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Fugitive Slave Law

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The Fugitive Slave Law was established by the Congress of the United States on September 18, 1850. This law allowed the capture of runaway slaves to take them back into slavery, and to help owners to have more control over their slaves. The Fugitive Slave Law indicated that runaways were not allowed to testify on their own behalf, and to being restricted by having a trial by jury. By 1850s, this law had a variety of effects on the Underground Railroad and abolitionists, such as the Underground Railroad being active to help fugitive slaves, abolitionists working together to abolish The Fugitive Slave Law, and abolitionists having tasks while trying to help the fugitives. First, since slaves were running away from slavery, the Underground Railroad was operating to help them. The Railroad was a system created in the North of the United States, before the Civil War- to help slaves from the south to reach the North of the country or Canada. The success of this system came from abolitionists, they established safe houses to hide runaways and discovered secret routes, so slaves could get out of slavery in a safe way. On the other hand, The Underground Railroad occasionally got affected since the law was established by the congress. After the congress saw how many fugitives were being “freed”, they knew that The Underground Railroad may be involved. As a consequence, slave owners and people who agreed with the law started to take care of transportations such as boats, trains,

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