Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

This is my first class related blog! :D

Slavery, in both the past and present, is a very touchy subject. In 1850, tensions between the North and South were beginning to arise to a boiling point. The Southern slave states wanted the Northern states to help them return the slaves, who escaped to the North via methods like the Underground Railroad. The North, who was becoming increasingly anti-slavery, provided slaves more than a few ways to help get away from their masters and live in freedom. Congress decided to aid the Southern states by passing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 as another part of the Compromise of 1850. This was the help balance the newer compromise legislation that stated that California was to be admitted as a free state, Utah and New Mexico territories would be decided by popular sovereignty, and that the slave trade in Washington D. C. would be abolished. Because this part mostly supported the North, the next was to keep the peace with the South, at the cost of the North. Since both Houses of Congress want to make sure everyone is happy in the end, so that war doesn’t break out; this was what Congress had decided in 1850. The Fugitive Slave Act was mostly justified by the Constitution. It had been stated by the forefathers that a person legally held to be in service of another, they could not escape that service by crossing state or territory boundaries. Thus, they would return to the holder of their service until it was completed. However, the words slave or servant was not mentioned in the Constitution. This argument would be fair legally, if the fact that blacks that were previously emancipated by their masters were allowed to prove that they had been freed in court. This loophole allowed white plantation owners to claim these freed blacks as their slaves. The North did not approve of the institution and dependence of slavery in the South. But, it gets better. The act goes on to declared that anyone, who helps a slave escape being reclaimed, is to be fined, thrown in prison and pay for each inconvenience to the owner of the laborer. This angered many active abolitionists. The real bite of the act was the fact that law enforcers were now to help the owners reclaim their ‘helpers’, even if they weren’t in a slave state. Also, the federal government would pay for the travel expenses to transport the laborer back to their master. How the hell did Congress expect this to keep the peace in any form?