliefs. The case of [[Anthony Burns]] fell under this statute.

|newspaper=Sabbath Recorder

|date=October 10, 1850

|others=(Transcribed in Marlene K. Parks, ed., ''New York Central College, 1849–1860,'' 2017, ISBN 1548505757, Volume 1, Part 3)}}</ref> In addition, any person aiding a fugitive by providing food or shelter was subject to as long as six months of imprisonment and a fine as high as $1,000. Officers who captured fugitive slaves were entitled to bonuses or promotions for their work.

Enslavers needed only to supply an [[affidavit]] to a federal marshal to capture a fugitive from slavery. Since a suspected enslaved person was not eligible for a trial, the law resulted in the kidnapping and conscription of free Blacks into slavery, as purported fugitive slaves had no rights in court and could not defend themselves against accusations.<ref>{{cite book|title=Slavery: A World History|first=Milton|last=Meltzer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8qMc-y3ya9UC|page=225|publisher=Da Capo Press|___location=New York|year=1971|isbn=978-0-306-80536-3}}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Many Methodists were highly active in the abolition movement, though the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] was officially reluctant to touch the issue because it did not want to fan the flames of inter-sectional hatreds after the Southern wing split off in 1844.

Two splinter groups of Methodism, the [[Wesleyan Church]] in [[1843]] and the [[Free Methodist Church|Free Methodists]] in 1860, along with many like-minded Quakers, maintained some of the "stations" of the Underground Railroad. Most of the stations were maintained by African Americans.

The act adversely affected the prospects of escape from slavery, 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lennon|first=Conor|date=August 1, 2016|title=Slave Escape, Prices, and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850|url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/689619|journal=The Journal of Law and Economics|volume=59|issue=3|pages=669–695|doi=10.1086/689619|s2cid=25733453|issn=0022-2186|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The Fugitive Slave Act brought a defiant response from abolitionists. Reverend [[Luther Lee]], pastor of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of [[Syracuse, New York]] wrote in [[1855]]:

{{cquote|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.}}

According to abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]], even in the supposedly safe refuge of [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], "some of them are so alarmed that they tell me that they cannot sleep on account of either them or their wives and children. I can only say I think I have been enabled to do something to revive their broken spirits. I want all my family to imagine themselves in the same dreadful condition."<ref>{{cite book

Other opponents such as African American leader [[Harriet Tubman]] simply treated the law as just another complication in their activities. The most important reaction was making the neighboring country of [[Canada]] the main destination of choice for runaway slaves. Only a few hundred runaways made it to Canada in the 1850s.

|page=41

|url=https://archive.org/details/johnbrownsjourne00frie/page/40/mode/2up

|title=John Brown's journey : notes and reflections on his America and mine

|last=Fried

|first=Albert

|date=1978

|isbn=0385055110

|___location=Garden City, New York

|publisher=[[Anchor Press]]}}</ref>

===Judicial nullification===

With the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]], General [[Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler]] justified refusing to return runaway slaves in accordance to this law because the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] and the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] were at war, the slaves could be confiscated and set free as [[Contraband (American Civil War)|contraband]] of war.

{{See also|Freedom suit|}}

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 Supreme Court of the United States overruled the state court.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=2485&keyword=booth|title=Booth, Sherman Miller 1812 – 1904|work=Dictionary of Wisconsin biography|publisher=wisconsinhistory.org|year=2011|access-date=June 28, 2011|archive-date=August 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818172815/https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=2485&keyword=booth|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Jury nullification]] occurred as 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, who wanted high-profile convictions. The jury nullifications ruined Webster's 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 slavery; the juries convicted none of the men. Webster sought to enforce a law that was extremely unpopular in the North, and his [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]] rejected him again when it chose a presidential nominee in 1852.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Collison |first=Gary |year=1995 |title='This Flagitious Offense': Daniel Webster and the Shadrach Rescue Cases, 1851–1852 |journal=[[The New England Quarterly]] |volume=68 |issue=4 |pages=609–625 |doi=10.2307/365877 |jstor=365877}}</ref>

=== Legislative nullification ===

{{See also|Personal liberty laws}}

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 (U.S. Constitution)|nullification]] of federal law, a concept popular among slave 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 pro-slavery reactions to the Vermont law. Virginia governor [[John B. Floyd]] warned that nullification could push the South toward secession. At the same time, 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 the incident echoed South Carolina's 1832 [[nullification crisis]] and Thomas Jefferson's 1798 [[Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions|Kentucky Resolutions]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=Horace K. Jr. |last=Houston |title=Another Nullification Crisis: Vermont's 1850 Habeas Corpus Law |journal=New England Quarterly |volume=77 |issue=2 |year=2004 |pages=252–272 |jstor=1559746 }}</ref>

In February 1855, the [[Michigan]] [[Michigan Legislature|legislature]] passed a law prohibiting county jails from being used to detain recaptured slaves, directing county prosecutors to defend recaptured slaves and entitling recaptured slaves to ''[[habeas corpus]]'' and [[trial by jury]].<ref>{{Cite act|type=Act|date=13 February 1855|article=Title XXXVIII, Chapter CCXLI|legislature=[[Michigan Legislature]]|title=The Protection of the Rights and Liberties of Persons Claimed as Fugitive Slaves: An Act to protect the rights and liberties of the inhabitants of this State.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hld_R9jmG3oC&dq=%22all+the+benefits+of+the+writ+of+habeas+corpus+and+of+trial+by+jury%22&pg=PA2065}}</ref> Other states to pass personal liberty laws include [[Connecticut]], [[Massachusetts]], [[Maine]], [[New Hampshire]], [[Ohio]], [[Pennsylvania]] and [[Wisconsin]].

=== Resistance in the North and other consequences ===

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."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Shiloh, 1862|last=Groom|first=Winston|publisher=National Geographic|year=2012|isbn=9781426208744|___location=Washington, D.C.|pages=50}}</ref> Moderate abolitionists were faced with the immediate choice of defying what they believed to be an unjust law or breaking with their consciences and beliefs. [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] wrote ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' (1852) in response to the law.<ref name=Elbert>{{cite book

|contribution=Introduction

|title=The American prejudice against color: William G. Allen, Mary King, and Louisa May Alcott

|editor-first=Sarah

|editor-last=Elbert

|___location=Boston

|publisher=[[Northeastern University Press]]

|date=2002

|isbn=9781555535452}}</ref>{{rp|1}}<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=tl8m84E2iFkC |title=Harriet Beecher Stowe: a life|first=Joan D. |last=Hedrick |author-link=Joan D. Hedrick| publisher=Oxford University Press|___location=New York|year=1994|isbn= 978-0-19-509639-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/interpret/exhibits/hedrick/hedrick.html |title=Stowe's Life and ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' |first=Joan D. |last=Hedrick|work=utc.iath.virginia.edu |date=2007|access-date=June 28, 2011}}</ref>

Many abolitionists openly defied the law. Reverend [[Luther Lee]], pastor of the [[Wesleyan Methodist Church (United States)|Wesleyan Methodist Church]] of [[Syracuse, New York]], wrote in 1855:

{{quote|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 in [[Onondaga County]] to level it to the ground before the next morning.<ref name="Lee1882">{{cite book|last=Lee|first=Luther

|authorlink=Luther Lee

|title=Autobiography of the Rev. Luther Lee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NzIDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA336|access-date=21 May 2013|year=1882

|publisher=Phillips & Hunt|___location=New York|page=336|isbn=9780837008004

}}</ref>}}

Several years before, in the [[Jerry Rescue]], Syracuse abolitionists freed by force a fugitive slave who was to be sent back to the South and successfully smuggled him to Canada.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.nyhistory.com/gerritsmith/jerry.htm |title=The Jerry Rescue |work= New York History Net |access-date=June 28, 2011}}</ref> [[Thomas Sims]] and [[Anthony Burns]] were both captured fugitives who were part of unsuccessful attempts by opponents of the Fugitive Slave Law to use force to free them.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2915.html |title=Anthony Burns captured|work= Africans in America |publisher=pbs.org |year=2011 |access-date=June 28, 2011}}</ref> Other famous examples include [[Shadrach Minkins]] in 1851 and [[Sara Lucy Bagby|Lucy Bagby]] in 1861, whose forcible return has been cited by historians as important and "allegorical".<ref>{{cite web |first1=Hollis |last1=Robbins |author-link=Hollis Robbins |url=http://www.theroot.com/views/return-segregated-history |title=Whitewashing Civil War History |date=June 12, 2011 |website=The Root |access-date=February 11, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209142437/http://www.theroot.com/views/return-segregated-history |archive-date=February 9, 2012 }}</ref> Pittsburgh abolitionists organized groups whose purpose was the seizure and release of any enslaved person passing through the city, as in the case of a free Black servant of the Slaymaker family, erroneously the subject of a rescue by Black waiters in a hotel dining room.<ref name="williams1921" /> If fugitives from slavery were captured and put on trial, abolitionists worked to defend them in trial, and if by chance the recaptured person had their freedom put up for a price, abolitionists worked to pay to free them.<ref name="Gateway Freedom">{{cite book |last1=Foner |first1=Eric |author-link=Eric Foner|title=Gateway to Freedom |date=January 18, 2016 |isbn=978-0-393-35219-1 |pages=126–150}}</ref> Other opponents, such as African-American leader [[Harriet Tubman]], treated the law as just another complication in their activities.

In April 1859, a putative freeman named Daniel Webster was arrested in [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania]], alleged to be Daniel Dangerfield, an escaped slave from [[Loudoun County, Virginia]]. At a hearing in Philadelphia, federal commissioner J. Cooke Longstreth ordered Webster's release, arguing the claimants had not proved that he was Dangerfield. Webster promptly left for Canada.<ref>{{cite web |title=Daniel Webster |url=https://digitalharrisburg.com/commonwealth/100names/daniel-webster/ |website=Digital Harrisburg |access-date=18 February 2022 |language=en |date=28 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=J. Cooke Longstreth {{!}} 1850 Fugitive Slave Law |url=https://blogs.dickinson.edu/hist-wingert/uscommissioners/j-cooke-longstreth/ |access-date=18 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The arrest, trial, and release of Daniel Webster, a fugitive slave : correspondence of the Anti-slavery standard. |date=1859 |url=https://archive.org/details/ASPC0001981300 |access-date=18 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Daniel Dangerfield's Flight to Freedom Hailed for Lasting Lessons |url=https://loudounnow.com/2021/02/02/daniel-dangerfields-flight-to-freedom-hailed-for-lasting-lessons/ |access-date=18 February 2022 |work=Loudoun Now |date=2 February 2021}}</ref>

===Canada===

One important consequence was that Canada, not the Northern free states, became the foremost 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]].<ref name="landon1920negro">{{cite journal| last=Landon |first=Fred| title=The Negro migration to Canada after the passing of the fugitive slave act| journal=The Journal of Negro History| year=1920| volume=5| number=1| pages=22–36| jstor=2713499| doi=10.2307/2713499| doi-access=free}}{{open access}}</ref> Notable Black publishers, such as [[Henry Bibb]] and [[Mary Ann Shadd]], created publications encouraging emigration to Canada. By 1855, an estimated 3,500 people among Canada's Black population were fugitives from American slavery.<ref name="Gateway Freedom"/> In Pittsburgh, for example, during the September following the passage of the law, organized groups of escaped slaves, armed and sworn to "die rather than be taken back into slavery", set out for Canada, with more than 200 men leaving by the end of the month.<ref name="williams1921" /> The Black population in New York City dropped by almost 2,000 from 1850 to 1855.<ref name="Gateway Freedom"/>

On the other hand, many Northern businessmen supported the law due to their commercial ties with the Southern states. They founded the Union Safety Committee and raised thousands of dollars to promote their cause, which gained sway, particularly in New York City, and caused public opinion to shift somewhat towards supporting the law.<ref name="Gateway Freedom"/>

==End of the Act==

[[File:Slaves_Escaping_from_the_South.jpg|thumb|''The Vicksburg Whig'' did not cite any sources for these claims about the number of fugitives from American slavery ("Slaves Escaping from the South", January 16, 1861)]]

In the early stages of the [[American Civil War]], the Union had no established policy on people escaping from slavery. Many enslaved people left their plantations heading for Union lines. Still, in the early stages of the war, fugitives from slavery were often returned by Union forces to their enslavers.<ref name="Frankel">Noralee Frankel, "Breaking the Chain: 1860–1880", in [[Robin D. G. Kelley]] & [[Earl Lewis]] (eds), ''To Make Our World Anew'' (Vol. I: A History of African Americans to 1880, Oxford University Press, 2000: paperback edn 2005), pp. 230–231.</ref> General [[Benjamin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler]] and some other Union generals, however, refused to recapture fugitives under the law because the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] and the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] were at war. He confiscated enslaved people as [[contraband (American Civil War)|contraband]] of war and set them free, with the justification that the loss of labor would also damage the Confederacy.<ref name="Goodheart">{{cite news |first1=Adam |last1=Goodheart |date=April 1, 2011 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/magazine/mag-03CivilWar-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |title=How Slavery Really Ended in America}}</ref> [[Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln]] allowed Butler to continue his policy but countermanded broader directives issued by other Union commanders that freed all enslaved people in places under their control.<ref name="Frankel"/>

In August 1861, the U.S. Congress enacted the [[Confiscation Act of 1861]], which barred enslavers from re-enslaving captured fugitives who were forced to aid or abet the insurrection.<ref name="Frankel"/> The legislation, sponsored by [[Lyman Trumbull]], was passed on a near-unanimous vote and established military emancipation as official Union policy, but applied only to enslaved people used by rebel enslavers to support the Confederate cause, creating a limited exception to the Fugitive Slave Act.<ref name="Zietlow">Rebecca E. Zietlow, ''The Forgotten Emancipator: James Mitchell Ashley and the Ideological Origins of Reconstruction'' (Cambridge University Press, 2018), pp. 97–98.</ref> [[Union Army]] forces sometimes returned fugitives from slavery to enslavers until March 1862, when Congress enacted the Confiscation Act of 1862, Section 10 of which barred Union officers from returning slaves to their owners on pain of dismissal from the service.<ref name="Frankel"/><ref name="Zietlow"/> [[James Mitchell Ashley]] proposed legislation to repeal the Fugitive Slave Act, but the bill did not make it out of committee in 1863.<ref name="Zietlow"/> Although the Union policy of confiscation and military emancipation had effectively superseded the operation of the Fugitive Slave Act,<ref name="Zietlow"/><ref name="Fehrenbacher">Don E. Fehrenbacher, ''The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government's Relations to Slavery'' (Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 250.</ref> the Fugitive Slave Act was only formally repealed in June 1864.<ref name="Fehrenbacher"/> The ''[[New York Tribune]]'' hailed the repeal, writing: "The blood-red stain that has blotted the statute-book of the Republic is wiped out forever."<ref name="Fehrenbacher"/>

==See also==

* [[Fugitive slave laws in the United States]]

{{Wikisource|Fugitive Slave Act}}

* ''[[FugitiveAbleman slavev. lawsBooth]]''

* [[Contraband (American Civil War)]]

* [[Underground Railroad]]

* [[Emancipation Proclamation]]

* [[Fugitive Slave Convention]] of 1850, [[Cazenovia (village), New York|Cazenovia, New York]]

'''Incidents involving fugitive slaves:'''

* ''[[AnthonyPrigg Burnsv. Pennsylvania]]''

* [[Slave Trade Act]]s

* [[Lancaster County, Pennsylvania#Slavery and the Christiana incident|Christiana incident (or riot), 1851]]

* [[JoshuaUnderground GloverRailroad]]

[[File:The Fugitive Slave Law....Hamlet in Chains.jpg|thumb|James Hamlet, the first man re-enslaved under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, in front of New York City Hall. The banner on the right reads: "A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty is worth an age of servitude".]]

* [[Kevin McLaughlin]]

===Incidents involving the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (in chronological order)===

* [[Fugitive Slave Convention]], August 1850, Cazenovia, New York

* The act passes Congress and is signed by the President on September 18, 1850

* Seizure and enslavement of James Hamlet, September 26, 1850, [[Williamsburg, Brooklyn|Williamsburg, New York]]<ref>{{cite book

|first=Lewis

|last=Tappan

|author-link=Lewis Tappan

|title=The Fugitive slave bill : its history and unconstitutionality : with an account of the seizure and enslavement of James Hamlet, and his subsequent restoration to liberty

|___location=New York

|publisher=William Harned

|url=https://archive.org/details/DKC0102/mode/2up

|year=1850}}</ref>

* Escape of [[Shadrach Minkins]], February 1851, Boston<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wolfe |first1=Brendan |title=Minkins, Shadrach (d. 1875) Virginia |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/minkins-shadrach-d-1875/ |website=Encyclopedia Virginia |publisher=Virginia Humanities |date= 22 December 2021|access-date=8 August 2021}}</ref>

* Reenslavement of [[Thomas Sims]], April 1851, Boston

* [[Christiana Riot]], September 1851, Christiana, Pennsylvania

* [[Jerry Rescue]], October 1851, Syracuse, New York

* Escape of [[Joshua Glover]], March 1854, Milwaukee

* Reenslavement of [[Anthony Burns]], May/June 1854, Boston

* Attempted reenslavement of [[Jane Johnson (slave)|Jane Johnson]], July 1855, Philadelphia

* [[Oberlin–Wellington Rescue]], September 1858, Oberlin and Wellington, Ohio

* Escape of [[Charles Nalle]], November 1860, Troy, New York

==References==

{{Reflist|30em}}

* [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=104468814 Stanley W. Campbell, ''The Slave Catchers: Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850-1860'' (1970)]

* Don E. Fehrenbacher, ''The Slaveholding Republic : An Account of the United States Government's Relations to Slavery'' (2002)

==Sources==

* [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=64471325 John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger, ''Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation'' (1999)]

* {{cite book |url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=104468814 |first1=Stanley W |last1=Campbell |title=The Slave Catchers: Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850–1860 |___location=Chapel Hill |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |year=1970 |access-date=August 28, 2017 |archive-date=June 26, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626193638/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=104468814 |url-status=dead }}

* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tY8_W36yZCwC |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]/NetLibrary, Incorporated |year=2002|first1=Don E. |last1=Fehrenbacher |title=The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government's Relations to Slavery |isbn=978-0198032472|access-date=February 11, 2013}}

* {{cite book |url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=64471325 |first1=John Hope |last1=Franklin |first2=Loren |last2=Schweninger |title=Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation |year=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=August 28, 2017 |archive-date=June 27, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120627123358/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=64471325 |url-status=dead }}

* [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/USASfugitive.htm "Fugitive Slave Law" (2008)]

* {{cite book |last1=Nevins |first1=Allan |author-link=Allan Nevins|title=Ordeal of the Union: Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847–1852 |year=1947 |volume=1|publisher=Collier Books |isbn=978-0020354413}}

==Further reading==

{{Main|Bibliography of slavery in the United States}}

*{{cite journal |last=Basinger |first=Scott J. |title=Regulating slavery: Deck-stacking and credible commitment in the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 |journal=Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization |volume=19 |issue=2 |year=2003 |pages=307–342 |doi=10.1093/jleo/ewg013 }}

*{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Stanley W. |title=The Slave Catchers: Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850–1860 |publisher=U North Carolina Press |year=2012 }}

*{{cite journal |last1=Hummel |first1=Jeffrey Rogers |first2=Barry R. |last2=Weingast |author-link2=Barry R. Weingast |title=The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: Symbolic Gesture or Rational Guarantee |year=2006 |journal=Unpublished Paper |ssrn=1153528 }}

*{{cite journal |last=Landon |first=Fred |author-link=Fred Landon |title=The Negro Migration to Canada after the Passing of the Fugitive Slave Act |journal=[[Journal of Negro History]] |volume=5 |issue=1 |year=1920 |pages=22–36 |doi=10.2307/2713499 |jstor=2713499 |s2cid=149662141 |doi-access=free }}

*{{cite book |last=Smith |first=David G. |title=On the Edge of Freedom: The Fugitive Slave Issue in South Central Pennsylvania, 1820–1870 |publisher=Fordham University Press |year=2013 }}

*{{cite book |last=Snodgrass |first=M. E. |author-link=Mary Ellen Snodgrass |title=The Underground Railroad Set: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations |publisher=M. E. Sharpe |year=2008 }}

*{{cite thesis |last=Walker |first=Christopher David |title=The Fugitive Slave Law, Antislavery and the Emergence of the Republican Party in Indiana |type=PhD thesis |publisher=Purdue University |___location=Lafayette |year=2013 |url=https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/17 }}

==External links==

{{Wikisource|Fugitive Slave Act}}

* [http://www.usconstitution.net/fslave.html Complete text of the Fugitive Slave Law]

* [https://www.govinfo.gov/link/statute/9/462?link-type=pdf&.pdf Fugitive Slave Act of 1850] as enacted ([https://www.govinfo.gov/link/statute/9/462?link-type=details 9 Stat. 462]) in the [[United States Statutes at Large|US Statutes at Large]]

* [http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Compromise1850.html Compromise of 1850 and related resources at the Library of Congress]

* [https://www.congress.gov/bill/31st-congress/senate-bill/23 S. 23] on [[Congress.gov]]

* [http://eserver.org/thoreau/slavery.html "Slavery in Massachusetts" by Henry David Thoreau]

* [https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Compromise1850.html Compromise of 1850 and related resources at the Library of Congress]

* [http://texashistory.unt.edu/young/educators/slavery/index.shtml Runaway Slaves] a Primary Source Adventure featuring fugitive slave advertisements from the 1850s, hosted by [http://texashistory.unt.edu/ The Portal to Texas History]

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081108152931/http://eserver.org/thoreau/slavery.html "Slavery in Massachusetts" by Henry David Thoreau]

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160306021725/http://education.texashistory.unt.edu/lessons/psa/Runaway_Slaves/ Runaway Slaves] a Primary Source Adventure featuring fugitive slave advertisements from the 1850s, hosted by [http://texashistory.unt.edu/ The Portal to Texas History]

* [http://nationalera.wordpress.com/ Serialized version of Uncle Tom's Cabin in The National Era by the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center]

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