Growing Opposition to Slavery1776-1852Many Americans' eyes were opened in 1776, when members of the Continental Congress drafted, signed, and published the famous document “The Declaration of Independence” in Philadelphia. , Pennsylvania. In declaring independence, many colonists believed that slaves should have the same rights as whites. Abolitionist groups formed and the fight to end slavery began. In 1776, Delaware became the first state to ban the importation of African slaves. A year later, in 1777, Vermont became the first colony to abolish slavery (within Vermont's borders) through the state constitution. Ten years later, in 1787, slavery was banned in the Northwest Territory by the Northwest Ordinance. The Northwest Territories were the first organized territory of the United States. The states belonging to the Northwest Territory: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The abolition of slavery in the Northwest Territory led pro-slavery southerners to believe that the North had the advantage in the Senate and House of Representatives. Therefore, in 1787, two delegates named Roger Sherman and James Wilson introduced the bill. Three-fifths Compromise at the Philadelphia Convention. The Three-Fifths Compromise states that a slave is counted as three-fifths of a person. The population of the Southern States was therefore equal to that of the Northern States. Now that the populations were balanced, the South and the North sent the same number of representatives to the House of Representatives. Pro-slavery Southerners were under the impression that the North always had an advantage, but it was actually the South that had the advantage in the Senate and House of Representatives... middle of paper ... s' they enslaved were returned to slavery. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was widely enforced. Harriet Beecher Stowe published "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in 1852. This anti-slavery book was the most popular book of the 19th century and the 2nd best-selling book of the century, after only the Bible. It has been said that this novel "led to civil war", or "the straw that broke the camel's back". After a year, 300,000 copies had been sold in the United States and more than a million in Britain. The abolitionist movement continued to grow, suffocating the South until it could no longer breathe. Radical abolitionists begin to lead slave revolts. The slave rebels and flees north. Tension between the north and the south is intensifying. Civil war breaks out across the country. The North wins and President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. The slaves are finally free.