Being forced into slavery pushed many enslaved Black people to make the dangerous journey from the South to the North. They hoped that crossing the border from a slave state to a free state would give them freedom from slavery forever. Slaveholders didn't like this practice - they depended on slavery for their wealth and livelihood. During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the Southern states pushed for several compromises around slavery in exchange for their support of the Constitution. One of these compromises is called the Fugitive Slave Clause.
An 1864 engraving from an anti-slavery book depicting a man, woman, and child fleeing from enslavers. Source: Wikimedia Commons, author: Van Ingen Snyder, PD US
Fugitive Slave Clause Date
The Constitutional Convention took place from May to September 1787. The Fugitive Slave Clause was introduced in August 1787 and then ratified along with the rest of the Constitution in 1789.
Fugitive Slave Clause Definition
The Fugitive Slave Clause is a provision in the Constitution that allowed slaveholders to seize slaves who had escaped to the Northern states.
Fugitive Slave Clause in the Constitution
The Fugitive Slave Clause is in Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution. Article 4 has four sections that talk about states and citizenship. Section 2 talks about the movement of people between states. The clause right before the Fugitive Slave Clause (called the Extradition Clause) requires that anyone who has committed a crime in another state be returned to the state where they originally committed the crime.
The Fugitive Slave Clause states the following:
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.
Notice that the word "slave" or "enslaved" is not in this phrase - or anywhere else in the Constitution. The framers intentionally did not want to use the word "slave" because some of them were hoping that the practice of slavery would eventually disappear. However, we know that clauses like Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3 were intended to reference enslaved people.
John Dickinson highlighted the irony of refusing to acknowledge the word "slave," saying, "omitting the Word [slave] will be regarded as an Endeavor to conceal a principle of which we are ashamed."
Constitutional Convention and the Fugitive Slave Clause
When Congress met during the Constitutional Convention in 1787 to develop a new constitution from scratch, the issue of slavery infiltrated almost every debate - from regulating trade to the number of people each state would have in Congress.
Many of the framers acknowledged that slavery was evil and completely antithetical to the ideas in the Declaration of Independence about rights and all men being equal. Others, especially those from the South, depended on slavery for their wealth and livelihood, so they wanted to make sure the Constitution didn't threaten slavery. Those who wanted slavery to end were either conflicted because they still owned slaves themselves, or because they didn't want to risk the delicate discussions about the Constitution by antagonizing the Southern delegates over slavery.
An illustration depicting 28 fugitives escaping from Maryland. Source: Library of Congress
Debates Over the Fugitive Slave Clause
The original wording of the phrase - as proposed by Charles Pinckney and Pierce Butler - said that fugitive slaves should be "delivered up like criminals." Other delegates balked at this requirement and felt that the northern states should not be obligated to return property to someone just because it had crossed their border. Thus, the phrase uses passive voice - it doesn't say "the Government shall deliver persons," it just says that persons "shall be delivered" without specifying exactly who will be doing the delivering.
The original wording also said that persons "shall be delivered to the person legally claiming their service or labor" (emphasis added). Some people didn't like the use of the word "legal" because they didn't want to imply that the Constitution legally recognized slavery. Many of the framers viewed slavery as morally wrong, so they wanted to make sure the Constitution didn't endorse it - even if they didn't necessarily want to end it outright. Instead, they compromised on wording that implied that the person's labor or service was "due" to the person claiming it.
Other than these two wording issues, we don't know much about the debates around the Fugitive Slave Clause. It was proposed one day with the original wording, then the next day, the updated wording was passed without debate or discussion. Because of this, historians believe that the delegates had discussions outside of the Convention and that the Fugitive Slave Clause was part of an agreement (along with the Slave Trade Clause - see the Slavery and the Constitutional Convention article for more information) to solidify the Southern delegates' ratification of the Constitution.
Fugitive Slave Clause Meaning
The Constitution is famous for having complicated or wordy jargon that can make it hard for the average person to understand.
In plain terms, the Fugitive Slave Clause meant that people who escaped slavery in the South weren't actually free. Even though they had crossed a border into a state where slavery didn't exist, their legal status as a slave carried with them.
It also meant that Southern slaveholders (or the people they hired) could essentially kidnap people from the North without much oversight or consequences. The subsequent Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 made it very easy to take a Black person in the North and force them into slavery in the South. They didn't even have to prove that the person was their property, which meant that even people who were born legally free could be seized and forced into slavery.
General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (cousin of Charles Pinckney, who introduced the proposal) summed up how Southern slaveholders viewed the clause, saying:
We have obtained a right to recover our slaves in whatever part of America they may take refuge, which is a right we had not before.
Fugitive Slave Clause Significance
Some framers of the Constitution made it clear that they hated slavery and wanted it to end. They hoped that if the Constitution didn't acknowledge or endorse slavery, it would eventually go away. However, we know that that didn't happen - slavery continued to be an integral part of the nation's economy and culminated in the Civil War.
People who owned enslaved people believed just that - that they owned them. With this mentality, they argued that the enslaved people were their personal property. They didn't want to let their property slip through their fingers. It represented a financial loss to them.
A major theme in the Constitution and documents like the Declaration of Independence was around the right to property, so slaveholders felt like they had a strong basis for arguing that the Constitution had to protect their property. From their perspective, if half of the country abolished slavery and people could free themselves simply by crossing a border, it threatened their right to property.
The Southern delegates got to take back enslaved people who had escaped to the North, and the Northern delegates got the support from the Southern delegates that they needed to ratify the Constitution. However, while this compromise was successful as far as getting the Constitution passed, it certainly did not address the issues with slavery. In fact, many historians argue that it caused the Civil War decades later.
Fugitive Slave Act of 1973
Slaveholders initially viewed the Fugitive Slave Clause as a win. However, for it to work, they were depending on the cooperation of people from the Northern states. Unfortunately for them, many people in the North refused to cooperate. They didn't want to participate in slavery or what they viewed as "legalized kidnapping." Some actively helped enslaved people escape and create new lives in the North. Southern states said that this violated the Constitution.
When disputes happen between states, the federal government steps in to decide who has to comply. And that's exactly what the Southern states asked for - they wanted the federal government to step in and force the Northern states to comply.
Thus, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was passed. This law added even more power to slaveholders than the Constitution had. Instead of relying on Northern states to send enslaved people back, the law allowed slaveholders and bounty hunters to cross state lines to seize enslaved people. It also allowed enslavers to take people with very little oversight - they just had to bring the enslaved person before a judge and sign an affidavit saying that the person was their slave. The alleged former slave wasn't even allowed to testify. The Act also fined anybody who helped slaves escape in any way $500 (which would be almost $16,000 today) to discourage people in the North from providing housing or any other assistance.
An 1836 anti-slavery tract shows the abolition movement from groups in the north like the Boston female anti-slavery society. Source: Wikimedia Commons, author: Boston female anti-slavery society PD US
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
Even with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, many Northern states still didn't comply. The law and the Constitution clearly stated that they shouldn't interfere with slaveholders taking back enslaved people, but it was difficult to enforce if the Northern states didn't cooperate. Many abolitionists continued to assist enslaved people to escape through the Underground Railroad.
An 1851 poster warning Black people about slave catchers in Boston. Source: Wikimedia Commons PD US
The Southern states threatened to secede from the United States if the government didn't step in to protect what they viewed as their property rights. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 tried to appease the South by saying that people in the North were obligated to help return formerly enslaved people to their enslavers. Anyone who violated the law would be fined $1000 (almost $31,500 today) and get six months in jail.
The Act caused tensions to boil over. Riots and protests broke out over the next few years as Northerners doubled down on their efforts to help enslaved people escape. Eventually, the South decided they wanted to secede from the United States and create their own country to preserve slavery. They thought that the federal government wasn't very helpful in enforcing the laws around slavery, so, to make sure states had more power than the central government, they wanted the new country to be a Confederation.
Civil War and the Fugitive Slave Clause Today
The Civil War saw the bloodiest conflict on American soil. The federal government and Northern states created the Union Army and the Southern states created the Confederate Army. Eventually, the Northern states won.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1865, abolished slavery:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Thus, the Thirteenth Amendment also made the Fugitive Slave Clause in the Constitution irrelevant.
Fugitive Slave Clause - Key takeaways
- The Fugitive Slave Clause is a provision in the Constitution that allowed slaveholders to seize slaves who had escaped to free states in the North.
- Historians believe the Fugitive Slave Clause, along with the Slave Trade Clause and the Three-Fifth Compromise, were part of a deal to ensure support from the Southern delegation for the Constitution.
- Many people from free states didn't want to participate in slavery or aid what they viewed as "legalized kidnapping." They refused to cooperate with slaveholders and bounty hunters and helped enslaved people escape.
- To try to enforce compliance with the Fugitive Slave Clause, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850.
- Outrage over the Fugitive Slave Acts led to protests and tensions that eventually resulted in the Civil War.
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