The Fulective Slave Law And The Fugitive Slave Law

As the nation descended further into a split entity, with the issue of slavery at the forefront of the debate. The North and South needed to find a way to deal with their differences before the Union fell in shambles. The Compromise of 1850 was passed after long extensive debate in congress, the compromise was intended to settle the debate over how slavery would be controlled throughout the expanding nation. The Fugitive Slave Act was included in the compromise to satisfy southern states, that wanted to preserve the institution of slavery. The act allowed for run away slaves to be hunted down and returned to their past owners, even after they made it to the free states in the North. The Southerners wished to preserve their right to property, which is among the “Unalienable Rights”. Some northern states refuse to recognize the law which infuriated the South because they saw this as an explicit violation of the slave holder’s rights, this intensified the South’s urge to become a separate State.

On January 13, 1777 seven African-American men in Massachusetts came together to go to the courts and their goal was to gain freedom. These men were slaves and in order for them to be set free they had the choice of running away, with the possibility of getting caught, or gathering a petition to take to the Massachusetts court. Just because these men had a petition does not mean that it would be passed. The Massachusetts colonial government had no say in making slaves free or not. Back in the day slaves were seen as people that were not book smart because they lacked education and that meant they could not read or write but they knew their rights. The slaves were much underestimated

The United States is a immigrant country, which faces varieties of problems. The African American problem is one of the most serious one. Racial segregation is a deep-rooted social problem, which reflects in every field in the United States. For example, education, labor market and criminal justice system. In the aspect of education, most of black children were not permitted to enter the school, because the white children studied there. In the aspect of labor market, the black people 's average wages were lower than the whites. They did the manual work. In the aspect of criminal justice system, the blacks were easily in jail. Badly, their sentences were also more serious than the whites. In general, the blacks live in the bottom of the American society. Martin Luther King delivered the famous speech I Have a Dream, ' ' I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. ' ' (1) However, it was difficult for African American to get the freedom. The 1776 Declaration of Independence announced that everyone are equal and freedom.But black slavery still occurred in the southern states of America. Then the Civil War broke out, African American kept struggling for land and political rights.

Certainly, freedom was supposed to be “freer”” for those slaves that had fought for their rights after years of submissionn, but, unfortunately, many white Southern people continued to ignore the law by not showing any respect for Africans-Americans. Because of the radical reconstruction in the south, the African-Americans were a step closer from the same political

During Reconstruction, African Americans’ freedoms were very restricted. There were strict regulations on voting, relationships, employment, firearms, and other freedoms that white people had. African American faced disenfranchisement for years after being freed and becoming citizens. In What a Black Man Wants by Frederick Douglass, Douglass angrily demands the freedom to vote that every American deserved. He assesses the black man’s contribution to society and wonders why this contribution has not led to more rights. Those who were supposed to be fighting for the rights of freed slaves were not speaking up. Even the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society was not fighting for the rights of the freed slaves. Because of the restrictions on voting, African Americans did not have the same power over their own lives that white people had. Disenfranchisement is just one way white people limited freedoms of freed slaves.

The effects of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and the subsequent developments angered abolitionists in every state. With every citizen having accountability for the return of fugitive slaves to their masters, many were forced to confront their own beliefs and act with conscience. Case after case ended up in the Supreme Court, as more and more abolitionists were refusing to comply, being arrested and imprisoned, and appealing these judicial decisions. Anti-slavery sentiments were growing everywhere.

Then change in the 1730’s a religious group called the Quakers would inspire the Great Awakening which abolished slavery and demanded that slave holders across the colonies to do the same. That they would start to happen after the American Revolution by 1820’s and the north was on a path to end slavery for good and allowed blacks to live free in the north for the first time in American history, but that did not change for the south. The south offering liberties to white plantation owners have offered a few rights to blacks they would develop the ⅗ compromise that would determine how slaves would be counted as far as tax and legislative representation. While slavery started to get essentially worse in the southern states. It seems that the American Revolution did not do anything for the Africans for “freedom” besides what they did in the northern states by 1804. Every northern state either abolished slavery or passed a law to eliminate it

to which the president of the United States has signed his name,” (Dudley 181). Just by demanding that all slavery be abolished in certain areas, this considerably changed the ways of the African American people. With this new feeling of freedom, many African Americans began to fight for other rights to accompany this. (Dudley 180-183)

The most glaring established issue with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was its disavowal of due process. A criminal was returned south on the expression of any white individual. The blamed was not permitted to present confirmation in his own guard. This unmistakably disregards the Fifth Amendment. "No individual might be… denied of life, freedom, or property, without due procedure of law."Unless you need to contend dark individuals weren't "people," a blamed criminal had a privilege to a real trial. As it stood, the Fugitive Slave Acts stripped all rights from a dark individual on the simple assumption he was a slave. He was assumed liable and had no real way to substantiate himself guiltless. The Bill of Rights was added to give "promote decisive

The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was a law passed by the United States Congress on September 18th. This Law stated that all people who had escaped from slavery must be returned to their owners. Keep in mind that in this situation slaves were traded and bought, sort of thought of back then what farm equipment is now. If people in the North, Where Slavery was not legal, hid or in some way helped slaves, they were breaking the law of the land. Law officials everywhere now had a duty to arrest anyone that was suspected of being a runaway slave, with very little evidence needed except the owners testimony of ownership. The suspected slave could not ask for a jury trial or testify on his or her own behalf.

leader. Freedom became a symbol for the nation, but not everyone in the nation was “free”. In the 1760s, the American Revolution changed the views of many living in the States. With much talk of freedom, people began to question the concept of slavery. As the States kept growing, the North and South started to gain different views of slavery. Because the North was industrialized and believed in factories while the South had huge cotton plantations that needed many workers, slavery was controversial. But one-by-one, Northern states began to outlaw slavery. Black slaves became free men, but because of the contrasting views, were often not treated as such. The question remains: how free were free Blacks in the North? Free Blacks in the North were not truly free and very restricted because of political, social, and economical limits.

From 1775 to 1830, many African Americans gained freedom from, yet during the same period the institution towards the southern parts of America to work in plantations. This was the start of new changes that was going to take place that free African Americans and enslaved African Americans. Between 1775 and 1830 was one of the greatest trials that came with many challenges for the African Americans to confront these issues.

In doing so, it ignored the fact that free African American men had full voting rights in five of the original states since the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The decision served to reinforce the fears of northerners and abolitionists alike that the south had the intention of spreading the infernal institution of slavery to every corner of the U.S. The ruling had the effect of enlarging the sociopolitical divide between the north and the south and brought the nation closer to civil war.

The question of slavery and the rights of states to decide on the matter for themselves completely controlled politics in the years prior to the Civil War. Laws were passed, such as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made it so any slaves that escaped were to be sent back to their owners. Not only would these runaway slaves be punished severely, but anybody who aided them in escape would also be subject to harsh punishment. These desperate men, women, and children had no protection in the legal system and were left with no options in life other than escape. Many of these escapees had to watch friends and family be beaten, sold, or even killed and were expected to work just as hard, like nothing had happened. After losing everything, it

The main idea of the reading, “Who Claims Me,” is the history of the Fugitive Slave Law and the importance of certain citizens in the rebellion against the unjust law. One of the biggest abolitionist leaders at this time was Frederick Douglass because he influenced an uprising against an inequitable legislation. On October 14, 1851, he spoke at a gathering of fugitive slaves and encouraged them to fight back and stand up for their rights. He was an important figure because his speech spurred the creation of the Boston Vigilance Committee which was made to protect and help out fugitive slaves.