The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and Uncle Tom’s Cabin

​The Missouri Compromise (link to prior post) achieved what senators desired, a balance of powers aligned for and against the institution of slavery. By the late 1840s, The United States was composed of 30 states - 15 free and 15 slave. The balance was about to be upset.

In January 1848, gold had been discovered on the American River near Sacramento and the influx of people began. Days later, the treaty ending the Mexican War gave the United States a large part of the Southwest, including present day California. In 1849, Californians petitioned for statehood as a free state, igniting debate and ultimately the Compromise of 1850. At the same time, Texas claimed territory extending all the way to Santa Fe. In January 1850, the venerable Kentucky Senator Henry Clay presented a bill that would leave the question of slavery off the table the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah until each applied for statehood. In addition, the slave trade would be abolished in the District of Columbia, although slavery would still be permitted in the nation’s capitol. 

---

It was agreed that California would be admitted as a free state, but the accompanying Fugitive Slave Act was passed to satisfy pro-slavery states.

The act called for changes that made the process for filing a claim against a fugitive easier for slave owners and citizens were required to aid in the recovery of fugitive slaves. A federal commissioner was appointed to hear a case and determine an African American's status as a slave or free person. The slave owner was responsible for paying the commissioner. If the commissioner ruled in favor of the white man, the commissioner received ten dollars. If he ruled against the slaveholder, the commissioner earned only five dollars. Fugitives had no right to a jury trial and could not present evidence. Anyone caught hiding or assisting fugitive slaves faced stiff penalties.

​Northern abolitionists opposed this law and tried to insert protections into the bill for African Americans. They wanted the Fugitive Slave Law to guarantee African Americans the right to testify and also the right to a trial by jury. Other legislators refused and claimed that African Americans were not United States citizens. Between 1850 and 1860, 343 African Americans appeared before federal commissioners. Of those 343 people, 332 African Americans were sent to slavery in the South. The commissioners allowed only eleven people to remain free in the North. Some people who had been free for their entire lives left the country for Canada. Even free blacks, too, were captured and sent to the South, completely defenseless with no legal rights. Abolitionists challenged the Fugitive Slave Law's legality in court, but the United States Supreme Court upheld the law's constitutionality in 1859.
 
Ohio abolitionists encouraged people to oppose any attempts to enforce it and referred to the legislation as the "Kidnap Law.” The act enraged author Harriet Beecher Stowe and its passage is attributed to have caused her to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
 
The compromise lasted until the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, when Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas proposed legislation allowing the issue of slavery to be decided in the new territories. The acts were eventually repealed, but not until June of 1864.
 
Sources: 
 
The War Before the War by Andrew Delbanco (2018) Penguin Press
https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Fugitive_Slave_Law_of_1850

About the author:
Dr. Nicholas Andreadis is a volunteer at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House. He was a professor and dean at Western Michigan University prior to moving to Cincinnati.