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in the Northwest Ordinance banning in the Northwest Territory. During the 1780s, states in abolitionism the Upper South eased restrictions on masters who A major during the eighteenth wished to free individual slaves, and small, Quaker-­ and nineteenth centuries, abolitionism sought to dominated, gradual abolition societies spread into end slavery and free millions of black people held as Delaware, , and Virginia. slaves. Also known as the antislavery movement, abo- Revolutionary-­era abolitionism peaked during the litionism in the United States was part of an interna- 1780s. Thereafter, several developments stopped and tional effort against slavery and the slave trade in the then reversed the southward advance of antislavery Atlantic World. Its historical lay in black resis- sentiment. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 tance to slavery, changing interpretations of Chris- and resulting expansion of cotton cultivation into tian morality, eighteenth-­century ideas concerning the Old Southwest reinvigorated slavery. The brutal universal human rights, and economic change. Some Haitian slave revolt that began in 1791 and culmi- of slavery’s opponents advocated gradual abolition nated in the creation of an independent black repub- and others immediate abolition. By the 1830s the lic in 1804 led white Southerners—­who feared they term abolitionism applied only to the latter. could not control free African Americans—to­ believe that slavery had to be strengthened rather than abol- Early Development ished. An aborted revolt conspiracy led by the slave Race-­based slavery, whereby people of European Gabriel near Richmond, Virginia, in 1800 bolstered descent relied on the forced labor of Africans and this belief. As a direct result of increased white de- their descendants, began on a large scale during the fensiveness, antislavery societies in the Upper South sixteenth century as a result of European coloniza- disbanded or declined. Meanwhile, in the North, a tion in the Americas. By the middle of the seven- new scientific racism encouraged white residents to teenth century, slavery had reached the portion of interpret social status in racial terms, restrict black Great Britain’s North American colonies that later access to schools, churches, and jobs, and regard en- became the United States. In the American form of slavement as suitable for black Southerners. slavery, the enslaved lost customary rights, served for White gradual abolitionists came to accept a con- life, and passed their unfree condition on to their tention that must be linked with ex- children. From the start, those subjected to slavery patriation of former slaves to avoid the formation of sought through self-­purchase, court action, a dangerous and uncontrollable free black class. The escape, or, more rarely, rebellion. There were major American Colonization Society (ACS), organized by slave revolts in New City in 1712 and Stono, prominent slaveholders in 1816, claimed its objective , in 1739. was to encourage gradual abolition by sending free The first white abolitionists in America were mem- African Americans to . It became the leading bers of the Society of Friends (), who—like­ American antislavery organization of the 1820s and their coreligionists in Britain—­held slavery to be established as a black colony in West Africa. sinful and physically dangerous to slave and master For a time black leaders, facing increasing oppres- alike. During the 1740s and 1750s, Quaker aboli- sion in the United States, agreed with this strategy. tionists of New Jersey and Anthony Best represented by black sea captain Paul Cuffe, Benezet of Pennsylvania urged other American mem- they cooperated with the ACS during the 1810s, bers of the society to end their involvement in the hoping that a homeland beyond America’s borders slave trade and gradually free their slaves. With the would undermine slavery there and throughout the (1775–­83), abolitionism spread Atlantic World. Yet, by the 1820s, most free Afri- beyond African Americans and Quakers. Natural can Americans believed the ACS’s real goal was to rights doctrines rooted in the European Enlighten- strengthen slavery by removing its most dedicated ment and endorsed by the Declaration of Indepen- opponents—­themselves. dence, black service in Patriot armies, black peti- tions for emancipation, evangelical Christianity, and Immediate Abolitionism the activities of the earliest white abolition societies Three factors led to the emergence, during the late encouraged the American North to lead the world 1820s and early 1830s, of a more radical form of in political abolitionism. Starting with Vermont in abolitionism dedicated to immediate emancipa- 1777 and in 1783, all the states north tion and equal rights for African Americans in the of Delaware had by 1804 either ended slavery within United States. First, black abolitionists convinced a their jurisdiction or provided for its gradual aboli- small minority of white Northerners that the ACS tion. Meanwhile, Congress in 1787 included a clause was a proslavery fraud. Second, signs of black unrest

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abolitionism inspired urgency among white abolitionists who the sin of slavery and force the South to abolish it. wished to avoid a race war in the South. In 1822 a free Known as Garrisonians, they retained control of the black man named Denmark Vesey organized a ma- AASS and, until the Civil War, concentrated on agi- jor slave conspiracy in Charleston, South Carolina. tation in the North. Seven years later in Boston, black abolitionist David The great majority of abolitionists (black and Walker published his revolutionary Appeal to the Col- white) insisted, however, that church and govern- ored Citizens of the World. Slave preacher Nat Turner ment action could end slavery. They became more in 1831 led a slave revolt in Southampton County, willing to use violent means, rejected radical asser- Virginia, which left nearly 60 white residents dead. tions of women’s rights, and formed aggressive or- Third, the convergence of northern economic mod- ganizations. The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery­ ernization with a massive religious revival known as Society (1840–­55), led by City business- the encouraged increasing man Lewis Tappan, concentrated on converting numbers of white people to regard slavery as a bar- churches to immediatism and continued to send baric, outmoded, and sinful practice. They believed antislavery propaganda into the South. The Liberty it had to be ended if the country were to prosper and Party (1840–­48) employed a variety of political strate- avoid God’s wrath. gies. The more radical Liberty abolitionists, centered All these factors influenced the extraordinary ca- in upstate New York and led by , main- reer of , a white New Eng- tained that slavery was always illegal, that immedi- lander who began publishing his weekly newspaper, atists had an obligation to go south to help slaves es- The Liberator, in Boston in 1831. Late in 1833 Gar- cape, and that Congress could abolish slavery in the rison brought together in Philadelphia a diverse southern states. The more conservative—­and by far group—­including a few black men and a few white more numerous—­Liberty faction depended on two women—­to form the American Anti-Slavery­ Soci- residents, Gamaliel Bailey and Salmon P. ety (AASS). Rejecting all violent means, the AASS Chase, for intellectual and political leadership. It ac- pledged to rely on “moral suasion” to achieve im- cepted the legality of slavery in the southern states, mediate, uncompensated emancipation and equal rejected abolitionist aid to help slaves escape in the rights for African Americans in the United States. South and sought to build a mass political party on a White men dominated the organization’s leader- platform calling not for abolition but removing U.S. ship, but thousands of black men and thousands of government support for slavery. women of both races lent active support. A few Af- Meanwhile, black abolitionists led in forming lo- rican Americans, including former slaves Frederick cal vigilance associations designed to protect fugi- Douglass, , and Sojourner tive slaves, and most of them supported the AFASS Truth, emerged as leaders in this biracial abolitionist and the Liberty Party. In 1846 they joined church-­ movement. As they became antislavery activists, such oriented white abolitionists in the American Mis- white women as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth sionary Association, an outgrowth of the AFASS that Cady Stanton grew conscious of their own inequality sent antislavery missionaries into the South. Dou- and initiated the women’s rights movement. glass, who in 1847 began publishing the North Star Although members of the AASS comprised a tiny, in Rochester, New York, remained loyal to Garrison despised minority, the organization spread rapidly until 1851, when he joined the radical wing of the across the North. In 1835 and 1836 its members sent Liberty Party. thousands of antislavery petitions to Congress and In 1848 members of the Liberty Party’s conserva- stacks of abolitionist propaganda into the South. tive wing helped organize the Free Soil Party, dedi- Their efforts, combined with Turner’s revolt and cated to preventing the spread of slavery into Ameri- the 1833 initiation of gradual abolition in the Brit- can territories. By then they had essentially ceased ish West Indies, produced another fierce proslav- to be immediatists. In 1854, when Congress opened ery reaction. Abolitionists could not safely venture Kansas Territory to slavery, they worked with anti- into the South. In the North, mobs beat abolitionist slavery Whigs and Democrats to form the Republi- speakers and destroyed abolitionist meeting places, can Party, which nominated its first presidential can- schools, and printing presses. They also attacked didate in 1856. The Republican Party formally aimed black communities. only at ending slavery within the national domain. Many of its leaders claimed to represent the inter- A More Aggressive Abolitionism ests of white Northerners against the domination of Antiabolitionism and the failure of peaceful agita- slaveholders. But members of the party’s “Old Lib- tion to weaken slavery split the immediatist move- erty Guard” and such former Free Soilers as Charles ment in 1840. Garrison and his associates, centered Sumner of Massachusetts and Joshua R. Giddings in , became social perfectionists, fem- of held Republicans to a higher standard. As inists, and anarchists. They denounced violence, Radical Republicans, they pressed for abolition and unrighteous government, and organized religion. equal rights for African Americans. They refused to vote and embraced dissolution of After 1848 the more radical members of the Union as the only way to save the North from the Liberty Party—­known as radical political

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 abolitionism abolitionists—­maintained their tiny organization. a small group of Radical Republicans in opposing They excelled in efforts and Lincoln’s renomination for the presidency. However, resistance in the North to the Fugitive Slave Law of Garrison, Douglass, and most leaders of the AASS 1850. More than any other abolitionist faction, the believed they could influence Lincoln and continued radical political abolitionists supported John Brown’s to support him. raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859. Brown and his biracial During the summer of 1861, abolitionist organiza- band had hoped to spark a slave revolt but were easily tions had begun sending missionaries and teachers captured by Virginia militia and U.S. troops. Brown’s into war zones to minister to the physical, spiritual, actions, nevertheless, angered and frightened white and educational needs of the former slaves. Women Southerners; after his capture and prior to his exe- predominated, in part because younger abolitionist cution that December, his elegant appeals for racial men had enrolled in Union armies. The most ambi- justice aroused sympathy among many Northerners. tious effort occurred in the South Carolina Sea Is- lands centered on Port Royal, which Union forces Abolitionism during the captured in 1861. There, and at locations in Virginia, Civil War and Reconstruction Kentucky, and , abolitionists attempted Brown’s raid and the victory of Republican can- to transform an oppressed people into independent didate in the presidential elec- proprietors and wage laborers. Their efforts encour- tion of 1860 precipitated the secession movement aged the formation of black churches, schools, and among white Southerners, which led to the Civil other institutions but had serious shortcomings. War in 1861. As the war began, Lincoln, who ad- Northerners did not understand southern black cul- vocated the “ultimate extinction” of human bond- ture, tended toward unworkable bureaucratic poli- age, believed former slaves should be colonized cies, and put too much faith in wage labor as a so- outside the United States and promised not to in- lution to entrenched conditions. When the former terfere with slavery in the South. He feared that to slaves did not under these conditions, most go further would alienate southern Unionists and abolitionists blamed the victims. weaken northern support for the war. Abolitionists, Nevertheless, with the end of the Civil War in nevertheless, almost universally supported the war 1865 and the ratification that December of because they believed it would end slavery. Garri- the Thirteenth Amendment, making slavery illegal son and his associates dropped their opposition to throughout the United States, Garrison declared forceful means, and church-­oriented and radical po- that abolitionism had succeeded. He ceased pub- litical abolitionists rejoined the AASS. As the orga- lication of the Liberator and urged the AASS to nization’s influence grew, Garrison’s friend Wendell disband. He believed the Republican Party could Phillips emerged as the North’s most popular ora- henceforth protect black rights and interests. A ma- tor. Phillips, , , jority of immediatists, including Douglass, Phillips, and other prominent abolitionists joined Radical and Smith, were not so sure and kept the AASS in Republicans in lobbying Lincoln in favor of making existence until 1870. Black abolitionists became es- emancipation and racial justice Union war aims. pecially active in lobbying on behalf of the rights of Abolitionists—­especially black abolitionists—­led the former slaves and against the regressive policies in urging the president to enlist black troops. of Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s successor as president. When, in January 1863, Lincoln issued the Eman- In 1866 and 1867 most abolitionists opposed rati- cipation Proclamation, declaring slaves in areas un- fication of the Fourteenth Amendment, contend- der Confederate control to be free, abolitionists ing that it did not insufficiently protect the right of worried that—­by resting emancipation on military black men to vote. Thereafter, they supported the necessity rather than racial justice—­he had laid an stronger guarantees the Fifteenth Amendment pro- unsound basis for black freedom. But they recog- vided for adult black male suffrage, although a mi- nized the proclamation’s significance, particularly its nority of feminist abolitionists—­led by Stanton—­ endorsement of enlisting black troops. Young white objected that enfranchisement of white women abolitionist men became officers in the otherwise should take precedence. segregated black regiments. Abolitionists advocated When the Fifteenth Amendment gained ratifica- voting rights, education, and landownership for Af- tion in 1870, the AASS declared that abolitionism rican Americans as compensation for generations of had achieved its ultimate objective and disbanded. unrequited labor. These, they maintained, were es- The organization was too optimistic. During the sential to black economic and political advancement. 1870s and 1880s, southern states—­having rejoined the In this regard abolitionists were similar to Radical Union—­curtailed black rights and the white North Republicans, but they were much more insistent acquiesced. The abolitionists bear some responsibil- on involving African Americans in rebuilding the ity for this tragic outcome. Nevertheless, they played Union. They reacted negatively to Lincoln’s Decem- a crucial role in ending slavery, in creating black in- ber 1863 Reconstruction plan that would leave for- stitutions in the postwar South, and in placing pro- mer masters in control of the status of their former tections for minority rights in the Constitution. slaves. As a result, in 1864 a few abolitionists joined See also slavery.

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agrarian politics

Further Reading. James D. Essig, The Bonds of Wick- nation of independent landowners who belonged to edness: American Evangelicals against Slavery 1770–­1808, diverse religious communities, themselves permeated 1982; Lawrence J. Friedman, Gregarious Saints: Self and by democratic demand, in contrast to the hierarchi- Community in American Abolitionism, 1830–­1870, 1982; cal denominations prevalent in the Old World. Stanley Harrold, American Abolitionists, 2001; Idem, Agrarianism’s central tenets were galvanized by The Rise of Aggressive Abolitionism: Addresses to the Slaves, the struggle for independence from Great Britain. 2004; James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton, In Hope Its foremost philosopher was Thomas Jefferson, the of Liberty: Culture, Community, and Protest among North- apostle of sturdy yeoman farmer democracy (or, ern Free Blacks 1700–­1860, 1997; Julie Roy Jeffrey, The more accurately, self-­government), whose creed came Great Silent Army of Abolitionism: Ordinary Women in together in the cauldron of revolution and who pro- the Antislavery Movement, 1998; Matthew Mason, Slavery vided the revolutionary language of that struggle. and Politics in the Early American Republic, 2006; James Agrarianism’s principal antagonist was Alexander M. McPherson, The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists Hamilton, the foremost intellectual advocate of and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction, 1964, economic industrialism, commercialism, and po- reprint, 1992; Richard H. Sewell, Ballots for Freedom: litical elitism. Antislavery Politics in the United States 1837–­1860, 1976; In Jefferson’s philosophy, the hand of government James Brewer Stewart, Holy Warriors: The Abolitionists should be as light as possible, keeping opportunities and American Slavery, 2nd ed., 1997. open without favoritism, exploitation, or needless Stanley Harrold constraints on human affairs; and that hand’s guid- ance should be in the legislature, the popular branch of the people’s elected representatives. If its public of- ficials became unresponsive to the sufferings of their agrarian politics constituents, the spectacle of a passionate people ris- Agrarian politics describes the strategies, tactics, and ing up in arms against its government (as in Shays’s values of the farmer-­based political movements that Rebellion in 1787) was not for Jefferson the night- played a prominent reform role in American political mare it was for Hamilton. history. Its purest manifestation came in the Populist Popular mobilization against bad, and for better, movement of the 1880s and 1890s, but its language, government, with wide participation by citizens and goals, and methods persisted, in a more subdued guaranteed commitment not to infringe on the per- way, in the New Deal Era and beyond. sonal rights on which good government depended—­ Agrarian politics played an important role in the these were the tenets of Jeffersonian evolution of American democracy and the construc- that shaped the rhetoric and action of agrarian poli- tion of public institutions to regulate business with- tics. Individual rights, but a strong role for collec- out diminishing its productive energies. Indeed, the tive action; decentralized power, but enough govern- regulatory goal of agrarian politics after the Civil War mental authority to protect the people from private provided the confidence that consumers, service us- exploitation—­these became the central tensions of ers, and investors needed to buy, sell, and ship in a agrarian republicanism. This may sound like the ros- market economy. Agrarian politics—­egalitarian, iest statement of an American creed. But while an rights-­based, inclusive, electoral, and targeted at the American creed without Alexander Hamilton, busi- legislature where the most numerous classes pre- ness politics, and a powerful presidency is possible to sumably have their best shot—­produced important imagine, an American political history without Jef- structural reforms of national institutions, at least fersonian republicanism is not. those not won by war: the Bill of Rights, direct elec- Yet agrarian reformers had to struggle for decades tion of senators, antimonopoly laws, an income tax, to achieve their political goals; their successes were regulation of big business (starting with railroads), a episodic, concentrated in reform periods like the monetary system controlled by public officials and Populist and Progressive eras, and the New Deal. not based on gold, the right of workers to organize Their opponents had far greater material resources and bargain collectively (and of agricultural coopera- and the deference of many elected officials (as well as tives to similarly operate without being charged as the federal courts, historically skeptical of regulation “conspiracies in restraint of trade” under the Sher- and redistribution). man Act), and the lowering of tariffs (the most preva- The first national manifestation of agrarian politics lent and burdensome taxes) on goods consumed and came in the battle over the Constitution itself. Given used by ordinary people, to name just a few. the elite composition and Hamiltonian persuasion of The term agrarian is virtually synonymous with many delegates at Philadelphia, the small farmers of republican, denoting a mode of politics and political the interior and less-developed­ regions who had con- thought nurtured by British and French Enlighten- stituted the left flank of the Revolution would not ment philosophy that flowered in eighteenth-­century accept this ominous concentration of power in a na- North America. It was no doubt encouraged by the tional government without the guarantees of the Bill immigration of dissenters and the mode of settle- of Rights, and only its promise got the new Consti- ment in what became (in 1789) the United States—a­ tution ratified.

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