Because the slave owners didn't have to pay for the free labour the slave were giving them.
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Slave owners benefited from slavery by exploiting the labor of enslaved individuals to generate significant wealth and economic advantages for themselves. They could also control and dominate the lives of enslaved people, exerting power and maintaining social status within their communities. Additionally, the dehumanization and mistreatment of enslaved individuals allowed slave owners to perpetuate a system of racial superiority that justified their actions and preserved their wealth and privilege.
Slave owners would almost always defend slavery. Slaves were their workers, after all, and they needed to produce food, tobacco, and cotton (especially in the King Cotton years). Some slave owners did have it just as bad as the slaves, or owned a few, and they actually were a bit nicer to those slaves and probably didn't care much for slavery. But a vast majority of slave owners defended slavery; hence the reason for the Civil War.
Southern slave owners generally viewed slavery as essential to their economic prosperity, social hierarchy, and way of life. They believed that slavery was a natural and necessary institution, and that it provided the foundation for the region's agricultural economy. Many slave owners also used racism to justify the subjugation of African slaves, considering them inferior beings who needed to be controlled and guided.
Individuals who supported the Fugitive Slave Act were those who believed in upholding the institution of slavery and enforcing laws that allowed slave owners to recapture escaped slaves. Pro-slavery advocates, Southern plantation owners, and politicians who favored preserving the economic and social system of slavery were most likely to support the Fugitive Slave Act.
Northerners feared that Southern slave owners might expand slavery into new territories and states, potentially increasing the political power of slave states and threatening the balance of power between free and slave states in the United States. They also feared that the economic interests of Southern slave owners would dominate national policies, leading to the spread of slavery in the country.
Northerners feared that southern slave owners would expand slavery into new territories, leading to political and economic conflicts. They were also concerned about the influence of pro-slavery forces in the national government and the potential spread of slave labor competition in free states.