2/12 【歷史上的今天】在1793年，如果你是一個逃亡的黑奴……

每天一篇《美國歷史上的今天》，提煉和總結歷史在今天發生的重要事件：誰，在哪裡，什麼時候，做了什麼，這件事為什麼重要、以及在寫關於什麼主題的論文的時候可以作為潛在論據引用。每天半分鐘，輕鬆積累史實，為AP歷史拿5分打下堅實基礎！

When: Feb 12, 1793

What: Congress passed the first fugitive slave law, requiring all states, including those that forbid slavery, to forcibly return slaves who had escaped from other states to their original owners.

Why significant: This law put fugitive slaves at risk for recapture all their lives.

The slave-catching industry expanded as a result of this law, with men who were effectively bounty hunters （賞金獵人） capturing and returning many slaves to their legal owners. In addition, because of the high demand for slaves in the Deep South and hunt for fugitives, free blacks were at risk of being kidnapped and sold into slavery, even if they had their "free" papers. There were numerous instances in which people who were legally free and had never been slaves were captured and brought south to be sold into slavery.

Most Northern states soon abolished slavery and chose not to enforce the 1793 law. Many northern states enacted 「personal liberty laws」 to protect free black Americans and runaway slaves, by ensuring fugitive slaves a jury trial, barring state officials from aiding in the capture of runaway slaves, and requiring slave owners and fugitive hunters to produce evidence that their captures were truly fugitive slaves, 「just as southern states demanded the right to retrieve runaway slaves, northern states demanded the right to protect their free black residents from being kidnapped and sold into servitude in the south.」

Wide disregard of fugitive slave law enraged Southern lawmakers, resulting in the passage of a second fugitive slave law as part of the Compromise of 1850. It called for the return of slaves 「on pain of heavy penalty,」 and required even the governments and residents of free states to enforce the capture and return of fugitive slaves.

Tags: Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, abolition movement, slavery, Civil War, the Compromise of 1850, fugitive slave law act of 1850

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