The complexities of the Abolition
"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." There were many conflicts, reasons, and struggles that brought about the American Civil War, but there is no question that one of the hottest, most debated issues at that time was the issue of slavery. Should it be abolished? Should it be tolerated? Was it a state issue, or a federal one? Many questions arose about freedom, economics, consequences of abolition, and moralities of slavery. The people that supported the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery definitely had a united purpose, but did they have common incentives? Was the anti-slavery movement a movement towards racial equality, or did the push for abolition coexist with white supremacy? This paper seeks to look further into those who supported abolition prior to the Civil War and to examine their motives in order to see the complexities of the time in the areas of society and politics. First, a new wave of thinking was arising within society. The thought that slavery was oppression, sinfu
The Free Soil Movement broke away from the AASS and the Liberty Party emerged. Without these complexities, who knows where the Abolition Movement would be today. It started with David Walker, a black man who was born free, who wrote the first anti-slavery protest published in 1829 entitled "An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. The party was, therefore, a genuine anti-slavery party, but most Republicans rejected actual abolitionism. It opposed the expansion of slavery, but not the abolition of it. In the 1840's, the idea of abolition became more political. In 1832, William Lloyd Garrison established the American Anti-Slavery Society and furthered this thinking of slavery as an evil, sinful practice. They disavowed measures that would immediately bring about true equality between the races and Lincoln declared himself against equal rights in voting and office holding. Slavery was not pushed as a moral or constitutional issue; it was simply put as a political stance and pushed into the limelight. The AASS also pushed for temperance, sabatarianism, and women's rights seeing these issues as extremely important as well, and while ideally, the AASS was an interracial society, all leadership positions remained almost entirely white. The key to the Republican Party's success was its position on slavery. Finally, the campaign of 1860 and election of Abraham Lincoln is evidence of this complexity surrounding the Abolition Movement. The American Anti-Slavery Society called for abolition, it is true, but was somewhat skewed. " It discussed slavery as a product of American greed that contradicted the core of the nation, and advocated violence as self-defense.
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Acceptance Essays
