Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction

by Kate Masur

Antislavery congressmen were growing adept at using the tools available to them, as a political minority, to amplify their voices. They continued to fight the gag rule itself, but they also found ways around it. They introduced petitions like those for the protection of Black sailors and for the repeal of the three-fifths clause, ensuring that they were sent to committees. They knew they could count on antislavery activists across the free states to support their efforts with petitions of their own. Their work generated reports that they could send back out to constituents. Their abrasive tactics and grandstanding elicited coverage in the press, as did the outsize reactions they provoked from slave-state representatives. The House was not going to pass favorable legislation on these issues, to say nothing of the Senate. But through these other means, men such as Adams and Giddings delivered the struggle against slavery, and for racial equality in civil rights, into the heart of the federal government.