American History- Compromise of 1850 & Fugitive Slave Act

Question

Writing Prompt: (Quiz Grade) Write two well constructed paragraphs responding to the prompt from below. Make sure to demonstrate your knowledge from today's work and any other previous work we have done on this subject.

You are a planter in South Carolina who owns several slaves. You have spent large amounts of money on purchasing your slaves and depend on them to make your money. You have just heard about the Fugitive Slave Act and have decided to write a friend to express your opinion on it.

Answer 1

The Fugitive Slave Act required anyone in the country to return slaves to their original owners. If you were someone living in the south and you owned slaves, how do you think you would feel about this? Slaves were considered property to the slaveholding south. Like the question states, slaveowners have spent money on these slaves and they are the ones producing your goods that you sell for profit. If your slaves escape, the Fugitive Slave Act would be like insurance for a stolen car, or for a damaged computer. It gives you the right to have your property returned to you. I hope this helps!

Answer 2

If I'm a South Carolina slave owner I would be pretty pleased about this new Fugitive Slave Act. The law protects my slave property by returning any runaway slaves no matter where they're found, in a Free state or Slave owning state. Not to mention it's the Federal Government that has to do the work to find and bring back any runaway slaves, as well as legally try them in court.

Answer 3

Hi, Gaby!

Based on the perspective you have to take in this writing assignment it will be a tough one to write. But slave owners would have been ecstatic about the Fugitive Slave Act. The Fugitive Slave Act mandated that northern states had to return escaped slaves to their "owners" in the south. Up until this point, there was no federal law forcing the northern states to return escaped slaves to southern owners, so this would have been a positive shift for anyone who had had slaves run away to the north.

Here is the act in full: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/fugitive-slave-act

The particular slave owner you are supposed to embody in your writing assignment will see this from an economic perspective. He will see this as the federal government protecting his property and business. Not anticipating much if any sympathy for the slaves.

Good luck with this!

Katie