Читать книгу American Civil War For Dummies - Keith D. Dickson - Страница 24

For Southerners to accept California as a free state with its potential shift of power to the North, the Congress took action to involve more Americans in sustaining the institution of slavery. The Fugitive Slave Law mandated that states return fugitive slaves to their owners. The law gave federal officers the power to capture suspected fugitive slaves and provided severe penalties for those who harbored or protected a fugitive slave. At the time, the Fugitive Slave Law was seen as a throwaway concession to the South, but it was extremely unpopular in the North because many citizens viewed the arbitrary seizure of an individual by federal law enforcement as a violation of basic individual rights and a threatening symbol of the slave power’s evil influence on freedom in America. Federal officers attempting to arrest or transfer suspected fugitive slaves (this meant virtually any Black person — there was no way to determine who was legally free and who was not) were often met with violent resistance from citizens. The law simply could not be enforced, leading Southerners to decry the lawlessness of mob rule in the North.