The section from Henry Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” that I find to be most compelling is one from early on in the passage, during Thoreau’s critiques of government and society as a whole, namely the section in which he addresses what he believes to be the true reason for inaction regarding the freeing of the slaves. In this section Thoreau begins by making the claim that the Southern politicians and other outspoken opponents to the abolition of slavery that are impeding the process, rather he chastises the complacent common people of the North as the true hindrance of liberation. This is meant as a call to action challenging those who do nothing to generate change and justify it because “at least I am not opposing it,” Thoreau denounces
