[3] The Act was written amidst a controversy about a free black man named John Davis who was kidnapped from Pennsylvania and brought to Virginia.

However, the Act failed to resolve that controversy; the kidnappers from Virginia were never extradited to Pennsylvania, and John Davis remained a slave.

[7] Washington made two attempts to seize her shortly afterwards, even enlisting the help of the Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott Jr. in a letter written on September 1, 1796.

He described how under the law, she and her child were still at risk for being seized as a fugitive slave at any time, even 50 years after her escape, if Martha Washington's descendants decided to make a legal claim.

[9]Many northern states enacted legislation to protect free black Americans (who could otherwise be abducted, brought before court without the ability to produce a defense, and then lawfully enslaved) as well as runaway slaves.

Prigg had originally shown his legal warrant to the Pennsylvania court, but it had been unlawfully ignored, which demonstrated that the Fugitive Slave Act really depended on state judges, not federal law.

The slave-catching industry expanded as a result of the law, with men who were effectively bounty hunters capturing and returning many slaves to their owners.

There were numerous instances of people who were legally free and had never been slaves being captured and brought south to be sold into slavery.

[11] The memoir was adapted as a feature film by British director Steve McQueen in 2013, winning three Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

The critics praised the screenplay and the performances, but there were conflicting views about the historical accuracy of the events, both in the film and in the book.