Declaration Of Independence 'And Common Sense'

Every major reform movement in American history has been advanced by persuasive writings of the people. Before the American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence” and Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” called the people to action against the British. During the Civil War Era, both freed slaves, such as Fredrick Douglas, and white abolitionists, such as Henry Lloyd, called for the end of slavery. The Civil War Era also featured the first piece of true feminist literature, a novel written by Margret Fuller, who called for an increase to women’s civil and civic liberties (Margret Fuller). Another prominent civil rights author was Harriet Beecher Stowe who originally wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” as an abolitionist, anti-slavery

The Fugitive Slave Clause was established in the Constitution under article IV; “No person held to service or labour in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due” (Constitution Art. IV, Sec. III). The clause established that if any slave, or indentured servant, was to escape to another state, the citizens of that state had an obligation to return him or her to their proper owner. However, the law was met with severe criticism and hardly enforced. In 1850, in an attempt to mollify the South, Congress passed the “Fugitive Slave Act of 1850,” which gave out harsher punishments for aiding slaves and set up an official patrol to catch run-away slaves (McNamara). The act ended up having the reverse effect, because it only enraged the Northerners more, causing an even deeper split between North and South. The Fugitive Slave Act was passed under the same legislation as the Compromise of 1850 which also played a decisive role in the split between the country. It created a balance of free and slave states in Congress and temporarily halted the splitting of the Union, which was its ultimate goal (McNamara). Even though the Compromise of 1850 achieved equilibrium between slave and free states, the balance was just as quickly ruined again by both Kansas and Nebraska wanting to join the Union as states. The goal of the Kansas- Nebraska Act was essentially the same as that of the Compromise of 1850, and did succeed in keeping the balance for around nine more years. Despite the fact