Average life for slaves leading up to the Civil War was relatively the same as it had been prior. The main changes stemmed from more laws governing the assistance of runaway slaves and a crackdown in slaves allowed to be out or off the plantation. The slaves were allowed to gather less and less, especially after the Nat Turner Rebellion. The fear of a slave rebellion and mass killings of white people was always a prominent, though often unfounded fear. The actual killing of prominent southern families in the area only spurred the belief that slaves would kill whites when given half a chance. The attack on Harpers' Ferry by radical abolitionists, like John Brown, also led to a greater fear of an uprising. The use of national laws such as the Fugitive Slave Act only pushed to further subjugate the slave population.
