Year Created: 1793
Description: The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 required enslaved people who escaped the North to be brought back to their masters if recaptured. it annulled the thirteenth amendment's abolition of slavery and gave local and state laws the authority to do so; in doing so, it also declared it unconstitutional for state and local laws to prohibit the repossession of the enslaved. The law forced a $500 penalty on anyone who aided in harboring or concealing runaways.
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ArtIV.S2.C3.1 of the fugitive slave clause states ‘No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.’
This caused widespread controversy and resistance, leading to the fugitive slave act of 1850. The revived version of the act included harsher punishments for anyone who interfered with the recapturing of the enslaved.