Research Paper on:
Fugitive Slave Act and the Compromise of 1850

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
as doing so would constitute a felony. The provisions of this act were further fortified by the legislative Compromise of 1850, which monumentally impacted those individuals who set forth  to provide this link to freedom, such as Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. The United States government took control of significant amounts of territory after the war with Mexico,  at which point Congress was responsible for mandating which parcels were to be free and which were to be bond. Congressmen David Wilmot of Pennsylvania drafted the Wilmot Proviso  which, if it had passed, would have effectively banned slavery from all acquired Mexican territories. Much to the dismay of freedom fighters throughout the North, the proviso was not  successful in attaining enough backing for passage in the House of Representatives. Henry Clay took this opportunity to introduce a compromise that would permit New Mexico and Utah to continue  with slavery, while California would become a free state upon admission. It was at this point that the Fugitive Slave act gain even more momentum; as such, special funds  were established as a means by which to not only retrieve the fugitive slaves, but also to prosecute those who tried to help them escape. Once the line to  freedom was the Mason-Dixon; now it was moved all the way to Canada. Bounty hunters took full advantage of this operation by generating northern raids; their unsavory methods did  not stop at African-American fugitives. Any black person became fair game for the hunters who did not bother to determine whether or not the individual was a fugitive.  "And be it further enacted, That any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant ... from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor, either