FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT OF 1850

BY: CIARA CLARK

       KAITLYN TURNER

       KEFIM HANYES

       BERNARD JAMES

       KYNDREA RAMDIAL

       MARK DAVIS

                                    INTRODUCTION                                                     

Our group has researched and discussed something interesting and exciting, the Fugitive Slave Act Of 1850. We decided to do this topic because it was different and interesting to our own individual intellect. That is why we have chosen The  Fugitive Slave Act Of 1850. But the time of slave trading would soon end  because of the anti-slave trade. compromise of 1850 was a moment of tragedy for african americans slaves. caloun vs. clay.

websters words. The texas  compromise was a compromise of 1850 that was an act in the fugitive slave act in 1860

                         COMPROMISE OF 1850                                                                                       

The Compromise of 1850 was a series of laws.They attempted to resolve the territorial and slavery controversies arising from the Mexican-American War. On January 29, 1850, Henry Clay presented a compromise. For eight months the members of Congress, led by Clay, Daniel Webster, Senator from Massachusetts, and John C. Calhoun, senator from South Carolina, debated the compromise. With the help of Stephen Douglas, a young Democrat from Illinois, a series of bills that would make up the compromise were ushered through Congress.

                     CALOUN VS. CLAY                                                                                       

Henry Clay, also known as “ the great compromiser,” was ill. while John C. Calhoun was suffering from tuberculosis and could not speak loudly in court. In court  Clay said that the north and south to reach an agreement and if they refused to do so the inter nation would fall apart. But on the other hand Cahoun pleaded that slavery should be allowed in the west western territories. Calhoun demanded that  fugitive or run away slaves should be retured to their right full owners. He wanted the northerners to admit that southern slaverholders had the right to reclaim their “property.” If the north had rejected the south’s demands, calhoun told the senate. 

“Let the states agree to part at peace. Tell us so, and we shall know what to do.” So he ment that if an agreement could not be reached, the south would use force to leave the union

                    WEBSTERS WORDS                                                                                     

Daniel Webster of Massachussets   got   the floor next.  He  agreed to clays  plea to save the union. Webster  started his own  position   clearly. ``I  speak   today  not as a  massachusets man,nor as a northern man, but as an American.....  I speak today for the  presentation  of the union... There can be no such thing as a peaceful   secession’’.  Webster  thought that the states

could  not be seprated with out a civil war.  Webster had veiwed   that slavery was  evil he believed  the  seperation of the states was  even  worse.

To save  the union Webster was  willing to  comprose. He would  support  southern demands   that northerner  be forced to return   slaves.

                THE TEXAS COMPROMISE                                                                          

According to the compromise, that would relinquish the entie land in dispute, but in compensation given 10 million dollars. The money it would have to pay off its debt to Mexico. And also, the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah would be organized without mention of slavery involvement of all the bills that made up the Compromise of 1850; the Fugitive Slave Act was the most controversial. It required citizens to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves. It denied a fugitive's right to a jury trial. (Cases would instead be handled by special commissioners who would be paid $5.00dollars.Every fugitive slaves were released and $10.00 dollars if he or she were sent away with the claimant.) The act called for changes in filing for a claim, making the process very easily for slave owners. Also, according to the act, there would be more federal officials responsible for enforcing the law.

 

For slaves trying to build lives in the northern part of the state, the new law was a terrible disaster. Many left their Holmes and went  to Canada. During the next ten years, an estimated 20,000 of blacks moved to the nice and wonderful country. For a male named Harriet Jacobs, a fugitive living in New York, passage of the law was "the beginning of a reign of horrible and tragic terror to the (colored) black population." She stayed  puting, even after teach that slave catchers were hired to track her down. Anthony Burns, a fugitive living in Boston, was one of many who were captured and returned to slavery. Free blacks, too, were captured and sent to the South. With no legal right to plead their cases, they were completely defenseless. Of all the bills that made up the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was the most controversial. It required citizens to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves. It denied a fugitive's right to a jury trial. (Cases would instead be handled by special commissionersy6 -- commissioners who would be paid $5 if an alleged fugitive were released and $10 if he or she were sent away with the claimant.) The act called for changes in filing for a claim, making the process easier for slave owners. Also, according to the act, there would be more federal officials responsible for enforcing the law.

For slaves attempting to build lives in the North, the new lawt is was disaster. Many left their homes and fled to Canada. During the next ten years, an estimated 20,000 blacks moved to the neighboring country. For Harriet Jacobs, a fugitive living in New York, passage of the law was "the beginning of a reign of terror to the colored population." She stayed put, even after teach that slave catchers were hired to track her down. Anthony Burns, a fugitive living in Boston, was one of many who were captured and returned to slavery. Free blacks, too, were captured and sent to the South. With no legal right to plead their cases, they were completely defenseless. 

                      CONCLUSION                                                           

The fugitive slave act of  1850  was a law made up  by the US Senate to get excape slaves back into the South from North.The act  of the centry we now know as  the fugative  slave  act.The  compromise  of 1850  had five  parts.First,it allowed  california to enter the Union as a free state. Second , it divided the rest of the Mexican Cession into the territories of New Mexico and Utah. Voters in each would decide the slavery question according to popular sovereignty. Third, it ended the trade in Washington,D.C., the nation’s capital. Comgress, however, declared that it had no power to ban the slave trade between slave states. Fourth, it included a strict fugitive slave law. Fifth, it settled a border dispute between Texas and New Mexico.