Constitution's Fugitive Slave Clause

Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution required that persons 'held to service or labor' who escaped to free states be returned to their enslavers. This clause, never using the words 'slave' or 'slavery,' nationalized slavery's enforcement by binding free states to its maintenance. It was the constitutional basis for the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act and later the far more draconian 1850 Act.