Assignment task:
As the country was having conflict after conflict which was leading to a civil war, there were many things happening that were pushing this forward. The one that made the biggest contribution to this was the Fugitive Slave Act. The Fugitive Slave Act was an act that, "took jurisdiction over fugitive slave cases away from northern courts. Any northerner could be forced into helping catch alleged runaways; to refuse was a federal crime. Accused Blacks had no right to a jury trial or a lawyer, and a federally appointed commissioner would be responsible for determining their status."1 With the reversion of laws and the lawful recapture of slaves created many tensions between the northern states and the southern states. With the law forcing people to hand over the escaped slaves, this pushed the country farther into the actions of a civil war. This law also led to what was known as the personal liberty laws to be passed in the northern states, even though this did not stop the south from upholding the Fugitive Slave Act.