The Fugitive Slave Act was a federal law passed by the United States [[Congress]] as part of the Compromise of 1850, a series of measures aimed at maintaining the balance of power between slaveholding and non-slaveholding states. There were actually two Fugitive Slave Acts in US history, one passed in 1793 and the other in 1850. The latter was a stricter and more controversial version of the earlier law. ## Key provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 1. It mandated that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters, regardless of the state in which they were found. 2. It required citizens to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves and imposed heavy penalties on those who aided the escape of slaves or refused to assist in their capture. 3. It created a new class of federal officers, called "commissioners," who were responsible for enforcing the law. These commissioners had the authority to issue warrants for the arrest of fugitive slaves and to convene hearings to determine their status. 4. The law denied fugitive slaves the right to a jury trial and severely limited their ability to testify on their own behalf. The Fugitive Slave Act intensified the already existing sectional divisions in the United States. Northern [[abolitionist]]s vehemently opposed the law, arguing that it violated basic [[human rights]] and threatened the sovereignty of free states. They also criticized the law for incentivizing the kidnapping of free African Americans, who could be falsely claimed as fugitive slaves and brought into [[slavery]]. This opposition led to the creation of the Underground Railroad, a network of safe houses and secret routes used by slaves to escape to freedom in the North and Canada. Southern slaveholders, on the other hand, saw the Fugitive Slave Act as essential to maintaining their economic and social system. They argued that the law was necessary to protect their property rights and to uphold the [[Constitution]], which recognized the right to own slaves. The Fugitive Slave Act contributed to the growing tensions between the North and the South, ultimately culminating in the outbreak of the American [[Civil War]] in 1861. The Act was eventually repealed by Congress in 1864, during the Civil War.