Fugitive Slave Act & Civil Disobedience

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 said that a person could claim any African American as a runaway slave and then take them into their custody. The "slaves" had no right to a trail and were not allowed to testify in court. The act envoked the hostility of the northerners and had hurt the southern because of the active hostility. Newspapers made descriptions reguarding the act as injustice they said that "almost no colored man was safe in our streets", which angered the North more.  

The Fugitive Slave Act attributed to the civil war because is caused the hate between the Northerners and the Southerners to grow stronger.

Civil Disobedience was caused by the law enforcing citizens to capture the "runaway" slaves. This law is what drove many people to the active defiance. Many people agreed with author of the "Civil Disobedience" essay, Henry David Thoreau. The 1849 essay advocated the right to disobey the law, because of the moral consequences involved. This essay and the advocation of the disobedience contributed to the over all Northern resistance and caused the resistances to become more frequent, public, and more violent. People justified the violence of these resistances, by the violence and cruelty the slaves have to go through.