Fugit Slave Act Pros And Cons

Meeting A Need In 1850, congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act. This act gave slave masters the right to call on federal, state, and local law enforcement to return runaway slaves. The act, “Permitted for the seizure and return of runaway slaves who escaped from one state and fled into another” (Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). This act was frequently misused by slave owners in the 50s. Slave catchers, who were the first unofficial police officers in America, were employed by slave owners to hunt down and return runaways. This was not always the case when it came to slave catchers. Oftentimes, slave catchers would abduct free-born black people. They then would make a deal with a slave owner. They would go to court and the slave owner would testify, under oath, that the slave was theirs. In the 1850s, Black people were considered “untrustworthy” so because of this, they were not given any power in court. “African Americans could not testify or have a jury present at

He gave refuge to many runaways during his life, both in his home and warehouse. He created an anti-slave militia after congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. A militia is defined as “a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency.” Brown created an army full of abolitionists in order to right a wrong. Brown, his sons, and his followers were in charge of countless raids to free Black slaves. In 1859, Brown was captured and convicted “when he and 21 followers seized the federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to foment a large-scale slave rebellion.” (Jesse Greenspan, History Stories). He was hanged at the age of 59. He risked his family and gave his life in order to fuel the correction of the racist and inhumane act of