Politicians Involved:
 Henry Clay
 John C. Calhoun
 Daniel Webster
 Millard Fillmore
 Stephen Douglas
Problem
 California apply to become a free state
 Balance of power in Senate would be upset
 Slavery was permitted in Washington D.C.
 South wanted stronger fugitive slave laws
 New Mexico and Texas border was under dispute
Key Elements:
1.
California would be admitted as a free state
2. New Mexico would have no restrictions on slavery
3. New Mexico and Texas border dispute would be
resolved in favor of New Mexico
4. Slave trade but not slavery would be abolished in
Washington D.C.
5. Push for stronger fugitive slave laws
Features of the Final Compromise:
 Douglas divided the plan into 5 parts to be voted on
individually
 Congressmen would only vote on items they supported
 5 separate bills passed – they contained all of the
elements of Clay’s original proposal
Poster warning
African Americans
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Anthony Burns
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to replay the audio.
I. The Fugitive Slave Act
1.It required all citizens to
help capture and return
enslaved African
Americans who had run
away. 
2. People who helped
runaways could be
fined or imprisoned.
Poster warning
African Americans
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I. The Fugitive Slave Act (cont.)
3. People in the South believed the law would
force Northerners to recognize the rights of
the Southerners . 
4. Slaveholders step up their efforts to catch
runaway slaves. 
a. tried to capture runaways who lived
in freedom for years 
b. sometimes seized African
Americans who were not runaways and
forced them into slavery.
I. The Fugitive Slave Act (cont.)
5. Northern Resistance. 
a. Underground Railroad. 
b. Anti-slavery groups 
c. People contributed funds to buy
African Americans freedom 
d. Northern juries refused to convict
those accused of breaking fugitive slave
laws..
Imagine you are living in a northern
state in 1851, and a runaway slave comes
to you asking for help. Would you
have helped him knowing you could be
arrested under the Fugitive Slave Act,
or would you follow the law and turn
him in to be returned to slavery?
Support your explanation in a detailed
paragraph.
—Many Northerners chose
to disobey this law. They
participated in the
Underground Railroad, they
collected money to help buy
freedom for slaves, and they
refused to convict African
Americans being accused of
breaking the Fugitive Slave
Law.
—Many Southerners thought
they would gain assistance
from the North with this law.
They increased their efforts to
return former slaves to their
masters. Sometimes free
African Americans living in the
North were captured
and brought to the South as
slaves.