In the movie Django Unchained it's implied that Django and his wife are tracked down from running away in cotton fields in what looks to be late evening. It's implied they are caught that very evening. Would slaves usually be caught within a 12-24 hour period or would it take longer?
It's really difficult to say with any certainty. We only really know about fugitives who disappeared long enough to make it into surviving records and those fugitives were gone for far longer periods. Enslaved people who disappeared for such short periods of time wouldn't really be considered 'fugitive' or 'runaway,' as such but more like, 'absent.' Unfortunately such short absences were not likely to be recorded in plantation records, personal diaries, or newspapers and so they are not a part of the historical record