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 The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

   

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was created to try to control the issue of runaway slaves and to return them to their masters. While their masters tried to keep the idea of running away from the slaves minds, some of them rebelled and ran for the free states in the North. Before this Act was comprised, masters often wouldn't go looking for the run away slaves. This, however, began to cost the masters more due to having buy more slaves to replace the runaway ones. 

The Fugitive Slave Act was incorporated during the Compromise of 1850. This Act meant that slaves could no longer travel across to free states without the possibility of being brought back. This Act even put already escaped slaves at risk. While slaves could escape and cross over into free states, the government was then responsible for finding the slaves, apprehending them, and returning the runaway slave to their master. The government was also responsible for trying these escaped slaves.

    During the 14 years of this being enacted, signs would be placed around the free states to inform both the slaves and the freed people about being on the lookout for runaway slaves and to give them over to the authorities so that they could be taken back to their master. 

    Fugitive slaves were not allowed to testify on their own while being tried. Any of these slaves could be fined up to at least 1, 000 dollars. The trials were often unfair which was to be expected in these times. Even after these trials, it can be assumed the other punishments these slaves would face once being returned to their masters.

    This Act was passed in Congress on September 18, 1850 and continued on until June 28, 1864. However the original version of this act was in 1793. As with a lot of things, this act was met with a lot of resistance and yet it took them 14 years for the act to finally be repealed. 

    This article goes into a lot of depth and detail concerning the act. It was a great resource to find when it came to studying to help educate myself on the topic I chose. The other article chosen helped me understand the more law aspect of this act and what it all entailed such as the trials the slaves faced