Fugitive Slave Act

Cultural  

1. A law passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, which provided southern slaveholders with legal weapons to capture slaves who had escaped to the free states. The law was highly unpopular in the North and helped to convert many previously indifferent northerners to antislavery.

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Example Sentences

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 compelled Northerners to collaborate in hunting freedom-seekers.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 9, 2025

Franklin Pierce, although a Northerner, fiercely defended slavery while signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act; he was a drunkard to boot.

From Salon • Jul. 26, 2025

Mary Harris: It’s useful to specifically talk about how this Fugitive Slave Act period remade politics.

From Slate • Jul. 10, 2025

King County, originally named in 1852 for Vice President William Rufus de Vane King, a slave owner and advocate for the Fugitive Slave Act, was renamed for the civil-rights hero in 2005.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 15, 2024

Three years earlier, President Washington had signed into law the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis