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Title: The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

Subtitle: The History of the Controversial Law That Sparked the Confederacy's Secession and the Civil War

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Scott Clem

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-19-17

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Despite the attempt to settle America's slavery issue with the Missouri Compromise in 1820, the young nation kept pushing further westward, and with that more territory was acquired. After the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, the sectional crisis was brewing like never before, with California and the newly-acquired Mexican territory now ready to be organized into states. The country was once again left trying to figure out how to do it without offsetting the slave-free state balance that was already dividing the nation. With the new territory acquired in the Mexican-American War, pro and anti-slavery groups were at an impasse. The Whig Party, including a freshman Congressman named Abraham Lincoln, supported the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in all territory acquired from Mexico, but the slave states would have none of it. Even after Texas was annexed as a slave state, the enormous new territory would doubtless contain many other new states, and the North hoped to limit slavery as much as possible in the new territories. The Compromise of 1850 was authored by the legendary Whig politician Henry Clay. In addition to admitting California to the Union as a free state to balance with Texas, it allowed Utah and New Mexico to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of what became known as "popular sovereignty", which meant the settlers could vote on whether their state should be a free state or slave state. Though a Whig proposed popular sovereignty in 1850, popular sovereignty as an idea would come to be championed by and associated with Democratic Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas.

Members Reviews:

Good Overview

This book recounts the issues related to the Fugitive Slave Act, which was a key feature of the Compromise of 1850. This Act gave slaveholders increased powers to recapture slaves who had fled to free states. A slave found in a free state could be ordered captured by police or federal marshals and returned to the slaveholder without any trial or due process. Many people in the North were outraged and refused to comply with the law because they saw it as denying the rights of the individuals merely accused of being an escaped slave, without any proof. The very real possibility of southern slave owners extending grip over the law enforcement of Northern states was also objectionable. Some Northern states passed laws restricting the ability of federal marshals or bounty hunters to recapture escaped slaves. As a result, the Fugitive Slave Act ended up being one of the main issues that finally split the nation in two.

The author does an excellent job of explaining the Act, and it's ramifications. The reader is provided with context and perspective by an impartial analysis of the law's genesis and long term effects.

However, as sometimes happens with the Charles River series, the author feels compelled to include long quotes from contemporary sources, entire text of several Confederate State constitutions as well as the inclusion of the entire text of the Fugitive Slave Act. I fully recognize the relevance that contemporary. eye witness accounts can provide. However, I found both the length and frequency of these inclusions as boring and distracting.