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The law of 1850 gave the enforcement of the act to United States officials. The agents of slave owners claimed many persons as fugitives. But few were returned to the South. The important result of these attempts to enforce the law was to strengthen Northern public opinion against slavery. It led to redoubled efforts to help runaway slaves through the Northern states to Canada. A regular system was established. This was called the "Underground Railway." In short, instead of bringing about "a union of hearts," the Compromise of 1850 increased the ill feeling between the people of the two sections of the country.
1850年的法律将强制执行这个法案的权力交给美国政府官员，奴隶主代表们宣称许多人都是逃亡者，但是，很少有奴隶移交给南方。强制执行这个法律的重要结果是强化北方公共舆论反对奴隶制，这使得北方人帮助逃亡奴隶通过北方各州逃往加拿大的努力倍增；人们建成一个正规的体系，并称之为"地下铁路"。简而言之，1850年的折中法案没有带来"心灵的联邦"，而是助长了国家南北双方之间的敌意。
348. "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
348．《汤姆叔叔的小屋》
It was at this time that Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin." In this story she set forth the pleasant side of slavery-the light-heartedness and kind-heartedness of the negroes. In it she also set forth the unpleasant side of slavery-the whipping of human beings, the selling of human beings, the hunting of human beings. Of course, there never was such a slave as Uncle Tom. The story is simply a wonderful picture of slavery as it appeared to a brilliant woman of the North. Hundreds of thousands of copies of this book were sold in the South as well as in the North. Plays founded on the book were acted on the stage. Southern people when reading "Uncle Tom" thought little of the unpleasant things in it: they liked the pleasant things in it. Northern people laughed at the pretty pictures of plantation life: they were moved to tears by the tales of cruelty. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and the Fugitive Slave Law convinced the people of the North that bounds must be set to the extension of slavery.
就在这个时候哈里特·比奇尔·斯托夫人写下了《汤姆叔叔的小屋》。在这个故事中，她写出了奴隶制令人高兴的一面--黑人们无忧无虑而又有仁慈之心；她还写出了奴隶制令人讨厌的一面--奴隶遭受鞭打、被买卖、被追猎。当然，从来就没有像汤姆叔叔这样的一个奴隶。这本书在南方和北方卖出成千上万册，舞台上演出根据这本书改编而成的剧目。南方人在阅读这本书时很少考虑其中令人讨厌的东西，他们喜欢其中令人高兴的事；北方人因为种植园生活的漂亮图片而发笑，又因这些残忍的故事而流泪。《汤姆叔叔的小屋》和《逃亡奴隶法案》让北方人相信必须要限制奴隶制的扩张。
