A Study On The Issue Of Fugitive Slaves Before The American Civil War

Fugitive slaves have been accompanied by the development of slavery in United States.Before the civil war,the issue of fugitive slaves developed into one of the starting points of the conflict between the north and the south,and it is also a catalyst for damage to the relationship.This paper tries to draw lessons from domestic and foreign academic achievements on the basis of this issue and relearn the importance of fugitive slaves in the history of the United States.Fugitive slaves appeared in the early colonies.After the war of independence,the south held slaves for a long time,and the southern plantation economy was based on slavery.In the eyes of southern whites,slaves were only their property and could be tortured at will.Fleeing was one of the forms in which the unbearable slaves rebelled.The slaves who managed to escape were set free,and those who failed were sent back to plantations to be punished more cruelly.The fugitive slaves fled to the free states in the north and gradually became the centre of attention of the northern people.The northerners expressed sympathy for the slave with uncommon experiences,expressed their anger at the slavery in the south,and expressed doubts about the performance of the federal government.Anti-slavery ideas began to spread in the north,and more northerners contributed to the goal of abolishing slavery.This led to a fierce conflict with the south,because slavery was the economic basis on which southerners depended for their survival.The first part traces the historical origin of the concept of fugitive slaves in the United States.This part briefly discusses the concept of fugitive slaves,the escape place of fugitive slaves,and the subsequent arrest of fugitive slaves by slave owners.After escaping,they often faced the arrest of slave catchers from the south.The slaves who escaped to the north made the northern people feel the cruelty of slavery,and the idea of abolishing slavery began to take root in their hearts.The second part discusses the social forces in the north trying to help of slaves and express their dissatisfaction with the slave states.This huge civil power undoubtedly had a great influence on the southern states.By organizing the "underground railroad",northern radicals helped more blacks achieve their freedom.They also established anti-slavery associations,and promoted abolitionist ideas to thewhole country,encouraging slaves to move towards freedom.This was undoubtedly undermining the foundations of the south,which was beginning to counter the north,and both sides were beginning to resent each other.The third part discusses the struggle between the two sides at the state level.By this time,the struggle between the two sides had become more and more fierce,and was gradually getting out of hand.The northern states helped the fugitive slaves implicitly through their state laws,while the aggressive attitude of the south strengthened the northern states' belief in the abolition of slavery.The fourth part discusses the preference of the federal government in dealing with the issues of fugitive slaves and slavery,which makes the issue become the focus of attention for northern political parties.While the north and south argued,the federal government often played a role in pulling the trigger.Not only did he support tougher laws to hunt down runaway slaves,but he also denied their basic rights.The subsequent expansion of slavery angered the northerners even more.In the art of compromise,it is clear to northerners that only a political victory can solve the problem.The tension between the north and the south increased as the two sides continued to argue for or attack over slavery.The confrontation between the two sides based on different understandings and interpretations of constitutional rights finally evolved into the outbreak of civil war.This paper holds that the expansion of slavery in the western territories could be settled by the compromise between the north and the south for many times,but the conflict caused by the issue of fugitive slaves touched their respective sore points and became one of the main triggers of the civil war.