Fugit Slave Act Research Paper

The Fugitive Slave Act was passed by U.S. Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holders and Northern free-soilers (people who worked to prevent slavery in the western territories). It was a law requiring that all escaped slaves be returned to their masters, upon capture. This included citizens of free states, who were expected to cooperate in this law. This law also imposed penalties on anyone who aided the escape of runaway slaves. By 1787, many Northern states had abolished slavery; this included Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Southern politicians began to fear that these new free states would become harbors for runaway slaves. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which was, in many ways, similar to the Fugitive Slave Clause, but included a more detailed description of how the law was to be put into play. More importantly, this law declared that slave owners had the right to search for escaped slaves within the borders of free states. By the mid-1800s, thousands of slaves had escaped to free states through networks like the Underground Railroad. With this, Southern politicians began to push for a heavier set of laws; Congress passed a revised Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. This new policy had much stricter rules

Explain how Kansas territory became known as bleeding Kansas:

Bleeding Kansas was a small war fought between proslavery and antislavery supporters for control of Kansas under the principal of popular sovereignty. It was a term, first used by Horace Greeley, to described the period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory. It began with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which overturned the Missouri Compromise’s border between slave and free states; it imposed that state residents would decide whether that area accepted slavery or outlawed it by popular vote. This allowed slavery to once again flood areas that had been free for over 30