abolitionism

A movement culminating in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that aimed first to end the slave trade, and then to abolish the institution of slavery and emancipate slaves. The movement took place in Europe, mainly in the UK, and in the USA.

Slavery was never widespread within the UK, but many UK citizens were involved with the slave trade and slavery flourished in the British colonies. The leading abolitionist in the UK was William Wilberforce, who persuaded parliament to ban the slave trade in 1807; all slaves within the British Empire were freed in 1833. In the USA, abolitionism was one of the key issues dividing the northern and southern states, leading to the American Civil War (1861-65). Slavery was officially abolished in the USA by the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) of President Abraham Lincoln, but could not be enforced until Union victory in 1865.

Although governments made the final and official decision to end slavery, abolition was the culmination of the work of numerous antislavery groups who had campaigned over many decades. The groups were inspired by a number of beliefs, ranging from religious faith to liberalism. Their leaders and membership were drawn from a wide variety of social classes, from the wealthy and powerful to the poorest workers and farmers.

In the USA, the abolition of slavery was a long, complicated, and controversial process. Antislavery sentiment began in the USA during colonial times, but it was only during the 30 years preceding the Civil War that the abolitionist movement became more militant. Local and national abolitionist organizations held meetings, entered politics, published journals and pamphlets, and aided fugitive slaves. In the southern states slaves had formed the economic base of the plantation system since the 1600s, and the existence of slavery had caused disagreement between those who drafted the Constitution and Articles of Confederation in the 18th century. By 1804 all the states north of Maryland had abolished slavery, but the institution still flourished in the South.

As the union grew, the question of whether slavery would be permitted in new territories and states became a bitter dispute between northerners and southerners. Abolitionists argued that slavery was immoral, brutal, and un-Christian. Gradualists, such as the merchant Arthur Tappan, worked on stopping the spread of slavery rather than trying to abolish the entire institution at once. Immediatists, such as the reformer William Garrison, who founded the American Anti-Slavery Society, demanded immediate emancipation of all slaves. Abolitionists came from a variety of backgrounds: religious (especially Quakers), such as Theodore Weld and Angelina Grimke; political, such as John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Franklin; and literary, such as John Greenleaf Whittier and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Many African-American abolitionists were former slaves, such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.

Southern slave owners reacted against abolitionism and sought to protect their right to own slaves, especially after Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831. The fugitive slave laws, the most far-reaching passed in 1850, angered many Northerners and generated more support for the abolitionist cause. In defiance of these laws abolitionists established the Underground Railroad to help fugitive slaves escape to freedom, set up by Tubman who had escaped the south in 1849. Between 1840 and 1854 three national political parties, the Liberal Party, the Free Soil Party, and the Republican Party adopted abolitionism as a policy. Tensions between North and South over slavery were further heightened with the pro-slavery Supreme Court Dred Scott Decision (1857) and the raid led by extremist abolitionist John Brown on the US arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, abolitionists supported the Union. They celebrated the victory of their cause when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment (see Amendment, Thirteenth) to the US Constitution in 1865, freeing all slaves in the USA.

Despite its eventual success abolitionism was never a reform movement of a unified North. Although abolitionists mostly came from the North, most Northerners were not abolitionists. Moreover, most white American abolitionists, while fighting against the institution of slavery, still did not regard African Americans as their equals. Immediatists such as Garrison were regarded, even among other abolitionists, as crazed extremists. Other reform movements linked to abolitionism, such as the women's movement, further divided abolitionist leaders.