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The Fugitive Slave Law: Why To Be A Slave

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Why to be a slave catcher:

The Fugitive Slave Law stated that it was the law that every citizen was responsible for helping in recovering and returning of fugitive slaves. This basically meant that any white person from the North or South was expected to be a fugitive slave catcher. Anyone who was caught aiding slaves to freedom or hiding slaves were punished for their efforts. There was a drastic fugitive slave catching which involved about 200 U.S. Marines. The Marines escorted one fugitive slave back to his owner.

Why to help a slave:

Prior to the Fugitive Slave Act, northerners could view slavery at a distance. Slavery was mainly dealt with by southerners. This act forced people in northern states to take sides on
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According to their tenets, fugitives had no right to a jury trial and citizens were ordered to aid in he recovery of the fugitive slaves. The special commissioners treated the cases of the fugitives. They were paid $5 if a fugitive was liberated and $10 if the captive was returned to slavery. Furthermore, the act appealed for several changes that made the process of filing a claim against a fugitive easier and effortless for slave holders. The new law was devastating.

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According to the Tenth Amendment of the constitution, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”. There have been moments in history where Congress has implemented laws that states felt were unconstitutional. The Constitution gave states the ability to counter the federal government’s power through the Judiciary branch of government, when they feel a law is unconstitutional. The Founders of our nation gave Congress enumerated powers to pass legislation that needs to be abided by all states and citizens. At times Congress will overstep its powers by enacting laws that are unconstitutional and the states have the right to challenge those powers.

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The Fugitive salve act was an act passed by the US Government in response to slaves escape from their slave masters. The law briefly stated that if the run away slave be caught by any of the free northern solider, They shall be handed back to their slave master in the south and the law also stated that the northern people will have to abide by that same law. This law should be considered unbearable. I personally would not abide with this law. There should be no such law.

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During this time the fugitive slave act was made, making it mandatory to return Slaves that left their owners. This was considered a blow to the prepress being made by the

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The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was an Act of the United States Congress to give result to the Fugitive Slave Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In this acts, south purposed to assist the recapture and extradition of runaway slaves. In addition, they intended to make federal government giving a pledge to let holding property in slaves be legal. The international slave-trade clause restricted slavery after 20 years. As Waldstreicher illuminated that this clause gave slavery 20 years for wanton trade (2015).

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The Unsuccessful Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 In the time of slavery, the North and the South struggled to find a balance over African Americans civil rights. The United States began to segregate into the Union states, those who did not support slavery, and the Confederate states, those who did support slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was among one of the many acts enforced during this time. It was ultimately unsuccessful in establishing peace between the North and the South because it was not a peace intended act, it was ineffective, and it upset both sides.

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I believe that the Fugitive Slave Act was the main cause of the Civil War. This was when the south forced the north to catch any runaway slaves. Even if they just let the slave go through there property there is a high chance they could still get caught. When they get caught for not catching the slave they get fined 30,000 dollars in today's money. If they were to catch a slave and then have it run away it would be a 100,000 dollar fine.

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The Fugitive slave law was an act passed to help southern slave owners maintain their slaves. The act was part of the “Compromise of 1850” proposed by Henry Clay. The compromise was made to resolve disputes between the south and north about land and slavery. The south ended up having slavery allowed below the “36,30” and California joined in as a free state. In the 1840s there were many problems of runaway slaves to the North to become free men.

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The law stated that if anyone was caught helping an escaped slave they would either be heavily fined or put in jail. One of the many issues Northerners had with this law was that a white man could take any black man, escaped or free, and claim him as his slave. Black men also could not testify for themselves to try to prove they were free, it was completely up to the judge to decide

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It was conceived to force states to deliver escaped slaves to slave owner’s violated states ' rights due to state sovereignty and was believed that seizing state property should not be left up to the states. The Fugitive Slave Clause states that escaped slaves "shall be delivered up on claim of the arty to which such Service or labour may be due". During the

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Once, a group of emancipators in Boston was tried for helping an escaped slave flee to Canada. These emancipators challenged the Fugitive Slave Law in United States v Morris. According to the Fugitive Slave Law, helping an escaped slave is in violation of

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Fugitive Slave Act of 1793- it allowed masters or agents to pursue slaves over state lines and take them into legal custody, before a court. However, this did not stop the will of the slaves to escape, but made it a risky choice for them to take. This act allowed many people to be on the watch for slaves. Even those in the North would tell on an escaped slave.

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While some sought to end slavery other tried to save the owner 's right to slaves. In 1793 and 1850 the fugitive slave act was instated. It helped give owners the return of runaway slave. The owners would stop at nothing to have their slave back. Sometimes owners would even have a bounty on them.

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But the South still didn’t have enough to keep slaves from absconding. In 1850, the South pushed through Congress an even harsher and more punitive law, which was more invasive of the rights claimed by free states. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 specifically required all marshals and deputy marshals to carry out its provisions. These provisions included to arrest and keep safe fugitives and to assist slave holders in returning their slaves. The provisions also included a command to citizens to aid and assist in the execution of the law, and it ordered local courts to issue to slaveholders certificates empowering them to use force and restraint to remove and return their fugitives.

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Background: To understand the history of slavery in the United States the historical background needs examining. How did the slaves get from Africa the new country? Why were the people brought here? What purpose did slavery serve?

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