Text of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

Henry Clay, U.S. Senator from Kentucky, was determined to find a solution. In 1820 he had resolved a fiery debate over the spread of slavery with his Missouri Compromise. Now, thirty years later, the matter surfaced again within the walls of the Capitol.

Explanation of the Fugitive Slave Act, two reward posters for escaped slaves, and an abolitionist poster warning African Americans about the danger of recapture.

This is among John C. Calhoun's most famous speeches. He was too ill to deliver his condemnation of the Compromise of 1850 himself, so it was read by another senator with Calhoun present in the Senate Chamber. Calhoun, so ill he had to be helped out of the Chamber after the speech by two of his friends, died on March 31, 1850.

Historian Eric Foner discusses the effects of the Fugitive Slave Law in the North.