Abolitionism

Although opposition to the institution of slavery in North America dates back into the eighteenth century, the 1831 publication of William Lloyd Garrison's newspaper, the Liberator, is often cited as the inaugural event of the abolition movement in America. In the decades prior to the Civil War, abolitionists built a social movement and a political campaign aimed at ending slavery in the United States—a goal that was accomplished with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. The definitions of manhood used by abolitionists varied in detail, but they generally included economic, political, and spiritual independence. Slavery had to be abolished, at least in part, because it threatened these cherished ideals.

Historians are increasingly emphasizing the significant contributions of different African-American communities to the movement, particularly in its early years; nonetheless, the majority of both the abolitionist leadership and the rank-and-file of the movement came from the white, northern middle class. Not surprisingly, in many respects abolitionist conceptions of manhood resembled those common in the North. Influenced by the ideals of political equality, spiritual empowerment, and economic independence associated with the American Revolution, the religious revivals of the Second Great Awakening, and the market revolution, antebellum northerners articulated a vision of manhood defined by the liberty and power of the individual male citizen. Abolitionists shared the northern middle-class's conception of an ideal society in which a “man” owned his own labor, and thus possessed both the means and the opportunity to acquire property, which would, in turn, ensure his political rights and his family's economic security. However, unlike the rest of the northern middle class, abolitionists desired to include African Americans in the American community and to extend to them, in varying degrees, the rights and opportunities associated with republicanism, evangelicalism, and liberalism. This did not mean that most abolitionists thought of African Americans as the equals of whites, or that they believed African-American men could ever embody “manhood.” But many did consider slavery and racial prejudice fundamental contradictions of their most highly valued economic and political ideals, including their notions of manhood.

While all abolitionists shared the common goal of ending slavery in the United States, the internal politics of the movement were often contentious and always complex, with differing constructions of masculinity represented. Radical abolitionists, such as William Lloyd Garrison and Angelina and Sarah Grimké, considered spiritual equality and the ultimate authority of the conscience to be divine truths, and they regarded contemporary gender roles relegating men and women to distinct and separate spheres of activity as a sinful violation of both of these principles. They believed that women had both the right and the spiritual duty to enter the “male” world of abolitionist politics, and that men were in turn obligated to embody “female” virtues of love and sympathy in their concern for slaves. Many radical male abolitionists sought to embody their notions of gender in their personal lives, laboring to create fairly egalitarian relationships with [Page 6]women (particularly with their wives) and unusually affectionate, supportive, and loving friendships with other men.

...