fugitiveslaveact





The Fugitive Slave Act was a part of the Compromise of 1850. The act stated that if a slave from the South had escaped from the south to the north that the north had to return those slaves back to their rightful owners. But the north saw this as a way to get to the south and basically said “finders’ keepers”. The federal commissioners said that anyone found helping a slave would be find 1,000 dollars and they would be arrested. The south was very upset because they were losing their slaves which meant they were losing people to work out in the field. This also effected the north because the north now had limited choices on supplies from the south because one, they had less slaves to do the work and because two, the south was upset that the north didn't give them there slaves back. This made the south want to succeed from the union which meant they wanted to leave the United States to become their own country. They were afraid that slavery was going to become outlawed. This ended up leading to the personal liberty laws and the Underground Railroad.

Information Provided By: Danzer, Gerald, and Louis Wilson. //The Americans //. Ed. Holt Mcdougal. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Picture Provided By: //Wiki //. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Sept. 2013. .