Fugitive Slave Act

1. A law passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, which provided southern slaveholders with legal weapons to capture slaves who had escaped to the free states. The law was highly unpopular in the North and helped to convert many previously indifferent northerners to antislavery.

Example Sentences

Franklin Pierce, although a Northerner, fiercely defended slavery while signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act; he was a drunkard to boot.

From Salon

On a recent episode of What Next, host Mary Harris spoke to Bouie about why Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions remind him of the fallout from the Fugitive Slave Act, and the lessons and warnings that can be drawn from that law.

From Slate

He’s a really interesting case because when the Fugitive Slave Act was put in place in 1850, he was a lawyer in Boston.

From Slate

What the Fugitive Slave Act does—and Sumner is part of this—is supercharge what’s called political antislavery.

From Slate

But then, with the introduction of the Fugitive Slave Act, you’re just living your life, and some federal agents come in and they burst down the doors of some person’s home, and you witness someone that you know being dragged out of their home, accused of being a slave.

From Slate