Editing Compromise of 1850 (section)

===Fugitive Slave Act===
{{main|Fugitive Slave Act of 1850}}
Perhaps the most important part of the Compromise received the least attention during debates. Enacted September 18, 1850, it is informally known as the Fugitive Slave Law, or the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850|Fugitive Slave Act]]. It bolstered the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1793]]. The new version of the Fugitive Slave Law now required federal judicial officials in all states and federal territories, including free states, to assist with the return of escaped slaves to their masters in slave states. Any [[US Marshals Service|federal marshal]] or other official who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave was liable to a fine of $1,000 ({{inflation|US|1,000|1850|fmt=eq}}). Law enforcement everywhere in the US now had a duty to arrest anyone suspected of being a [[fugitive slave]] on no more evidence than a claimant's sworn testimony of ownership. Suspected slaves could neither ask for a jury trial nor testify on their own behalf. Also, aiding a runaway slave by providing food or shelter was now a crime nationwide, punished by six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Officers capturing a fugitive slave were entitled to a fee for their work, and this expense was to be paid by the Federal Government.{{Sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=77–81}}

The law was so completely pro-slavery as to prohibit the admission of the testimony of a person accused of being an escaped slave into evidence at the judicial hearing to determine the status of the accused escaped slave. Thus, if free Blacks were claimed to be escaped slaves, they could not resist their return to slavery (or enslavement for the first time) by truthfully telling their actual history. Furthermore, the federal commissioners overseeing the hearings were paid $5 for ruling that a person was free, but were paid $10 for determining that he or she was a slave, thus providing a financial incentive to rule in favor of slavery regardless of the evidence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/federal/fugitive-slave-act-of-1850/|title = Fugitive Slave Act of 1850|date = December 26, 2015}}</ref> The law further exacerbated the problem of free Blacks being kidnapped and sold as slaves.{{Sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=81–82}}

The Fugitive Slave Act was essential to meet Southern demands. In terms of public opinion in the North, the critical provision was that ordinary citizens were required to aid slave catchers and that it was a crime to assist a fugitive. Many Northerners deeply resented these provisions. The violent process of returning slaves to the South made the act abhorrent to many Northerners.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Compromise of 1850 |url=https://www.history.com/topics/slavery/compromise-of-1850 |access-date=2023-01-10 |website=History.com |language=en}}</ref> Resentment towards the Act further heightened tensions between the North and South, which were then inflamed further by [[abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]] such as [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]. Her novel, ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'', stressed the horrors of recapturing escaped slaves and outraged Southerners.<ref>Larry Gara, "The Fugitive Slave Law: A Double Paradox," ''Civil War History'', September 1964, vol. 10#3, pp. 229–240</ref>