What was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850?

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was tied to the Compromise of 1850. It made helping a slave escape to freedom in the North illegal and gave federal agents permission to help return slaves to their owners in the South. This was the most onerous part of the Compromise of 1850, especially for abolitionists.
Since no one could tell precisely if someone was a freeman or a runaway slave, it made all blacks in the North susceptible to capture. Judges were awarded ten dollars for every slave they returned to bondage and only five dollars for each person allowed to stay free. This and the fact that tax dollars supported chasing the alleged fugitives angered abolitionists in the North. Southerners insisted on having the Fugitive Slave Act put into the Compromise of 1850 even though a minority of the South's slaves escaped North. Most of the escaped slaves stayed in the South.
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