[stand watie]

actually, like almost everything else you post, your opinion is SILLY inasmuch as NOBODY needed to forced to act as "slave-catchers". the north was FILLED with persons who wanted the $$$$$$$ & HAPPILY sold the slaves back to the owners.

SOME of those who acted as "slave-catchers" were also said to be "abolitionists".

the FACTS are that northerners wanted the $$$$$$$$ & cared less (as a group) about the "plight of the slaves".

i'd bet that you couldn't have found 20,000 REAL abolitionists in ALL of the north. they SHOULD have cared;they did BOT.

free dixie,sw

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

actually, like almost everything else you post, your opinion is SILLY inasmuch as NOBODY needed to forced to act as "slave-catchers". the north was FILLED with persons who wanted the $$$$$$$ & HAPPILY sold the slaves back to the owners.

Maybe, maybe not. But you can't deny that the actual text of the law allowed slave catchers to force any citizen, regardless of their conscience in the matter, to aid them. How is that different from forcing anyone off the street to aid in performing an abortion, regardless of their own conscience? The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, along with the overturning of the MIssouri Compromise, was one of the major items in making the north realize that they were in thrall to the slave power of the south.