The jury annulled came when local northern jurors acquitted men accused of breaking the law. Secretary of State Daniel Webster was a major supporter of the bill, as expressed in his famous “Seventh March” speech. He wanted high-profile convictions. The jury`s cancellations ruined his presidential ambitions and his last desperate efforts to find a compromise between North and South. Webster led the prosecution of the men accused of rescuing Shadrach Minkins in 1851 from Boston officials seeking to return Minkins to slavery. The jury did not convict any of the men. Webster attempted to pass an extremely unpopular law in the North, and his Whig party again surpassed him when he elected a presidential candidate in 1852. [12] In addition, the above-mentioned commissioners shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the judges of the United States District and District Courts in their respective counties and districts in the various states and the judges of the Supreme Courts of the territories individually and collectively on term and leave; issue to such applicants, on the basis of satisfactory evidence, certificates authorizing such fugitives to expel them from service or work, subject to the restrictions provided for in this document, to the State or territory from which such persons have absconded or fled. In 1788, Davis was leased to a Mr. Miller in Virginia, only to be found by a group of Pennsylvanians who opposed slavery.
Miller then hired three men from Virginia to capture his slave, which they did in May 1788. Soon after, Davis was sold to a man in East Virginia. In November 1788, a Pennsylvania court charged the three Virginians with kidnapping, but Virginia Governor Beverley Randolph denied an extradition request in July 1791. The Fugitive Slave Act or Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850,[1] as part of the 1850 compromise between Southern slavery interests and the Northern Free-Soilers. At the beginning of the Civil War, the Union had no established policy toward people fleeing slavery. Many slaves left their plantations for Union lines, but early in the war, refugees from slavery were often returned to their masters by Union troops. However, General Benjamin Butler and several other Union generals refused to take back the refugees under the law because the Union and the Confederacy were at war.[23] He confiscated the slaves as war smuggling and released them on the grounds that the loss of labor would also harm the Confederacy. Lincoln allowed Butler to continue his policy, but resisted broader directives from other Union commanders who freed all slaves in places under their control. [23] The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 immediately drew a firestorm of criticism. Northerners balked at the idea of turning their states into bounty hunting grounds, and many argued that the law was tantamount to legalizing kidnapping. Some abolitionists organized secret resistance groups and built complex networks of safe havens to help slaves flee north. Between 1850 and 1860, 343 African Americans appeared before federal commissioners.
Of those 343 people, 332 African Americans were enslaved in the South. The commissioners allowed only eleven people to remain free in the north. Thousands of African Americans fled to Canada. Some people who had been free all their lives left the country. Abolitionists challenged the legality of the Fugitive Slave Act in court, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law`s constitutionality in 1859. And even if it is further stated that the applicant for such a refugee, his representative or his lawyer, after the issuance of such a certificate, has reason to believe that the refugee will be forcibly saved from his possession before he can be taken beyond the borders of the State in which the arrest takes place, it is the duty of the arresting officer to: to keep the fugitive in his custody and to take him to the State from which he fled, where he handed him over to the applicant, his agent or his lawyer. And for this purpose, the said officer is authorized and obliged to employ as many persons as he deems necessary to overcome such violence and to keep them in his service for as long as circumstances so require. The said officer and his assistants, while so employed, shall receive the same compensation and expenses as are at present authorized by law for the transportation of criminals, shall be certified by the judge of the district in which the arrest is made, and paid by the United States Treasury. Other opponents, such as African-American leader Harriet Tubman, have treated the law simply as an additional complication in their activities.