The personal liberty laws were a series of laws passed by several U.S. states in the North in the 1850s in response to the Fugitive Slave Act. This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ... A state of the United States (a U.S. state) is any one of the fifty states (four of which officially favor the term commonwealth) which, along with the District of Columbia, form the United States of America. ... The Northern United States or simply The North, is a region in the United States of America. ... // Events and Trends Technology Production of steel revolutionised by invention of the Bessemer process Benjamin Silliman fractionates petroleum by distillation for the first time First transatlantic telegraph cable laid First safety elevator installed by Elisha Otis Science Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, putting forward the theory of evolution... It has been suggested that Fugitive slave laws be merged into this article or section. ...

The laws were designed to protect free blacks, freedmen, and fugitive slaves by effectively nullifying the Fugitive Slave Law without actually invoking the doctrine of nullification, which is unconstitutional. This was done through provisions such as forbidding the use of state jails to imprison alleged fugitives to prevent state officials from enforcing the strict law and compelling slave bounty hunters to furnish corroborative proof that his captive was a fugitive, as well as according the accused the rights to trial by jury and appeal. Laws in some states made it easier to extradite a runaway if slave status were confirmed. // Freeman The term freeman was generally an English or American Colonial expression in Puritan times, which referred to those persons who were not under legal restraint – usually for the payment of an outstanding debt, because of their continual drunkeness, because they had recently relocated, or because they were idle and... Freedman can refer to a former slave who has been manumitted or emancipated before or during the American Civil War. ... In the history of slavery in the United States, a fugitive slave was a slave who had escaped his or her masters often with the intention of traveling to a place where the state of his or her enslavement was either illegal or not enforced. ... The process of nullification may refer to: The Hartford Convention, in which New England Federalists considered secession from the United States of America. ... Page I of the Constitution of the United States of America The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ... A bounty hunter is an individual who seeks out fugitives (hunting) for a monetary reward (bounty), for apprehending by law, if such laws exist. ... Trial by Jury is a comic Gilbert and Sullivan operetta in one act (the only single-act Savoy Opera). ... An appeal is the act or fact of challenging a judicially cognizable and binding judgment to a higher judicial authority. ... Extradition is a formal process by which a criminal suspect held by one government is handed over to another government for trial or, if the suspect has already been tried and found guilty, to serve his or her sentence. ...

In Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842), the U.S. Supreme Court determined that personal liberty laws were unconstitutional. The court held that the laws interfered with the Fugitive Slave Act and that while states were not compelled to enforce the federal law, they could not override it with other enactments. Prigg v. ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the U.S. and leads the judicial branch of the U.S. federal government. ...

The Prigg decision caused several Northern states to amend their laws, which specified that law enforcement officials and jurists refrain from doing anything about runaway slaves. The only alternative left to slave catchers was to kidnap runaways, and then either return them to their owners, or force them to appear them before federal judges who were not held to state statutes. The United States federal courts are the system of courts organized under the Constitution and laws of the federal government of the United States. ...

During the American Civil War, some of the Northern states agreed to repeal these bills if it meant that all Confederate states would rejoin the Union. Combatants United States of America Union Confederate States of America Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties Killed in action: 110,000 Total dead: 360,000 Wounded: 275,200 Killed in action: 94,000 Total dead: 258,000... Motto: Deo Vindice (Latin: With God As Our Vindicator) Anthem: God Save the South (unofficial) Dixie (popular) The Bonnie Blue Flag (popular) Capital Montgomery, Alabama February 4, 1861–May 29, 1861 Richmond, Virginia May 29, 1861–April 9, 1865 Danville, Virginia April 3–April 10, 1865 Largest city New Orleans... Map of the division of the states during the Civil War. ...