American Antislavery 1820-1860 :: History African Americans Essays

American Antislavery 1820-1860missing works citedThe antebellum American antislavery movement began in the 1820s and was sustained over 4 decades by organizations, publications, and small acts of resistance that challenged the lawfully protected and powerful institution of slavery and the more insidious enemy of black equality, racism. Abolitionists were always a radical minority even in the promiscuous states of the North, and the movement was never comprised of a single group of people with unified motivations, goals, and methods. Rather, the movement was fraught with ambiguity over who its leaders would be, how they would go about competitiveness the institution of slavery, and what the future would be like for black Americans. Some of the persisting goals of antislavery activism were legal emancipation, aid to runaway slaves through vigilance groups and the Underground Railroad, civilised rights for freed blacks in the north, and raising, suffrage, and economic advancement for African-Americans. Perhaps the most unifying ideal of the anti-slavery movement was that the racial basis for American slavery could be undermined by promoting Christian values, education and economic continue among free blacks to show that they were capable of succeeding as individuals in an integrated American society. Richard Allen, leader of the A.M.E. church, stated the case for black progress as an answer to the justifications of slaveholders if we are lazy and idol, the enemies of freedom plead it as a cause why we ought not to be free. In addition to the companionship between abolition and economic and social progress, most abolitionists worked for the assurance of civil rights and legal protection for free blacks, who lived in an anomalous condition of freedom without citizenship and with invariable threat of discrimination, violence, and abduction to be sold into slavery. There were some bitter conflicts over specific strategies. Though Garrison and most blacks f avored immediate abolition, many whites proceed to prefer or express willingness to settle for gradual emancipation. Violent resistance was at first rejected by many, again under the influence of Garrison, simply David Walkers appeal that violence should be used against slavery became more popular as blacks and abolitionists searched for an effective means of self-defense against mobs and pursuit of civil rights. Whether or not individuals worked within the political framework of the constitution to effect change again depended on allegiance to Garrison, and in general the early antislavery activists preferable moral arguments while later leaders were more willing to use political means.