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Enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act

When
1850-09-18
Where
United States Capitol
Part of
Fugitive Slave Law passed by U.S. Congress

The 31st Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850.

Drafted by Mason of Virginia, the act penalized officials who failed to arrest fugitive slaves with a $1,000 fine. President Fillmore signed the bill after Attorney General Crittenden confirmed its constitutionality, making it a severe measure for recovering escaped slaves.

Sources

  1. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-04
  2. Compromise of 1850 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-26

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.