STEVEN HAHN: The original Fugitive Slave Law was in 1793 and it recognized that there were certain parts of the country where slavery, at least, was theoretically illegal, and that slaves might run off from places where slavery was legal.

And the idea was that people who lived in areas where slavery was illegal were obliged to return slaves to their owners. The laws of one state would be respected in another state.

Southerners felt that this law was not being adequately enforced. And so, as a result of the Compromise of 1850, one of the provisions was that a new Fugitive Slave Law would be enforced which would bring the federal government much more directly involved, which would provide financial incentives for judges to rule in favor of slaveholders, and which would deny slaves any prospect of a jury trial to determine whether they were, in fact, fugitives or not.

And this was seen as an important concession to the southern states and to southern slaveholders. And, from their point of view, they felt that if their property wasn't secure in the Union, they didn't want to stay in the Union. And this, of course, created an enormous backlash in some quarters.

Although, by and large, the Fugitive Slave Law was enforced. And, by and large, the circumstances for fugitive slaves were not improved in any particular way even though some anti-slavery types in the North were outraged by what the government did.

The government clearly aligned itself with the slaveholders in this regard and it demonstrated that slavery was centrally part of American society and politics. It's not just a sectional institution. It has a very national basis.