Fugitive Slave Act of 1793

Fugitive Slave Act of 1793

Long title	An Act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters.
Enacted by	the 2nd United States Congress
Citations
Statutes at Large	1 Stat. 302
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 42 Passed the House on February 4, 1793 (48–7) Signed into law by President George Washington on February 12, 1793
Major amendments
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was an Act of the United States Congress to give effect to the Fugitive Slave Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3), which was later superseded by the Thirteenth Amendment, and to also give effect to the Extradition Clause (Article 4, Section 2, Clause 2).^[1] The Constitution’s Fugitive Slave Clause guaranteed a right for a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave. The subsequent Act, "An Act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters", created the legal mechanism by which that could be accomplished.