Abolitionist Movement

There had always been sentiment against slavery in colonial America, with the earliest formal statement condemning the practice originating in 1688 among German and Dutch Quakers descended from the original Mennonite settlers. But throughout the colonial era and the beginning years of American independence, those opposing slavery were divided on how this might be achieved and what might happen following emancipation. Some favored state or federal legislation to eliminate slavery, some believed that slave owners ought to be compensated by the government for the loss of their property, while others called on people to donate to funds for the purpose of purchasing the freedom of slaves. Similarly, some people advocated sending the freed slaves to Africa or the Caribbean to establish their own nations, some believed slaves should be freed but could not bring themselves to advocate social and political equality, while others stressed the equality of all peoples regardless of race. All wanted to see slavery ended but could not agree on tactics or the end result beyond freedom. Over time, the abolitionists emerged as the more radical of the antislavery groups.

While any real decision on the topic of slavery had been avoided at the Constitutional Convention by bargains that created the so-called Three-Fifths Compromise, the issue arose on the national stage once again during the controversy that led to the Missouri Compromise in 1820. At roughly the same time, a religious revival began that culminated in the Second Great Awakening. Among the most effective advocates of this new religious view was the Presbyterian minister Charles Grandison Finney in upstate New York. Finney rejected the Calvinist belief in predestination, instead preaching individual responsibility for redemption and salvation. Where the stricter older view maintained that a person could do nothing to gain salvation since only God could ordain deliverance, Finney preached that mankind had free will and with it, the ability to influence his own destiny. No longer was the individual powerless to affect whether he achieved salvation. One could, in effect, earn a place in heaven. Laced with liberal democratic ideals and antiaristocratic overtones that fit well with the popular ideas of the day, Finney's ardent preaching struck a responsive chord in an era of religious and social revival. This reorientation of Protestantism to “doing good” led directly to a melding of religious activism with social causes, and hence to increasing memberships in a variety of social movements of the day, including temperance, women's rights, and the antislavery crusade.

Renewed popular interest in the antislavery movement also led to an increase in the number of “immediatists” who advocated immediate emancipation as opposed to a gradual approach. But the abolitionists were more than just immediatists. The melding of religious zeal with their pursuit of an immediate, uncompensated emancipation for all slaves resulted in a militantly uncompromising approach. Since slavery was a sin, it ought to be abolished immediately. Since it was a sin for everyone so afflicted, all ought to be freed. And since one should not profit from a sin, owners, as sinners, should receive no compensation in any form from anyone for their loss.

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