“Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
–Frederick Douglas
In 1850, Congress passed a Fugitive Slave Act. The Constitution made the return of runaway slaves to their “owners” the law of the land. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 created the mechanism.
Many northerners considered the act draconian. Abolitionists nicknamed it the “Bloodhound Law.” It clearly violated the most basic right to due process.
All it took to drag a black man south into slavery was a declaration by an “owner” that the individual was in fact an escaped slave. The accused enjoyed no right to a jury trial and he was specifically prohibited from testifying in his own defense.
In no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence; and the certificates in this and the first [fourth] section mentioned, shall be conclusive of the right of the person (more…)
