9781422274194

with the larger populations. This meant less risk of being caught and returned to their masters. Slaveowners hired bounty hunters to find escaped slaves, because American laws gave slaveowners the right to recover their escaped property. The US Constitution, ratified in 1787, included a clause that said, “No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.” This meant that states were responsible for returning escaped slaves (“Persons held to Service or Labour”) to their masters. In 1793, Congress passed a Fugitive Slave Act that authorized local governments to capture escaped slaves and return them to their owners. Because of this, the safest escape for freedom- seeking slaves was to cross the border into Canada. This was a British territory where slavery was illegal. Authorities in Canada would not return runaway slaves to the United States. The 1793 Fugitive Slave Act imposed penalties on anyone who helped a slave to escape. Despite this, some Americans believed that slavery was morally wrong. They put themselves in danger of punishment to help slaves escape to freedom. THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT People who wanted to end the system of slavery in the United States were called abolitionists. Abolitionists helped some runaway slaves to make their way to freedom. Some provided shelters for the fugitives as they traveled North. Others helped them to find work and settle into new lives when they reached the northern states, or assisted them in traveling to Canada. In addition to helping individuals, abolitionists worked to make the larger social changes necessary to end the institution of slavery. Abolitionists came from various backgrounds. Not all black Americans were slaves, and the free black population was the main

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ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY

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