There were a few points that caused this compromise to come about. 

1.The United states had a lot of new territory.They needed to decidedwhat would be free and what would be slave 

2.California territory wanted to become a free state. 

3.There was a land dispute in Texas.They claimed their territory should go all the way to Santa Fe 

4.Washington D.C. had the largest slave market in North America 

On January 29, 1850 Henry Clay presented a compromise that had required 8 months to develop. 

Only 4 Congressmen voted against the Fugitive slave law. One of which was Charles Sumner, the Senate's leading opponent of slavery. After one speech Sumner made against pro-slavery groups in Kansas in 1856 he was beaten unconscious by Preston Brooks, a congressman from South Carolina. His injuries stopped him from attending the Senate for the next three years.

In it the issues presented were fixed 

1.New territories would decide themselves whether they should be slave states or free states. 

2.Texas was given 10 million dollars to pay off its debt to Mexico. It was also split up in to the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. 

3.Washington D.C. outlaws slave trade there but still allowed slavery. 

4.California was allowed to be a free state.However to placate the slave state politicians. They made the Fugitive Slave act to balance the addition of another free state.The Fugitive Slave act probably wouldn’t have been possible to make without this compromise. 

What did the Fugitive Slave Act do? 

1.The constitution already contained a clause that said that fugitive slaves were still considered slaves in non slave states, and were to be returned if captured in the northern states.The north however ignored this clause for the most part.

2.The fugitive Slave act came into being to help enforce this clause.It made it so that Citizens were required by law to assist in the recovery of lost slaves.The slaves were denied a jury trial in the cases of capture.Instead special commissioners were used to decide whether they where to go with their captures or not.They were paid 5$ for those who were released and $10 for those who were sent with the claimant. 

3.There was a hefty fine for those who assisted slaves.$1000 and possibly six months imprisonment. 

What effects did it have? 

1.The act also increased business for those who where already paid to find escaped slaves.

2.It also cause a rush of more than 10,000 blacks running into Canada to escape capture. 

3.It made the Mason-Dixon line obsolete because now the slaves had to run all the way to Canada for guaranteed freedom.

4.There was a definite corruption of the commissioners who simply wanted to be paid more.During the 1850’s 332 slaves were returned to their owners and only 11 were declared free.

5.This greed meant that it was possible for truly free blacks to be taken as slaves when they never were to begin with. 

6. An example of a person affected by this act was Thomas Sims.He was an escaped slave from Georgia.When living and working in Boston he was ruled a fugitive and ordered to return to his master.He was promptly torn from his new life and escorted by 300 US soldiers and deputies to the navy yard and placed on a ship going south. 

Give examples of other things that could have happened to fugitives and free blacks.

What did the people of the time have to say about it? 

See page of writers 

Read poem and explain its relevence
 

 http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASfugitive.htm

 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart3b.html

 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2951.html

 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3094.html