Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Fugitive Slave Act, and The Compromise of 1850

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In the 1850s the most controversial topics was slavery. Slavery opened up many debates, discussions and arguments. This decade is known as the turbulent decade because of all the events that led America downhill. It divided the nation into two, the North and South or the Union and Confederacy. Unconstitutional, immoral, inhuman and plain out wrong was how the Union described slavery. On the other side the south viewed slavery as the right thing to do because blacks were lesser human begins which made slavery justified. Also in the 1850s new territories in the nation were being added so the question of allowing slavery or not arose there. During this decade many compromises were proposed to avoid war but all were unsuccessful and made either the North or South more willing to fight. Slavery was the main reason for the start of the Civil War with events that happened due to slavery. For America slavery was a political, economic and labor system which made it the most controversial issue to be discussed and settled. Over this decade, Americans became more and more divided over the issue of slavery until the Civil war would finally end the dispute. Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Compromise of 1850, and The Fugitive Slave Act were all major factors in the 1850s that changed America and led to the civil war. Books were a way for people to connect with characters, Uncle Tom's Cabin did this. Most of its readers were found sobbing after reading the heartbreaking but true story of a slave. Uncle Tom's Cabin was a slave narrative written by a woman named, Harriet Beecher Stowe. After the publication, the slavery issue was no longer just the Confederacy's issue, it affected the life of every person in the Union. Stowe brought numerous facto... ... middle of paper ... ...2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. . "The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act." PBS. WGBH Educational Foundation, 1998. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. . "Slave narratives and Uncle Tom's Cabin." PBS. WGBH Educational Foundation, 1998. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. . "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 2011. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. . "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Literary Themes for Students: Race and Prejudice. Ed. Anne Marie Hatch. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 484-98. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. .

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