Fugitive Slave Law Of 1793

[Jim Klag]

February 12, 1793 - Congress enacts the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793.

Congress enacts first fugitive slave law, Feb. 12, 1793

On this day in 1793, Congress passes a law requiring the government to go after runaway slaves.

www.politico.com

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[Jim Klag]

Congress enacts first fugitive slave law

Congress passes the first fugitive slave law, requiring all states, including those that forbid slavery, to forcibly return enslaved people who have escaped from other states to their original owners. The laws stated that “no person held to service of labor in one state, under the laws thereof...

www.history.com

 

[Jim Klag]

Fugitive Slave Acts - Definition, 1793 & 1850 | HISTORY

The Fugitive Slave Acts, passed in 1793 and 1850, were federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway enslaved people within the United States.

www.history.com

 

[Mike12]

I read the whole abolitionist story. I couldnt find the part where Solomon walks between a pair of hanged slaves. Sensationalist black exploitaiton sales garbage, the ferry boat ride isn't mentioned, sensationalist black exploitation knifing scene. They'd run us out to the concentration camps to see the bodies like the German populace but there aren't any, right? Who actually wins every time? Government wins with government movies about having predicated every civilized scene.

 

[Jim Klag]

I read the whole abolitionist story. I couldnt find the part where Solomon walks between a pair of hanged slaves. Sensationalist black exploitaiton sales garbage, the ferry boat ride isn't mentioned, sensationalist black exploitation knifing scene. They'd run us out to the concentration camps to see the bodies like the German populace but there aren't any, right? Who actually wins every time? Government wins with government movies about having predicated every civilized scene.

This thread is concerned with the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. Please limit posts to that subject. Thank you.

 

[Matt McKeon]

Congress enacts first fugitive slave law

Congress passes the first fugitive slave law, requiring all states, including those that forbid slavery, to forcibly return enslaved people who have escaped from other states to their original owners. The laws stated that “no person held to service of labor in one state, under the laws thereof...

www.history.com

I think the question is, how enforceable was it, and by whom.

 

[5fish]

Would not our Constitution be the first Fugitive Slave law... click the link...

Fugitive Slave Laws - Encyclopedia Virginia

Early Laws and the U.S. Constitution Thomas Jefferson Advertises for Runaway Slave Even before the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, the problems associated with the treatment of escaped enslaved people had been recognized in a variety of different contexts. For example, the...

www.encyclopediavirginia.org

Early Laws and the U.S. Constitution

Even before the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, the problems associated with the treatment of escaped slaves had been recognized in a variety of different contexts. For example, the Articles of Confederation of the United Colonies of New England, adopted in 1643, required that any runaway servant "shalbe delivered either to his Master or any other that pursues and brings such Certificate or proofe." Similarly, although the Northwest Ordinance banned slavery in much of the territory west of the Appalachians, it also provided for the return of fugitives who escaped into those territories.
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 first considered the issue of fugitive slaves after already agreeing to a provision by which states would extradite fugitives from justice. On August 28, 1787, Pierce Butler and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina moved to require "fugitive slaves and servants to be delivered up like criminals." Subsequent discussion included a complaint about the public cost of such a measure and the statement, by Roger Sherman of Connecticut, that there was "no more propriety in the public seizing and surrendering a slave or a servant than a horse." Nonetheless, the following day the delegates unanimously adopted a Fugitive Slave Clause, and an amended version of the clause was also approved without objection on September 15.
As ratified, article 4, section 2, paragraph 3 of the U.S. Constitution forbade free states from emancipating slaves who escaped from states where slavery was legal, and also mandated that escaped slaves "shall be delivered up on the claim of the [the slaveowner]." At the convention, all of the delegates seemed to understand that disputes over fugitive slaves might create sectional tensions that could threaten the stability of the union. The Fugitive Slave Clause was apparently designed to forestall that possibility.
The Fugitive Slave Clause was modeled on the Extradition Clause, making state governments the primary actors when dealing with runaways. The state in which the runaway was captured was obligated to deliver the slave to the state from which he or she had fled. While in criminal cases public order was at stake, in fugitive-slave cases slaveowners stood to lose valuable property, making such situations both more legally complex and ripe for abuse. Southerners potentially could make false claims, while free-state governments might be motivated to evade their constitutional obligations in order to protect free blacks from kidnapping.