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Northern juries refused to convict defendants charged with violating the Fugitive Slave Act as it was clearly an unjust law.

I see this statement often, and it makes me wonder. Do people not realize the US Constitution requires fugitive slaves to be returned?

Article IV, Section 2, clause 3

"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."

Article IV, Section 2 makes it very clear that Constitutional law requires the return of escaped slaves to their owners, and yet people still think that defying constitutional law is no big deal.

So was it okay for juries to nullify Constitutional law? Were they their very own little secession party for the entire state?

“So was it okay for juries to nullify Constitutional law?”

Of course it was. That’s the whole point of juries.