USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -They helped African Americans escape from enslavement in the American South to free Northern states or to Canada. The Underground Railroad was the largest anti-slavery freedom movement in North America. It brought between 30, 000 and 40, 000 fugitives to British North America (now Canada).

Detailed explanation-2: -Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Until 1850 living in free states was relatively low risk for fugitives. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act as part of the Compromise of 1850 the Underground Railroad was rerouted to Canada as its final destination.

Detailed explanation-3: -In 1793, Congress passed the first Fugitive Slave Law. This law left it mainly up to the slave owners and their hired slave catchers to capture and return runaway slaves. In the meantime, free blacks and anti-slavery whites organized a slave-escape system that came to be called the Underground Railroad.

Detailed explanation-4: -Passed on September 18, 1850 by Congress, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves.

Detailed explanation-5: -The severity of the 1850 measure led to abuses and defeated its purpose. The number of abolitionists increased, the operations of the Underground Railroad became more efficient, and new personal-liberty laws were enacted in many Northern states.