Antislavery and Abolitionism essays

Antislavery and Abolitionism essays Antislavery and abolitionism began to take place in the 1820s and 1830s as religious reform movements and it quickly turned political in the 1840s and 1850s. Groups such as the free African Americans, Quakers, and militant white reformers were responsible for abolishing slavery. The American Colonization Society was formed in 1817 by northern religious reformers and southern slave owners. The Quakers also made up a vast number of the members of the American Colonization Society. Their first plan to solve slavery was the gradual emancipation of slaves and their resettlement in Africa. Although many Northerners supported the plan and were eager to send the Norths 250,000 free African Americans back to Africa, the American Colonization Society was ultimately ineffective. They only sent 1,400 African Americans to a colony in Liberia, West Africa. The majority of free African Americans rejected the idea of colonization. They wanted to see slavery come to an end. They felt they should be treated as equals to their white counterparts. An African American minister stated, We are natives of this country, we only ask that we be treated as well as foreigners. By the 1830s there were approximately fifty black abolitionist organizations in the North. They held yearly conventions. Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth were among the famous black abolitionist to speak at these conventions. There were many other blacks who announced their antislavery position. John Russworm and Samuel Cornish founded the first African American newspaper titled , Freedoms Journal. David Walker wrote a widely distributed pamphlet, Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. Pamphlets and journals such as these were found responsible for stirring up trouble among the South. They were believed to have played a part in Nat Turn ers revolt in ...