This painful law
of the past, put fugitive slaves in danger (for life) of being captured
again, and also said that children born to fugitive slave mothers,
would be owned by the mother's dream, living as slaves throughout their lifetime. The
northern states, to protect free black Americans and refugee slaves in
the north, created laws that would prevent them from being abducted or
recaptured and then enslaved legally. These laws
were known as "personal freedom laws" and asked the slavers and fugitive
hunters to give sufficient proof of the truth of their captures. While
the southern states demanded their right to recover fugitive slaves, in
the north, the states were demanding their right to protect their free
African-Americans, so that they would not be kidnapped and sold as
slaves.
