ANTISLAVERY

Abolitionism in the United States or Antislavery Movement in the United States, a major American reform movement that sought to eradicate slavery in the United States by means of a wide range of tactics and organizations; the antislavery crusade mobilized many African Americans and a small minority of whites, who saw their goal realized during the Civil War (1861-1865).

During the three decades that preceded the Civil War, abolitionism was a major factor in electoral politics. Most historians use the term abolitionism to refer to antislavery activism between the early 1830s, when William Lloyd Garrison began publishing The Liberator, and the Civil War. Historians also commonly distinguish abolitionism, a morally grounded and uncompromising social reform movement, from political antislavery—represented, for example, by the Free Soil or Republican parties—which advocated more limited political solutions, such as keeping slavery out of the Western territories, and was more amenable to compromise.

Abolitionists played a key role in setting the terms of the debate over slavery and in making it a compelling moral issue. Yet abolitionists had remarkably little influence in the North. Very few Northerners were abolitionists, and many regarded abolitionists as dangerous fanatics. What made their case telling was the South's violent reaction. Extreme Southern responses appeared to confirm abolitionist warnings about a conspiratorial "Slave Power." By the 1850s, however, the escalating sectional conflict had largely taken on a momentum of its own, one that owed less and less to abolitionism.

Abolitionism was never a self-contained or singular movement. It encompassed a bewildering array of national, state, and local organizations, contradictory tactics, and clashing personalities. Abolitionists are commonly portrayed as benevolent white people deeply concerned with the well-being of enslaved blacks, epitomized by such activists as Garrison and Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). In fact, a great number of abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, were African American. Free blacks in the North were stalwart in their dedication to the cause and provided a disproportionate share of the movement's financial support, including a large majority of The Liberator's early subscribers.

Whether black or white, most abolitionists found inspiration in two key strains of American thought: republicanism, the intellectual legacy of the American Revolution, and Protestant Christianity, especially an emotionally charged evangelicalism. Yet like their nonabolitionist contemporaries, many white abolitionists were convinced of the racial inferiority of blacks. Abolitionists acted forthrightly to correct what they perceived as a grievous wrong, but they could not wholly separate themselves from the assumptions and limitations of their time.

Although later observers have noted glaring inconsistencies and obvious shortcomings in abolitionists' efforts, it is more remarkable that so many were inspired to challenge an institution deeply entrenched in American society. During the 19th century reformers could rely upon familiar arguments in condemning slavery. That critical language, by and large, emerged during the preceding century. Opposition to slavery increased dramatically during the antebellum years, but its roots lay in the last half of the 18th century. During these years a number of individuals sought to transform slavery from an unquestioned part of the status quo to a significant problem. The principal challenge facing these 18th-century activists was arousing a conviction that slavery was wrong.