Abolition movement in the U.S
The Abolition movement in the United States was a significant social and political campaign aimed at ending the institution of slavery and promoting racial equality. Emerging in the mid-eighteenth century, initial critiques of slavery came from religious groups like the Quakers, who denounced the practice as un-Christian. The movement gained momentum in the early nineteenth century, particularly after a religious revival in the 1820s that encouraged social reform. Prominent abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, championed the cause through powerful oratory and publications, demanding immediate emancipation and advocating for the rights of African Americans.
While the movement was largely concentrated in the Northern states, it faced fierce opposition, particularly from those in the South who defended slavery. By the 1830s, the abolitionist perspective shifted, with some activists advocating for a more militant approach to achieving liberation, contrasting with Garrison's commitment to moral persuasion. The tensions surrounding abolition contributed to the political conflicts leading up to the Civil War. Ultimately, the movement played a crucial role in the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the U.S., though it did not eliminate racism. The legacy of the abolition movement is complex, reflecting both the struggle for freedom and the ongoing fight for equality in American society.
Abolition movement in the U.S.
Significance: The abolition movement attempted to apply the concepts of Christian brotherhood and democratic egalitarianism to race relations; it helped to end slavery in the United States.
By the mid-eighteenth century, American Quakers such as John Woolman and Benjamin Lay were denouncing slavery as un-Christian. The rationalism of the Enlightenment, with its stress upon natural law, added ammunition to the arsenal of critics of slavery.
The egalitarian rhetoric of the Revolutionary era illustrated the irony of slaveholders fighting for liberty. As a result, most Northeast states abolished slavery by 1784. New York and New Jersey did so afterward. Southern whites felt that they could not afford to abolish slavery, yet they too felt the need to justify the institution on ethical grounds. They concentrated on humanizing the institution and argued that it was a “necessary evil.”
Antislavery feeling receded after 1793 because of fear of slave revolts, the increasing profitability of slavery following the invention of the cotton gin, and new scientific theories that reinforced racism. The leading antislavery organization in the early nineteenth century was the American Colonization Society (ACS). The ACS attempted to resettle free blacks in Africa and encouraged voluntary emancipation without challenging the right to own human property. The colonization plan allowed liberal slaveholders and moderate members of the clergy to rationalize their guilt over slavery.
In 1825, a great Protestant religious revival swept the northeastern region of the country. Ministers such as Charles Grandison Finney preached a new perfectionist theology that sought to counter the growing worldliness of Americans. This revival sparked a host of humanitarian crusades designed to protect the rights of the disadvantaged and to cleanse American institutions of contamination.
By the early 1830s, many evangelical reformers began to view slavery and racism as sinful because racism violated the Christian ethic of equality. Known as immediate abolitionists, these reformers demanded the immediate and unqualified liberation of slaves and an end to racial discrimination. With the formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, abolitionist speakers toured the Northern states attempting to rally support for their cause. Abolitionists were frequently attacked by angry mobs, and their literature was destroyed in Southern post offices.
The abolition movement failed to end racism in the North. It did, however, spark anti-Southern feelings, which led to increased controversy within the national government. This conflict led directly to the US Civil War. During the war, abolitionists pressured the federal government to transform the conflict from a war to preserve the Union into a war to end slavery. Abolition advocates were disappointed by the Emancipation Proclamation because it was based upon military necessity rather than moral principle, but they accomplished their central purpose with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery in the United States.
Garrisonian Ethics
One major faction within the abolition movement was led by editor William Lloyd Garrison. In a real sense, the publication of the first issue of The Liberator on January 1, 1831, established Garrison as the foremost abolitionist in the country. Garrison’s harsh attacks upon slaveholders and colonizationists caused a national sensation even though the circulation of his newspaper never exceeded three thousand.
Like all abolitionists, Garrison demanded that everyone recognize a personal responsibility to improve society. The three major tenets of his ethical philosophy were human liberation, moral suasion, and no compromise with evil. Garrison actively campaigned on behalf of legal equality for African Americans, temperance, and equality for women. Garrison rejected force and violence in human affairs. He sought the moral reformation of slave owners, not their destruction. He never advocated slave revolts, and he wanted the Northern states to allow the South to secede during the crisis of 1860–61.
Garrison sincerely believed in all that he advocated, and he would not compromise his principles. He rejected any solution to the issue of slavery that involved a program that would delay emancipation. He also demanded that his followers reject participation in the American political system because the Constitution was a proslavery document. Other abolitionists, such as Gerrit Smith and James Birney, attempted to use the political system as a way to gain publicity for the cause of abolition.
African American Abolitionism
In a sense, there were two abolition movements. The white movement was based on a moral abstraction, but African Americans were forced to confront the everyday realities of racism in nineteenth century America.
Frederick Douglass emerged as the major spokesperson for African Americans during the antebellum period. Douglass self-consciously attempted to use his life as an example to repudiate racist stereotypes. Because of his eloquence, Douglass gained an international reputation as a public speaker, and in doing so, he proved the humanity of African Americans.
Like Garrison, Douglass strongly supported temperance and women’s rights. He was, however, willing to use any means to achieve the liberation of slaves, including violence and political action. He approved of John Brown’s idea of using the southern Appalachians as an armed sanctuary for runaways. He also supported the Free-Soil and Republican Parties even though neither advocated the emancipation of Southern slaves. He justified his positions as part of a larger struggle to advance the cause of racial equality in America. For Douglass, as for other African Americans involved in the cause of abolition, equality was the only acceptable ethical standard for a free society.
Bibliography
Barnes, Gilbert Hobbs. The Antislavery Impulse: 1830–1844. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964. Print.
Duberman, Martin, ed. The Antislavery Vanguard: New Essays on the Abolitionists. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1065. Print.
Everett, Susanne. History of Slavery: An Illustrated History of the Monstrous Evil. New York: Chartwell, 2014. Print.
Guyette, Fred. "Garrison Versus Douglass on the Abolition of Slavery: An Ethics of Conviction Versus an Ethics of Responsibility." Max Weber Studies 13.2 (2013): 254. Print.
Huggins, Nathan Irvin. Slave and Citizen: The Life of Frederick Douglass. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. Print.
Nye, Russel B.William Lloyd Garrison and the Humanitarian Reformers. Boston: Little, Brown, 1955. Print.
Sorin, Gerald. Abolitionism: A New Perspective. New York: Praeger, 1972. Print.
Stewart, James Brewer. Holy Warriors: The Abolitionists and American Slavery. New York: Hill & Wang, 1976. Print.
Tyler, Alice Felt. Freedom's Ferment: Phases of American Social History to 1860. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1944. Print.