How did the Northerners react to the Fugitive Slave Law?

Answer 1

The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, as a part of the 1850 Missouri Compromise proved to be a problem for a good number of Northerners. The best way to illustrate this is from the top down in terms of dates. Here is a summary outline:

A. In Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Address he stated he would fully enforce the Federal law, the Fugitive Slave Law; ( as an aside, we know he was personally opposed to slavery )

B. The 1858 Dred Scott decision by the US Supreme Court confirmed the law's Constitutionality by denying habeas corpus and the lack of trials for fugitive slaves;

C. The law itself, superseded all State laws concerning this issue. Ohio, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island & Connecticut had passed laws in the 1840's forbidding public officials from any actions to return slaves to their "owners";

D. The new law also meant that non Southern States such as Maryland, Delaware and even Washington DC were covered. The capital would end slave trading, but not slavery;

E. Northerners who had previously no political interest in slavery were now, by law, involved in it as the law was "National";

F. Penalties for aiding, feeding and helping fugitive slaves were strict. Fines were as high as $1,000 and jail time up to six months;

G. Judges who sent slaves back to their "owners" received $100 per slave; and

H. Northerners who did business with the South and even the public citizen were forced to face the fact that from the clothes on their backs to business deals, the intuition of slavery was part of their lives.

Answer 2

The Act compelled all citizens to report anyone who looked as thoughthey might be a runaway slave, on pain of a heavy fine. So any freed black was liable to be arrested on suspicion.

It was this Act which angered Harriet Beecher Stowe, and caused her to write 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' as her response. This best-selling novel drew attention to the Underground Railroad - the safe-house system that smuggled fugitive slaves into Canada - and recruited many people to the cause of Abolitionism.

Answer 3

It mandated the return of runaway slaves and required everyone to assist in that effort. It created open hostility between the slave catchers and the abolitionists.

Answer 4

It was designed to appease the South, but had a much greater effect in the North, where it gave runaway slaves an image of heroic victimhood.

Answer 5

The Fugitive Slave Law brought the issue home to anti-slavery citizens in the North as it made them and their institutions responsible for enforcing slavery.

Answer 6

The Abolitionist lobby went mad, and gained a lot of new recruits, especially after the publication of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'.

But remember that the North was not mainly Abolitionist.

Answer 7

They opposed it