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Even free blacks, too, were captured and sent to the South, completely defenseless with no legal rights. Many were captured and returned to slavery, however, including Anthony Burns, a fugitive living in Boston. Harriet Jacobs, a fugitive living in New York, described this period as вЂњthe beginning of a reign of terror to the colored population.вЂќ She was one of the runaways who remained in New York, despite learning that slave catchers had been hired to track her down. Many former slaves who had been attempting to build lives in the North left their homes and fled to Canada, which added approximately 20,000 blacks to its population over the following decade. In addition, the act called for changes that made the process for filing a claim against a fugitive easier for slave owners. The cases were handled by special commissioners, who were paid $5 if a fugitive was released and $10 if the captive was returned to slavery. According to its tenets, citizens were required to aid in the recovery of fugitive slaves. This bill was the most controversial of all the bills that made up the Compromise of 1850. It was agreed that California would be admitted as a free state, but the Fugitive Slave Act was passed to mollify pro-slavery states. In addition, the slave trade would be abolished in the District of Columbia, although slavery would still be permitted in the nationвЂ™s capitol. The territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah were defined while leaving the question of slavery off the table, on the understanding that the issue would be decided when the territories applied for statehood. The terms of the bill included a provision that Texas relinquish its disputed land in exchange for $10 million to be paid to Mexico. In January 1850, Henry Clay presented a bill that would become known as the Compromise of 1850. Of course Washington, D.C., the nationвЂ™s capital, not only allowed slavery but was home to the largest slave market in North America. At the same time, Texas laid claim to territory extending all the way to Santa Fe. California, beneficiary of an increased population because of the gold rush-petitioned Congress to enter the Union as a free state.

added new territory as a result of the Mexican war, and the question of whether that territory would be slave or free arose again. However by the late 1840s, several events occurred that upset the balance: the U.S. Indeed, the debate over slave and free states remained relatively calm for almost 30 years. After Missouri's admission to the Union in 1821, no other states were admitted until 1836 when Arkansas became a slave state, followed by Michigan in 1837 as a free state. Constitutionally, the Compromise of 1820 established a precedent for the exclusion of slavery from public territory acquired after the Constitution, and also recognized that Congress had no right to impose upon states seeking admission to the Union conditions that did not apply to those states already in the Union.

It prohibited slavery in new states north of the border of the Arkansas territory, excluding Missouri. The Missouri Compromise-also referred to as the Compromise of 1820-was an agreement between the pro- and anti-slavery factions regulating slavery in the western territories.

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But by 1820, Congress was embroiled in the debate over how to divide the newly acquired territories into slave and free states. With the Louisiana Purchase, the question of slavery became both geographical and political, and ushered in a period of national debate between pro- and anti-slavery states to gain political and economic advantage.

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was firmly established with a series of statutes and penal codes enacted in various states to regulate the activity of slaves and all conduct involving slaves and free blacks. By the beginning of the 19th century, slavery in the U.S.