With annual documented cases of runaways amounting to 1, or fewer out of a total slave population that stood at 3. Escapes had mounted as the increasingly dynamic abolitionist contingent urged slaves to take flight, and, beyond that, the most compelling and credible indictments of slavery came not from northern whites acting on principle, but from runaways like Frederick Douglass and Henry Highland Garnet, who had experienced its cruelties themselves.
It was no mere coincidence that both Douglass and Garnet had made their escapes from Maryland. Historians Joseph R. Hummel and Barry R. Because the worst flight risks were also the most expensive to replace, able-bodied male slaves became a notably less attractive investment in the border states.
As dramatically higher prices in the Deep South enticed more and more slaveholders in states like Delaware and Maryland to sell off their human property, there was little reason to expect their future representatives in Washington to maintain their attachments to the institution.
Yet if the Fugitive Slave Act of was expected to bolster slavery in any concrete fashion, there is little evidence it actually did. In fact, though the Fugitive Slave Act itself marked a low point in American legislative history, its very egregiousness ultimately helped to bring down the barbaric institution it was crafted to defend.
Runaway totals fell by scarcely over the decade that followed, and the persons returned to slavery barely matched the number of escapes from the Border States alone in Even northern whites who had previously been little disposed to have African Americans in their midst now demanded stronger state protections for personal liberty.
They even rose up in direct physical defiance in Boston, Oberlin and elsewhere, resisting federal intruders empowered to override the local justice system and abrogate their civil rights. Like their counterparts a century later who were slow to realize the explosive potential of a steadily rising outcry for racial justice, the southern Democrats of had sorely underestimated a very real threat—not only to their interests, but ultimately to the Union itself.
As the Fugitive Slave Act made clear, the shift in substantive northern priorities and the concomitant rise of a new public morality would be incompatible with any further extension of the physical and political reach of human bondage.
James C. The Fugitive Slave Law of was part of the Compromise of This law required the United States government to actively assist slave holders in recapturing freedom seekers. Under the United States Constitution, slave holders had the right to reclaim slaves who ran away to free states. With the Fugitive Slave Law of , the federal government had to assist the slave holders. No such requirement had existed previously.
Northern abolitionists opposed this law. While the United States Congress debated the legislation, some legislators tried to insert protections into the bill for African Americans.
They wanted the Fugitive Slave Law to guarantee African Americans the right to testify and also the right to a trial by jury. Other legislators refused and claimed that African Americans were not United States citizens. The Fugitive Slave Law clearly favored the slave holders. Anyone caught hiding or assisting freedom seekers faced stiff penalties. United States marshals had to actively seek freedom seekers and return them to their holders. Fugitive Slave Act of Social Welfare History Project.
Comments for this site have been disabled. Please use our contact form for any research questions. Scenes from the life of Anthony Burns, who was arrested and tried under the Fugitive Slave Act of Photo: Library of Congress Digital ID pga The severity of this statute inspired an increased number of abolitionists, the development of a more efficient Underground Railroad , and the establishment of new personal-liberty laws in the North Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, n.
References: Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica.
0コメント