Abolitionist Movements

Dismantling slavery took hundreds of years of resistance and public outcry and cannot be attributed to one group, nation, or movement. Although Great Britain outlawed British involvement in the slave trade in 1807 (barring the sale and transport of slaves but not outlawing slavery outright), it took 26 more years for emancipation to reach the colonies of the vast British Empire. Member of Parliament William Wilberforce gained a place in history and became an abolitionist role model for the United States as he campaigned for these political reforms, joined by his colleague Thomas Clarkson. The influence of evangelical and cultural beliefs contributed to the political changes as well.

The narratives and letters of former slaves like Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa) and Ignatius Sancho, for example, helped raise awareness about the horrors of the middle passage and the desire for freedom among enslaved Africans. Jonathan Edwards, Jr., lesser-known anti-slavery activist and son of the famed Congregationalist minister of the First Great Awakening, composed a sermon that denounced 10 common pro-slavery positions. The 1791 document, Injustices and Impolicy of the Slave Trade and of the Slavery of Africans, exemplifies some of the religious concerns that would eventually effect political change.

Later that year, the Haitian Revolution, led by Toussaint L'Ouverture in August 1791, led to the abolition of slavery in Haiti and, after more than a decade of struggle, independence from French colonial rule. L'Ouverture, a slave himself, orchestrated major military maneuvers to overthrow French planters and defeat French and Spanish troops on the island of Santo Domingo. As a revolutionary moment in the wake of the American and French Revolutions, Haitian independence put a black face on freedom and selfdetermination. In Haiti, men of all colors were to become equal citizens. Slaveholders, including Thomas Jefferson, rejected this new brand of independence. Slaveholding colonies and nations alike feared that the revolution in Haiti would spread throughout the New World; thus, governments in the other Caribbean islands and United States constructed a “cordon sanitaire” around the island to prevent news of the insurrection from spreading throughout the Americas, particularly to other rebellious slaves. Although France first abolished slavery in response to the Haitian Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstated it in 1802.

The age of revolution contributed to anti-slavery activism in the United States as well. On January 1, 1794, representatives from the abolition societies of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland met in Philadelphia, which became an anti-slavery hotbed due to the presence of middle-class free blacks as well as a large population of anti-slavery Quakers. The petition strategy, which would entreat Congress to prohibit the slave trade and encourage state legislatures to abolish slavery, became the modus operandi of this and many ensuing antislavery groups. The rhetoric of these petitions stressed the contradictions of a country that had revolted in 1776 against kings and despots yet permitted men to own and deprive other human beings of their freedom. The Philadelphia delegates of 1794 also published Minutes of Proceedings of a Convention of Delegates From the Abolition Societies.

...