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Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was an Act of the United States Congress to give effect to the Fugitive Slave Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3), which was later superseded by the Thirteenth Amendment, and to also give effect to the Extradition Clause (Article 4, Section 2, Clause 2). The Constitution's Fugitive Slave Clause guaranteed a right for a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave. The subsequent Act, "An Act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters", created the legal mechanism by which that could be accomplished.
The Act was passed by the House of Representatives on February 4, 1793, by a vote of 48–7, with 14 abstaining. The "Annals of Congress" state that the law was approved on February 12, 1793.
The Act was written amidst a controversy about a free black man named John Davis who was kidnapped from Pennsylvania and brought to Virginia. However, the Act failed to resolve that controversy; the kidnappers from Virginia were never extradited to Pennsylvania, and John Davis remained a slave.
The Act was later strengthened at the insistence of the slave states of the American South by the Compromise of 1850, which required state governments and the residents of free states to enforce the capture and return of fugitive slaves. The enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 outraged Northern public opinion.
SEC. 3. And be it also enacted, That when a person held to labor in any of the United States, or in either of the Territories on the Northwest or South of the river Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into any other part of the said States or Territory, the person to whom such labor or service may be due, his agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize or arrest such fugitive from labor, and to take him or her before any Judge of the Circuit or District Courts of the United States, residing or being within the State, or before any magistrate of a county, city, or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made, and upon proof to the satisfaction of such Judge or magistrate, either by oral testimony or affidavit taken before and certified by a magistrate of any such State or Territory, that the person so seized or arrested, doth, under the laws of the State or Territory from which he or she fled, owe service or labor to the person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such Judge or magistrate to give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent, or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant for removing the said fugitive from labor to the State or Territory from which he or she fled.
SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent, or attorney, in so seizing or arresting such fugitive from labor, or shall rescue such fugitive from such claimant, his agent or attorney, when so arrested pursuant to the authority herein given and declared; or shall harbor or conceal such person after notice that he or she was a fugitive from labor, as aforesaid, shall, for either of the said offences, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars. Which penalty may be recovered by and for the benefit of such claimant, by action of debt, in any Court proper to try the same, saving moreover to the person claiming such labor or service his right of action for or on account of the said injuries, or either of them.
The full text of the Act is available from the Library of Congress (and online) in the Annals of Congress of the 2nd Congress, 2nd Session, during which the proceedings and debates took place from November 5, 1792, to March 2, 1793. The specific Act and the Congressional vote is on pages 1414–1415.
This law put fugitive slaves at risk of recapture for the rest of their lives, but some slave-owners did not think that it was strong enough. It also classified children born to fugitive slave mothers as slaves and the property of their mother's master for the rest of their lives.
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Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was an Act of the United States Congress to give effect to the Fugitive Slave Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3), which was later superseded by the Thirteenth Amendment, and to also give effect to the Extradition Clause (Article 4, Section 2, Clause 2). The Constitution's Fugitive Slave Clause guaranteed a right for a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave. The subsequent Act, "An Act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters", created the legal mechanism by which that could be accomplished.
The Act was passed by the House of Representatives on February 4, 1793, by a vote of 48–7, with 14 abstaining. The "Annals of Congress" state that the law was approved on February 12, 1793.
The Act was written amidst a controversy about a free black man named John Davis who was kidnapped from Pennsylvania and brought to Virginia. However, the Act failed to resolve that controversy; the kidnappers from Virginia were never extradited to Pennsylvania, and John Davis remained a slave.
The Act was later strengthened at the insistence of the slave states of the American South by the Compromise of 1850, which required state governments and the residents of free states to enforce the capture and return of fugitive slaves. The enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 outraged Northern public opinion.
SEC. 3. And be it also enacted, That when a person held to labor in any of the United States, or in either of the Territories on the Northwest or South of the river Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into any other part of the said States or Territory, the person to whom such labor or service may be due, his agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize or arrest such fugitive from labor, and to take him or her before any Judge of the Circuit or District Courts of the United States, residing or being within the State, or before any magistrate of a county, city, or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made, and upon proof to the satisfaction of such Judge or magistrate, either by oral testimony or affidavit taken before and certified by a magistrate of any such State or Territory, that the person so seized or arrested, doth, under the laws of the State or Territory from which he or she fled, owe service or labor to the person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such Judge or magistrate to give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent, or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant for removing the said fugitive from labor to the State or Territory from which he or she fled.
SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent, or attorney, in so seizing or arresting such fugitive from labor, or shall rescue such fugitive from such claimant, his agent or attorney, when so arrested pursuant to the authority herein given and declared; or shall harbor or conceal such person after notice that he or she was a fugitive from labor, as aforesaid, shall, for either of the said offences, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars. Which penalty may be recovered by and for the benefit of such claimant, by action of debt, in any Court proper to try the same, saving moreover to the person claiming such labor or service his right of action for or on account of the said injuries, or either of them.
The full text of the Act is available from the Library of Congress (and online) in the Annals of Congress of the 2nd Congress, 2nd Session, during which the proceedings and debates took place from November 5, 1792, to March 2, 1793. The specific Act and the Congressional vote is on pages 1414–1415.
This law put fugitive slaves at risk of recapture for the rest of their lives, but some slave-owners did not think that it was strong enough. It also classified children born to fugitive slave mothers as slaves and the property of their mother's master for the rest of their lives.