Historedia
Episode 1 of 1

Congressional Prohibition on Returning Slaves

When
March 13, 1862
Where
United States Congress (sitting location not specified in supplied passages)
Part of
Union army officers forbidden to return fugitive slaves

Congress approved an Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves on March 13, 1862, barring Union military and naval officers from returning fugitive slaves to their owners.

The legislation explicitly prohibited all officers or persons in the military or naval service of the United States from returning fugitive slaves to their owners. Section 10 of the Confiscation Act of 1862 enforced this ban on pain of dismissal from service, effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

Sources

  1. Emancipation Proclamation Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-23
  2. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-04

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.