By the mid-1800s hundreds of slaves were escaping to the northern states. This made slave masters unhappy of course because they were losing valuable “property.” Southerners started raiding into northern states to recapture the slaves, but many of the raids failed because the northern states refused to acknowledge or enforce the southerners property rights. With the violent way failing, the southerners decided to get their demands heard in political ways. Southern politicians exaggerated the number of escaped slaves and blamed northerners for interfering with southern property rights. There was no way to verify the politician’s claims of course, and because the Southern States had the voting numbers (pop quiz for those who read last weeks post), the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed.
The Fugitive Slave Act required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate in the capture. The law penalized any official who did not arrest an “alleged” runaway slave and was subject to a fine of $ 1,000 (modern-day equivalent of $ 30,000 ouch). Law enforcement were required to arrest any suspected runaway slave with as little evidence as the owner’s sworn testimony of ownership. The law also punished anyone who aided a runaway slave (i.e., provide shelter or give food) by subjecting them to six months imprisonment and a $ 1,000 fine.
A slave or African American for that matter was not considered a U.S. citizen and therefore was not privileged to the rights of the Consitution. A “suspected” slave was not eligible for a trail, and because of this a lot of free African Americans were kidnapped and forced into slavery. Remember the “suspected” fugitive slaves had no rights in court and could not defend themselves against the accusations. The fugitive slave act brought the institution of slavery front and center to northerners as they now had to participate in enforcing slavery. Before the law, most northerners were basically oblivious to and had no opinion about slavery. A lot of escaped slaves started to head to Canada instead of the north to escape the Fugitive slave act reach. By 1855 a proposed 3,500 of Canada’s black population were fugitive slaves.
In the early days of the Civil War, a lot of slaves escaped their plantations and ran to Union soldier campsites. Surprisingly Union forces returned these escaped slaves to their masters. Some Union generals, however, refused to return runaway slaves and instead set them free. In 1861 Congress enacted the Confiscation Act. The Act barred slaveholders from reenslaving captured runaways, the law however only applied to slaves used by southern owners to support the Rebel cause. The Fugitive slave act was formally repealed in 1864. 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.”
Mistakes Were Made:
Because of the political power the southern states held due to the 3/5th compromise and the lies told by slave owners a repulsive law like this was passed. There were a lot of things wrong with this law but probably the most offensive was the fact a free man or woman could be kidnapped and forced into slavery without the right to a trial, jury or the fundamental right to defend themselves against false accusations. Sadly you will see this pattern of a retraction of a groups rights often throughout U.S. history (Japanese internment, Guantanamo Bay and African Americans living in the South up to the mid-1960’s.) The law forced free African Americans to flee to Canada or Europe to avoid getting forced into slavery. The law tore apart families for years and reduced the black population in New York City by 2,000. This law is a case of power run amuck with nothing or nobody to keep the forces to be in check. Though there was devout abolitionist at the time the majority of the northern population had no opinion or feelings regarding slavery. And when the majority has that type of apathy about an evil institution like slavery, the corrupt institution will win out until the other side starts feeling empathy or will no longer stand for the evil institution. Sadly it took 14 more years and a civil war to change most of the northerners opinion about slavery.
