First Fugitive Slave Act On This Day In 1793

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

On this day 220 years ago, the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law which declared that slaves be returned to their masters no matter where they had escaped to. The Fugitive Slave Law made capture and retrieval of slaves by virtually any means necessary legal and made it so that African people were not safe ANYWHERE.

There is no way to gloss over or mitigate the institution of slavery, forced to work from sun up to sun down with no rights to their children, spouses or bodies for over 200 years for no renumeration or compensation is unspeakable and overwhelming.
 

 There are racist and oppressive reminders of the institution of slavery and one such hallmark was on this day in 1793, when Congress passed the first law declaring escaped slaves be brought back to their masters by harsh means with the Fugitive Slave Act. Northern and Southern states were bound by the law, although the North relaxed the strictest measures and allowed those enslaved seeking freedom a fair trial.
SEE ALSO: ‘Orangeburg Massacre’ In South Carolina Occurred On This Day In 1968
The main portion of the law stated:

No person held to service of labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such labor or service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

One of the most-insidious pieces of language in the law stated that children born to slaves were bound for life to their owners which kept them at risk for recapture no matter where they escaped to.

Northerners, angered by the law, were instrumental in passing countering legal actions that barred authorities in their respective states to assist in the capture of an escaped enslaved person.

Notwithstanding the protection of judges and authority figures in the North, many enslaved continued to be seized as the rounding up of escaped individuals became a lucrative business.


Southern states bristled at the North’s boldness and defiance of the law, sparking a stricter law known as the “Compromise Of 1850.”

The law was severe and barred the enslaved from representing themselves at trial and in a counter to the compromise, the “Underground Railroad” was born and thrived as it gave way for escaped enslaved persons to head to the North and further to Canada.

Former enslaved heroes like Harriet Tubman bonded with abolitionists and Quakers who challenged the practice of slavery as inhumane.

Although slavery persisted until the enactment of the Thirteenth ...Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, racist practices of the economic elite persisted.

By the dawn of the 19th century and after - African Americans withstood the brutal assault on their humanity but the pain and memory of America’s shameful past has stood the test of time as well haunting the memories of descendants.

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