The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850


Excerpts from the Digital Text at the The Avalon Project.



Section 1
. . . Commissioners . . . [who] are authorized to exercise the powers that any justice of the peace, or other magistrate of any of the United States . . . by arresting, imprisoning, or bailing ["offenders for any crime or offense against the United States"], . . .  are hereby, authorized and required to exercise and discharge all the powers and duties conferred by this act.

Section 4
. . . Commissioners  . . . shall grant certificates to such claimants [i.e. people who claim the loss of "a person held to service or labor"], upon satisfactory proof being made, with authority to take and remove such fugitives from service or labor . . .  to the State or Territory from which such persons may have escaped or fled.

Section 5    
. . . It shall be the duty of all marshals and deputy marshals to obey and execute all warrants and precepts issued under the provisions of this act, when to them directed; and should any marshal or deputy marshal refuse to receive such warrant . . . or [refuse] to use all proper means diligently to execute the same, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of one thousand dollars, to the use of such claimant. . . . [If a fugitive in the marshal's custody should]  . . .  escape, whether with or without the assent of such marshal or his deputy, such marshal shall be liable. . . to be prosecuted for the benefit of such claimant, for the full value of the service or labor of said fugitive in the State, Territory, or District whence he escaped. . . . The better to enable the said commissioners, when thus appointed, to execute their duties faithfully and efficiently, [they are authorized] . . . to summon and call to their aid the bystanders, or posse comitatus of the proper county . . . , and all good citizens are hereby commanded to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient execution of this law, whenever their services may be required. . . .

Section 6
. . . When a person held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the United States, has heretofore or shall hereafter escape into another State or Territory of the United States, the person or persons to whom such service or labor may be due . . .  may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person, either by procuring a warrant from some one of the courts, judges, or commissioners aforesaid . . . or by seizing and arresting such fugitive [and taking such fugitive]  . . . forthwith before such court, judge, or commissioner, whose duty it shall be to hear and determine the case of such claimant in a summary manner; and upon satisfactory proof being made . . .[the claimant can] use such reasonable force and restraint as may be necessary, . . . to take and remove such fugitive person back to the State or Territory whence he or she may have escaped as aforesaid. In no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence. . . .

Section 7
. . .  Any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant, his agent or attorney, or any person or persons lawfully assisting him, her, or them, from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor . . . or shall rescue, or attempt to rescue, such fugitive . . . or shall aid, abet, or assist such person so owing service or labor as aforesaid, directly or indirectly, to escape . . . or shall harbor or conceal such fugitive . . . shall, for either of said offences, be subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months . . . and shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages to the party injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost as aforesaid.

Section 8
. . .  The marshals, their deputies, and the clerks of the said District and Territorial Courts, shall be paid, for their services. . . . Where such services are rendered exclusively in the arrest, custody, and delivery of the fugitive to the claimant . . . or where such supposed fugitive may be discharged out of custody for the want of sufficient proof as aforesaid, then such fees are to be paid in whole by such claimant. . . . In all cases where the proceedings are before a commissioner, he shall be entitled to a fee of ten dollars in full for his services,  . . . or a fee of five dollars in cases where the proof shall not, in the opinion of such commissioner, warrant such certificate and delivery. . . .   The person or persons authorized to execute . . . the arrest and detention of fugitives from service or labor as aforesaid, shall also be entitled to a fee of five dollars each for each person he or they may arrest, . . . with such other fees as may be deemed reasonable. . . .   such fees to be . . . paid by such claimants, . . . whether such supposed fugitives from service or labor be ordered to be delivered to such claimant by the final determination of such commissioner or not.



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