FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT, 1850 1–3 DAY INQUIRY LESSON PLANESSENTIAL QUESTION How did the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 force Americans to confront slavery, and why did it increase conflict between the North and South before the Civil War? DIRECTIONS: Use this question to guide your research. Focus on slavery, escaped enslaved people, free Black Americans, abolitionists, Southern slaveholders, the Compromise of 1850, federal law, states’ rights, resistance, kidnapping, personal liberty laws, Harriet