Abolition

Enlightenment and Revolution

The Enlightenment began in the 17th century as a European philosophical movement that declared reason as the guide to wisdom, rejected superstition and ignorance, and held that there was a basic goodness in all humankind. As Enlightenment thought spread throughout the United States, a reconsideration of the role slavery played in the nation's development soon followed.

The Enlightenment idea of the natural equality of all human beings came into direct conflict with the enslavement of Africans and African Americans. Likewise, the idea of natural human rights was further supported by religious beliefs of many Christian sects, including the Quakers, evangelical Methodists, and Baptists who believed that slavery was morally wrong as God created all living beings to be free.

Demand for an end to British colonial rule came about in the 1760s after a series of measures by the British Parliament such as the Sugar and Stamp Acts were found oppressive by the Americans. The effect of such measures led to calls for American independence using Enlightenment principles of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” as noted in the 1776 Declaration of Independence. This call for freedom influenced many enslaved African Americans to volunteer on the side of the patriots in the hope that their military service would lead to the abolishment of slavery. While full emancipation would come gradually to the north by the 1820s, for slaves in the south, emancipation would not come for another four decades.

The North and South Divide

After the American Revolutionary War, northern states began moving toward ending slavery. This shift was brought on by several factors, including changes to the northern economy from agriculture to industrialization, a growing moral and religious revivalism by way of the Second Great Awakening, and remnants of natural rights thought brought on by the Enlightenment. In 1780, Massachusetts became the first state to end slavery. Other northern states like Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York passed “gradual emancipation” statutes before the turn of the 18th century. Under the provisions of these statutes, no new slaves could be brought into the state, and the children of existing slaves were to be freed after serving an indenture. By 1820, all northern states had passed laws that fully ended slavery.

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