How Did The Fugitive Slave Act Change African-American Life

The passing of the Fugitive Slave Act brought major lifestyle changes in the North and the South, and changed the way civilians lived forever. This act being put into place meant that African Americans who were never in the slave industry to begin with lives were changed. They were wrongfully accused of being slaves, denied right to trial, and were forced to flee out of fear of the southern states. It also made lifestyle changes to slaves who were trying to escape. The Fugitive Slave Act was made to enforce that the slave industry was not to be taken down. In addition to all of this the clause also influenced the lives of abolitionists. It made more people join the cause and made them even more determined to abolish slavery. The clause also

It is undeniable that the passing of The Fugitive Slave Act changed the lifestyles of many such as slaves, fugitive or not, Free African-Americans, and the abolitionists, further displaying itself as the trigger point of the Civil War. The implementation of the Fugitive Slave Act caused a major change in life for free African-Americans. This act addressed the fugitive slaves who were running away to the Northern states. It was originally signed by Washington in 1793 but was later made into a federal law by Henry Clay. The act enforced officers and federal marshals to seize any alleged slaves and bring them back into slavery, if they denied they were fined $1000 (equal to $38,569 today). Southerners who had lost their slaves would send out fugitive slave ads that had a bounty included, attached with a vague description of their slave, making it easy for any

Not only did the Fugitive Slave Act invoke a never seen before determination in abolitionists across the North, but it also influenced other people to join the movement. The Northerners had now seen the brutality of slavery first hand, it changed their morals in turn affecting their future actions. Many abolitionists were more than happy to see communities and towns coming together to help Fugitive Slaves escape the North, in fact many businesses would help in finding or providing work for the escaped slaves. Fredrick Douglass, a prominent abolitionist who was a slave who escaped from the North, made a speech on his perspective of the Fugitive Slave Act He said “The majority of slaveholders find it necessary, to ensure obedience, at times, to avail themselves of the utmost extent of the law, and many go beyond it. If kindness were the rule, we should not see advertisements filling the columns of almost every southern newspaper, offering large rewards for fugitive slaves, and describing them as being branded with irons, loaded with chains, and scarred by the whip.” Douglass thought that there was a serious hypocrisy within this act, as the North preached celebrations of freedom all while there were still slaves struggling in the South, feeling anything but free. As the