Question

What is the fugitive slave act

Answer 1

It required all escaped slaves to return to their masters and that any free states had to cooperate with this law.

Answer 2

A law passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, which provided southern slaveholders with legal weapons to capture slaves who had escaped to the free states. The law was highly unpopular in the North and helped to convert many previously indifferent northerners to antislavery.