Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction

by Kate Masur

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850—one of a series of measures known as the Compromise of 1850—dramatically enhanced the federal government’s authority and capacity to reach into the states. Consistent with the Prigg decision’s holding that the federal government was responsible for enforcement of the Constitution’s fugitive slave clause, the new Fugitive Slave Act established a corps of federal commissioners charged with adjudicating slaveholders’ claims. The legal procedures it established were manifestly biased in favor of slaveholders. In the summary proceedings required by the law, alleged fugitive slaves were explicitly denied the right to testify; commissioners were paid ten dollars if they ruled in favor of the slaveholder and just five dollars if they did not. The law also commanded “all good citizens” to help with enforcement and made it a federal offense to resist the law.14