The congressional compromises over slavery in the decades before the Civil War included the notorious Fugitive Slave Act, passed into law in 1850. But this law had been preceded by another Fugitive Slave Act, passed in the final weeks of the 2nd U.S. Congress. It was signed by President Washington on February 12, 1793, less than a month before his second inauguration.

The act created a mechanism for doing something that was mandated by the U.S. Constitution. Article 4, section 2, clause 3 of the Constitution reads:

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

However, the Constitution did not specify how fugitive slaves would be returned. With the 1793 law, Congress established the legal process that slaveowners could pursue in recapturing escaped slaves. The law also established a penalty for anyone trying to stymie slaveowners hunting for a escaped slaves: anyone who "obstruct[ed] or hinder[ed]" a slaveowner, or who rescued or hid a slave, would have to pay $500.