Ashley Bowman: The fugitive slave act of 1850

The fugitive slave act was passed on September 18, 1850, the act required all runaway slaves to be returned to their owners whether they were freed before the act or not. The act was one of 5 acts passed on September 18, 1850, in the compromise of 1850, which was written to balance the scales between the north and south after California requested to join the union.

This act was originally passed in 1793, yet it was up to the local government to capture and return slaves. Therefore, the north was able to deny this law since there was no real enforcement of the law, and instead, it was up to the slave owner to find a means to get their runaway slaves back. The original act of 1793 also allowed for the underground railroad to flourish since the North had no real pressure under the law to return runaway slaves.

However, in the new act of 1850, the responsibility of capturing runaway slaves was now in the hands of the federal government. This allowed for warrants to be issued to slave owners or marshals to arrest anyone they suspected to be a fugitive slave. The law also stated that anyone that chooses to aid a runaway slave or get in the way of an arrest would be charged $1,000 and thrown in jail. Initially, most of the North was in a huge uproar on this law, through this law the North would have to actively participate in the South’s slavery institution. But many Northerners felt that this act was a necessary evil to keep the union together since the act was a part of the compromise of 1850.

Due to the federal government allowing slave warrants and demanding the help of all good citizens to obey this law a rise in bounty hunters came in the 1850s. Many slave owners would hire a “bounty hunter” to capture their slaves paying them a certain amount once the slave was in custody. While the rise of slave hunters was very popular during this time there was a new market also opening, capturing a freed slave or black person. Since the Atlantic slave trade had ended there were not many ways to obtain a new slave to add to a person’s plantation. Instead, the capture of freed slaves made it possible to add a new slave to a plantation rather than just capture a slave that already belong to a plantation. To do this slave catchers or bounty hunters would whip or brand free slaves to look like they had escaped recently.

The process of the fugitive slave law was daunting and unjust. First black people lived in fear, whether they were freed or escaped because if caught by a bounty hunter they would immediately be forced back into slavery. Then if caught by a bounty hunter they were at the mercy of what the bounty hunter might do to them which could include branding, whipping, or beating. After being caught by a bounty hunter they would then be taken in as federal custody and taken to a commissioner for a hearing to determine if they were free or not. However, during this hearing, black people did not have a chance to plead their case in front of a jury, and commissioners were paid $10 for returning them to slavery and $5 to free the slave. Then finally most black people would be returned to slavery regardless of whether they were freed or not.

Below I’ve included a clip from the movie 12 years a slave that gives a visual overview of what it was like for a black person to be captured by a bounty hunter. The movie 12 years a slave depicts what it was like for a black person to live through the fugitive slave act and it’s written from Solomon Northup’s perspective. Solomon Northup was a free man living upstate New York, but he is captured by a bounty hunter and sold back into slavery. The movie is an intense, powerful, and emotional depiction of events that occurred during the fugitive slave law of 1850.