Fugitive slave

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In the history of slavery in the United States, a fugitive slave was a slave who had escaped his or her enslaver often with the intention of traveling to a place where the state of his or her enslavement was either illegal or not enforced. The Underground Railroad existed to guide fugitive slaves on the road to freedom. According to the Fugitive Slave Law, though, anyone who found an escaped slave was required by law to return the slave to his owner. Many northerners disliked this law and did not follow it.

Most fugitive slaves traveled alone. Slaves that traveled in groups were more likely to be found, as it was much harder to conceal a group from fugitive slave catchers than it was a single person. The majority of fugitive slaves tried to find their freedom in either a free Northern territory or a foreign country, usually Canada or Mexico.