Such people are also called freedom seekers to avoid implying that the enslaved person had committed a crime and that the slaveholder was the injured party.

[4] Slave hunters were obligated to obtain a court-approved affidavit in order to apprehend an enslaved individual, giving rise to the formation of an intricate network of safe houses commonly known as the Underground Railroad.

The act authorized federal marshals to require free state citizen bystanders to aid in the capturing of runaway slaves.

Many free states eventually passed "personal liberty laws", which prevented the kidnapping of alleged runaway slaves; however, in the court case known as Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the personal liberty laws were ruled unconstitutional because the capturing of fugitive slaves was a federal matter in which states did not have the power to interfere.

[7] Many free state citizens were outraged at the criminalization of actions by Underground Railroad operators and abolitionists who helped people escape slavery.

[4] Many states tried to nullify the acts or prevent the capture of escaped enslaved people by setting up laws to protect their rights.

In 1851, there was a case of a black coffeehouse waiter whom federal marshals kidnapped on behalf of John Debree, who claimed to be the man's enslaver.

In the case of Ableman v. Booth, the latter was charged with aiding Joshua Glover's escape in Wisconsin by preventing his capture by federal marshals.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was unconstitutional, requiring states to violate their laws.

For instance, one runaway was found living in the steeple of the Baton Rouge Methodist Church where his makeshift apartment included "kitchen furniture, extra clothes, dried beef, a revolver, and a knife.

"[15] The Underground Railroad was a network of black and white abolitionists between the late 18th century and the end of the American Civil War who helped fugitive slaves escape to freedom.

In the early 1800s, Isaac T. Hopper, a Quaker from Philadelphia, and a group of people from North Carolina established a network of stations in their local area.

They gave signals, such as the lighting of a particular number of lamps, or the singing of a particular song on Sunday, to let escaping people know if it was safe to be in the area or if there were slave hunters nearby.

If the freedom seeker stayed in a slave cabin, they would likely get food and learn good hiding places in the woods as they made their way north.

[21] The Underground Railroad was initially an escape route that would assist fugitive enslaved African Americans in arriving in the Northern states; however, with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, as well as other laws aiding the Southern states in the capture of runaway slaves, it became a mechanism to reach Canada.

Between 1850 and 1860, she returned to the South numerous times to lead parties of other enslaved people to freedom, guiding them through the lands she knew well.