Harriet Jacobs had to learn on many occasions that segregation of African Americans and white Americans existed. “I found the same manifestations of that cruel prejudice, which so discourages the feelings, and represses the energies of colored people” (144). For African Americans, living in the free states did not mean being equal to white Americans, African Americans were not allowed to share the same public spaces as whites, booths and restaurants. The Fugitive Slave Law was a danger to Jacobs and many other people in her situation, she was still a slave in the South and feared persecution from captors who would take her to the South. Jacobs often found himself running and walking the back streets whenever he had to run an errand (157). Jacob experienced what so many other fugitives experienced, the lack of safety in walking freely on the streets. When fugitive slaves traveled to the free states they realized that they were not actually free, they faced segregation and persecution from southern captors and owners. The slaves could not resist this constant inequality and the fear of being brought back to the South