The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was one of the most controversial elements of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a “slave power conspiracy”.
The Fugitive Slave Act, or also known as the Compromise of 1850, was issued by the government. This law was to enforce the capture and return of runaway slaves. The runaway slaves would have to be given back to their owner, but if not accomplished then the supposed slavehunter would be tried for going against the law and risk punishment.
Congress passed another Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, as a concession to Southern states, in an effort to preserve the Union and because the 1793 Act was essentially ineffective. Increasingly, the North was clashing with the South regarding the issue of slavery in new states and territories acquired from Mexico after the U.S.Mexican War (1846-48).
Following increased pressure from Southern politicians, Congress passed a revised Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. Part of Henry Clay's famed Compromise of 1850—a group of bills that helped quiet early calls for Southern secession—this new law forcibly compelled citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves.
The Fugitive Slave Act in the 1850 Compromise was an extremely important law as it effected so many people around the country prior to the Civil War. This act basically demanded that any Federal marshall or law enforcement agent would be held responsible if they did not arrest an alleged runaway slave, regardless of proof.
The abolition movement aimed to not only stop the spread of slavery but to abolish it. The latter was something that many in the North who opposed slavery’s expansion were often either not in favor of, or indifferent to, became an issue for many after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. So long as slavery was regulated to the South.