There were a few reasons why Harriet Tubman escorted her escaped slaves to St. Catharines, Ontario instead of stopping in Albany, New York. One reason was that the Fugitive Slave Law that was part of the Compromise of 1850 changed everything. Prior to the passage of this law, a slave that escaped to the North, by crossing the Mason-Dixon Line, was generally safe. The likelihood of being captured and returned to the South was very, very low. However, when the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, Northerners were required by law to help capture runaway slaves. As a result, it was no longer certain that reaching the North would ensure freedom for the runaway slaves. The only way to ensure freedom was to escape to Canada.
St. Catharines was a town in Canada that was friendly to African-Americans. There were many abolitionists who lived here. Slaves who got to St. Catharines were safe from recapture and from being returned to their owners. As a result, in order to ensure the safety of the runaway slaves, Harriet Tubman had to get the runaway slaves to Canada.
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