A federal law in the Compromise of 1850 that compelled free states to aid in capturing freedom seekers and denied the accused a jury or a voice in court.
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was one of five statutes that made up the Compromise of 1850, the settlement Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky first proposed on 29 January 1850 to resolve sectional disputes over slavery in the lands taken from Mexico. President Millard Fillmore signed it on 18 September 1850. It strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and required federal and local officials in every state to help arrest people accused of escaping slavery.
The law stripped the accused of basic protections. Federal commissioners heard cases in summary proceedings and could issue certificates of removal on minimal evidence. Alleged fugitives could not testify on their own behalf, even to claim mistaken identity, and had no right to a jury trial. A commissioner received $10 when he ruled for the claimant and $5 when he ruled for freedom, a fee schedule many Northerners regarded as a bribe. Marshals could compel bystanders to join a posse, and anyone who obstructed a capture faced a fine of up to $1,000 and six months in prison. Because the process was so summary, free Black people as well as freedom seekers were in danger.
The act provoked open resistance. Boston abolitionists formed a Vigilance Committee in October 1850, thwarted the slave catchers who pursued William and Ellen Craft, and in February 1851 rescued Shadrach Minkins from custody. Thomas Sims was returned to slavery that spring, and the 1854 case of Anthony Burns led Massachusetts to pass a personal liberty law that made enforcement nearly impossible there. In Philadelphia, abolitionists reorganized their Vigilance Committee in 1852 with William Still as chairman, and the law helped push Martin Delany toward his 1852 case for Black emigration.
The act was more powerful as provocation than as policy. Fewer than 400 people were returned under it before the Civil War, while an estimated 10,000 escaped during the same decade. Congress repealed the fugitive slave laws in June 1864.
See also: Underground Railroad, Dred Scott v. Sandford, Emancipation
Sources
- National Archives, “Compromise of 1850 (1850).” Link
- National Park Service, “‘Let it be placed among the abominations!’: The Bill of Rights and the Fugitive Slave Laws.” Link
- National Park Service, “The Fugitive Slave Laws and Boston.” Link
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