First Fugitive Slave Act. [Chapter II, p. 21.]
1793, Feb. 12. An Act respecting fugitives from justice and persons
escaping from the service of their masters.
"Section 1.
- Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever the
executive authority of any state in the Union, or of either of the territories
northwest or south of the river Ohio, shall demand any person
as a fugitive from justice, of the executive authority of any such state
or territory to which such person shall have fled, and shall moreover
produce the copy of an indictment found, or an affidavit made before
a magistrate of any state or territory as aforesaid, charging the person
so demanded, with having committed treason, felony or other crime,
certified as authentic by the governor or chief magistrate of the state or
territory from whence the person so charged fled, it shall be the duty of
the executive authority of the state or territory to which such person
shall have fled, to cause him or her to be arrested and secured, and
notice of the arrest to be given to the executive authority making such
demand, or to the agent of such authority appointed to receive the
fugitive, and to cause the fugitive to be delivered to such agent when
he shall appear: But if no such agent shall appear within six months
from the time of the arrest, the prisoner may be discharged. And all
costs or expenses incurred in the apprehending, securing, and transmitting
such fugitive to the state or territory making such demand, shall be
paid by such state or territory.
"Sec. 2.
- And be it further enacted, That any agent, appointed as aforesaid,
who shall receive the fugitive into his custody, shall be empowered
to transport him or her to the state or territory from which he or she
shall have fled. And if any person or persons shall by force set at
liberty, or rescue the fugitive from such agent while transporting, as
aforesaid, the person or persons so offending shall, on conviction, be fined
not exceeding five hundred dollars, and be imprisoned not exceeding
one year.
"Sec. 3.
- And be it also enacted, That when a person held to labour in
any of the United States, or in either of the territories on the northwest
or south of the river Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into any
other of the said states or territory, the person to whom such labour or
service may be due, his agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize
or arrest such fugitive from labour, and to take him or her before any
judge of the circuit or district courts of the United States, residing or
being within the state, or before any magistrate of a county, city or town
corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made, and upon proof
to the satisfaction of such judge or magistrate, either by oral testimony
or affidavit taken before and certified by a magistrate of any such state or
territory, that the person so seized or arrested, doth, under the laws of the
state or territory from which he or she fled, owe service or labour to the
person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such judge or magistrate
to give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent or attorney,
which shall be sufficient warrant for removing the said fugitive from
labour, to the state or territory from which he or she fled.
"Sec. 4.
- And be if further enacted, That any person who shall knowingly
and willingly obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent or attorney, in
so seizing or arresting such fugitive from labour, or shall rescue such
fugitive from such claimant, his agent or attorney, when so arrested pursuant
to the authority herein given or declared; or shall harbour or conceal
such person after notice that he or she was a fugitive from labour, as
aforesaid, shall, for either of the said offences, forfeit and pay the sum of
five hundred dollars. Which penalty may be recovered by and for the
benefit of such claimant, by action of debt, in any court proper to try the
same; saving moreover to the person claiming such labour or service, his
right of action for or on account of the said injuries or either of them."—
Statutes at Large, I, 302–305.
