Video: 'Fugitive Slave Act & Uncle Tom's Cabin'

(Wednesday, September 18, 1850) — The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, requiring that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate, was signed into law today by U.S. President Millard Fillmore.

The act contributed to the growing polarization of the country over the issue of slavery, and is considered one of the causes of the American Civil War.