who was involved in the fugitive slave law
Southern slave-holding interests Northern Free-Soilers
title: Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 text: Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 The Fugitive Slave Act or Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. The Act was one of the most controversial elements of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a "slave power conspiracy". It required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate. Abolitionists nicknamed it the "Bloodhound Law", for the dogs that were used to track down runaway title: Fugitive slave laws text: Fugitive slave laws The fugitive slave laws were laws passed by the United States Congress in 1793 and 1850 to provide for the return of slaves who escaped from one state into another state or territory. The idea of the fugitive slave law was derived from the Fugitive Slave Clause which is in the United States Constitution (Article IV, Section 2, Paragraph 3). It was thought that forcing states to deliver escaped slaves to slave owners violated states' rights due to state sovereignty and was believed that seizing state property should not be left up to the states. The Fugitive title: Fugitive slave laws text: and the identity of the fugitive were determined on purely "ex parte" testimony. If a slave was brought in and returned to the master, the person who brought in the slave would receive the sum of $10 ($ in today's dollars) per slave. The severity of this measure led to gross abuses and defeated its purpose; the number of abolitionists increased, the operations of the Underground Railroad became more efficient, and new personal liberty laws were enacted in Vermont (1850), Connecticut (1854), Rhode Island (1854), Massachusetts (1855), Michigan (1855), Maine (1855 and 1857), Kansas (1858) and Wisconsin (1858). The personal title: John P. Bigelow text: the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Passed by the US Congress and signed by President Millard Fillmore, the law allowed federal marshals to capture slaves who had run away to non-slaveholding states, such as Massachusetts. That year, a slave, Shadrach Minkins, had escaped into Boston, where he came to reside and earn a living as a waiter. In February 1851, federal marshals arrested Shadrach. However, a group of 100 – 200 local blacks, most of whom were members of the Boston Vigilance Committee, forcibly freed Shadrach from Boston's courthouse, and Minkins fled to Canada. Shadrach's escape was a political embarrassment title: Shadrach Minkins text: acquitted by the jury. Minkins was born into slavery about 1817 in Norfolk, Virginia. He escaped from slavery at age 33 in 1850 and reached Boston, Massachusetts, where he became a waiter. Later that year, Congress enacted the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed federal agents to seize escaped slaves living in free states and return them to their owners. It required law enforcement in all states to cooperate in enforcing this federal law. United States marshals, who posed as customers at Taft's Cornhill Coffee House where Minkins worked, arrested him on February 15, 1851. Minkins was taken to a hearing