Editing Underground Railroad (section)

===Fugitive Slave Act of 1850===

[[File:From Library of Congress- "Print shows a portrait of the fugitive slave Anthony Burns, whose arrest and trial under the Fugitive (32f5b651-55ed-457d-8c2e-45b46a5dcc24).jpg|thumb|A portrait of freedom seeker [[Anthony Burns]], arrested under the Fugitive Slave Law]]

Under the terms of the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]], when suspected fugitives were seized and brought to a special [[magistrate]] known as a commissioner, they had no right to a jury trial and could not testify on their own behalf. Between 1850 and 1860, 343 freedom seekers were taken before a commissioner and 332 were returned to slavery. Commissioners received ten dollars when they ruled in favor of a slaveholder and received five dollars if they ruled in a slave's favor. Technically, they were not accused of a crime. The marshal or private [[slave-catcher]] needed only to swear an oath to acquire a [[writ]] of ''[[replevin]]'' for the return of property. A fine of 1,000 dollars was charged to individuals who assisted a freedom seeker's escape.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Paul |first1=Catherine |title=Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 |url=https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/federal/fugitive-slave-act-of-1850/ |website=Virginia Commonwealth University |date=December 26, 2015 |access-date=14 September 2024}}</ref>

Congress was dominated by Southern congressmen because the population of their states was bolstered by the inclusion of [[Three-Fifths Compromise|three-fifths]] of the number of slaves in population totals. They passed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 because of frustration at having fugitives from slavery helped by the public and even official institutions outside the South. In some parts of the North, slave catchers needed police protection.

According to author Andrew Delbanco, "Northerners began to realize slavery wasn't just a Southern issue after the passage of the 1850 law." Prior to the American Civil War, the nation was divided on how to deal with enslaved runaways. The Fugitive Slave Act further divided the nation as Southern slaveholders now had political power to return freedom seekers who escaped to the North and return them to the South, and Northerners were required by law to assist in the return of runaways.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gross |first1=Terry |title=How The Fugitive Slave Act Paved The Way For The Civil War |url=https://www.npr.org/2019/11/08/777212545/how-the-fugitive-slave-act-paved-the-way-for-the-civil-war |website=South Carolina Public Radio (NPR) |access-date=12 September 2024}}</ref>

Some freedom seekers were arrested under the fugitive slave law; they were, [[Anthony Burns]], John Price, [[Shadrach Minkins]], Stephen Pembroke and his two sons, and others. Abolitionists used these cases to push the question of slavery at the center of national politics; they argued that enslaved people's resistance to enslavement through numerous escapes advocates the abolition of slavery.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fugitive Slave Case: Stephen Pembrook |url=https://www.archives.gov/nyc/exhibit/stephen-pembrook.html |website=The National Archives and Records Administration |date=August 15, 2016 |access-date=13 September 2024 |archive-date=September 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913133605/https://www.archives.gov/nyc/exhibit/stephen-pembrook.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Gonzalez |first1=Jennifer |title='Law or No Law': Abolitionist Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2023/02/law-or-no-law-abolitionist-resistance-to-the-fugitive-slave-act-of-1850/ |website=Library of Congress |date=February 10, 2023 |access-date=13 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Maltz |first1=Earl |title=The Trial of Anthony Burns (1854) |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/burns-anthony-the-trial-of-1854/ |website=Encyclopedia of Virginia |publisher=Virginia Humanities |access-date=13 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Shadrach Minkins (d. 1875) |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/minkins-shadrach-d-1875/ |website=Encyclopedia of Virginia |publisher=Virginia Humanities |access-date=14 September 2024}}</ref>

A few weeks after the fugitive slave law passed, Black populations in Northern cities declined due to formerly enslaved African Americans migrating to Canada in fear they might be captured and re-enslaved. On August 1, 1834, Britain [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|abolished slavery]] in Canada and throughout the [[British Empire]], making Canada a safer choice for American slaves and free Blacks seeking freedom.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Enslavement of African People in Canada (c. 1629–1834) |url=https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2020/07/the-enslavement-of-african-people-in-canada-c-16291834.html |website=Government of Canada |date=July 31, 2020 |access-date=22 September 2024}}</ref> In [[Pittsburgh]], Pennsylvania most of the Black waiters working in the city's hotel fled to Canada. [[Columbia, Pennsylvania]]'s Black population decreased by half. Between mid-February and early March of 1851, one hundred free African Americans and fugitives fled the city of Boston. Abolitionists in [[Detroit|Detroit, Michigan]] guided 1,200 free people to Canada. By December of 1850, it is estimated that 3,000 African Americans took refuge in Canada.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Horton |first1=James |last2=Horton |first2=Louis |title=A Federal Assault: African Americans and the Impact of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 – Symposium on the Law of Slavery: Constitutional Law and Slavery |journal=Symposium on the Law of Slavery |date=1993 |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=1187–1188 |url=https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=2905&context=cklawreview |access-date=14 September 2024}}</ref>