American Anti-Slavery Society

The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) was the most prominent organization in the fight against enslavement in the history of the United States. When the U.S. Constitution was written in the late 18th century, a debate over congressional representation resulted in a clause designating enslaved Africans as three fifths of a white person. Thus out of every 100 blacks, only about 60 would be counted for the purpose of congressional representation.

Free individuals, black and white, registered their opposition to the institution of slavery from the nation's founding. Quakers were in the forefront of this early antislavery struggle, which generally advocated the gradual emancipation of enslaved persons. This approach is distinguished from the later abolition movement, whose adherents emerged in the mid-19th century and insisted on immediate emancipation. The abolition movement surfaced in part in response to an organization called the American Colonization Society (ACS) that was founded in 1816. This organization was led by wealthy Southern planters who believed that free Africans jeopardized the institution of slavery. They claimed, however, to support gradual emancipation and insisted that the colonization of manumitted slaves would ultimately encourage slavery's dissolution.

Some white antislavery supporters initially endorsed the American Colonization Society because they believed in its mission. Free African Americans in the North were not duped by the ACS and pleaded with white abolitionists to abandon colonization. They persuaded prominent abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison to denounce the group. Although whites who opposed the institution of slavery did not necessarily believe in equality of the races, when the antislavery activists withdrew their support from the ACS, some began calling for immediate emancipation. The organized movement for abolition began in local communities where groups of individuals formed antislavery societies. These groups distributed pamphlets, hosted speakers, raised funds, and aided fugitives. They were [Page 80]often interracial, but they remained segregated by gender until 1840.

In 1833, 62 male abolitionists representing local antislavery societies in 11 states met in Philadelphia and organized the first national association dedicated to abolition. Among the African American men in attendance at this meeting were James Forten and Robert Purvis. The American Anti-Slavery Society endorsed the Declaration of Sentiments, written by leading abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, which attacked enslavement as immoral, blamed Northerners as well as Southerners for its perpetuation, proposed a strategy of nonviolent resistance, and condemned the emigration schemes of the American Colonization Society. Garrison was to become the leading figure in the AASS and serve as president of the organization from 1843 to 1865.

Garrison was born in 1805 in Massachusetts, where he was indentured to a newspaper owner at the age of 14. He became an expert printer and joined forces with Benjamin Lundy in 1829 to publish an antislavery newspaper known as The Genius of Universal Emancipation. Like many antislavery agitators at the time, Lundy favored gradual emancipation, but Garrison grew increasingly impatient with this approach. He soon parted ways with Lundy and launched his own newspaper, The Liberator, in 1831. The Liberator became one of the most influential means of attracting support for abolition and was published until the close of the Civil War.

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