The Fugitive Slave Act (1793)

• What did the Fugitive Slave Act allow slaveholders to do?


   It allowed slaveholders to cross state lines in search of escaped enslaved people and bring them back into slavery.
• How did Northern states react to the Fugitive Slave Act?


  They passed "personal liberty laws" to protect escaped enslaved people.
• What did the "personal liberty laws" require in Northern states?


   They required that escaped enslaved people be given a jury trial before being returned to the South against their will.