Unknown A Bill, to amend the act, intituled, "An act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters"
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC08058.01 Author/Creator: Unknown Place Written: s.l. Type: Broadsheet Date: 25 February 1801 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; 33.5 x 20.6 cm. Order a Copy
Print broadsheet of a bill before the U.S. House of Representatives which would make it illegal to "conceal, harbour, and employ, or aid or abet in concealing or harbouring any fugitive from labour, escaping from one state into another, or to, or from either of the territories of the United States." Blank space in the text where a dollar amount can be written in for a fine that can be recovered by the owner. Also says that owners can petition the court to issue a warrant for any fugitive slave whose whereabouts are known. Says if the slave is arrested and the master does not come to retrieve him or her in six months, then the slave will be released from jail, but that this circumstance will not remove any future claims by the owner.
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