# 1301.11e - Anti Slavery and Abolitionism

**Channel:** Chad Tomaselli
**Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oszlgxPyz8
**Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/_oszlgxPyz8

## Chapters

- 0:01 — Anti-Slavery Movement Background
- 3:26 — Politics and Expansion Debates
- 5:23 — Gradual Abolition and Colonization
- 10:11 — Radical Abolition and Civil Disobedience
- 14:02 — Political Radicalism and Conclusion

## Transcript

**[0:01]:** we'll conclude this deep dive into slavery by looking at the anti-slavery and abolition movements so we'll start with some background before you get to all the terms on there the ideas there let's start with some background we typically only think about abolition when discussing the fight against slavery yet abolition was a subset of the larger anti-slavery movement anti-slavery meant anything from Simply opposing the expansion of Slavery to new territories it could mean gradually freeing slaves to freeing them but forcing them back to Africa and finally the most radical version immediate abolition you probably only learned about abolition but this was far more complex than that furthermore the abolition movement as we think of it was very late in this process not coming to the Forefront or the majority of the pushback against slavery in the North until the 1850s a mere decade before the Civil War they were certainly there it's just that anti-slavery without

**[1:03]:** abolition or without you know radical abolition which is typically what we think of with abolitionism um was against slave uh uh was more prominent in general until that 1850s also just because someone was against slavery doesn't mean they were not racist or prejudiced against people of color Abraham Lincoln the man who freed the slaves was initially or initially only wanted to stop slavery's expansion then he worked to free the slaves but he did not want the races to mix once they were free though he was starting to soften on that stance before he was assassinated this is not diminished this does not diminish does not diminish his accomplishments and in fact heightens them because he updated his opinions and policies as he grew and worked towards what was right despite his personal feelings that's actually a testament to his character um because he recognized his own faults and his own beliefs and that they weren't

**[2:02]:** the majority um but he still had those beliefs and that's important to understand also and this is critically important to understand anti-slavery arguments were not absolutely not targeted at the South especially abolitionism Southerners were not going to be convinced by these arguments instead Advocates were targeting fellow Northerners who ignored or were ambivalent about slavery since it was nothing or something they did not see themselves it wasn't something they felt the need to work against even if they were strongly against it the the point of anti-slavery and abolitionist arguments was to convince enough Northerners to act so that change would occur that's what they believed now keep this in mind with with as we go through the rest of these arguments and if you've been assigned the slavery paper assignment uh when asking if a anti-slavery author's words are necessary for the end of slavery don't tell me or don't write that well they didn't convince

**[3:10]:** the South we know that but that's not who they were trying to convince they were trying to convince their fellow Northerners so let's take a look at the different aspects of the anti-slavery movement

**[3:26]:** so for anti-slavery we're going to start with um politics and expansion right down at the bottom right so we've gone through uh that most were against the expansion of slavery we talked about that being anti-living racism that the target was the North and now we're at the bottom of of what's here on the slide politics and expansion until the 1850s most anti-slavery Northerners oppose slavery slavery purely on a political basis even if they viewed it as immoral the focus was on issues like the Three-Fifths Compromise and how it affected Congress um the biggest was Advent again but the biggest was the advocacy against the expansion of Slavery to new territories and states slavery they believed was wrong and it is so it shouldn't expand but it could stay where it already existed it's what they argued or what they believed again this was the dominant argument argument of all anti-slavery individuals until the 1850s and

**[4:26]:** in fact a third a political party a third party called The Free Soil Party Free Soil Party Rose to prominence as an anti-expansa anti uh anti-expansion of slavery party in the 1840s and 50s abolition existed and grew over time but it also took many forms so that's anti-slavery in general and what the actual anti-slavery arguments were largely against expansion but also things like the Three-Fifths Compromise like looking at it almost entirely just at a on the political level not really a moral level that wasn't the main arguments even if they did believe in the immorality of slavery abolition took two main forms gradual and radical gradual abolition is the freedom of slaves but slowly and

**[5:23]:** with compensation to the slave owners radical abolition is the immediate Freedom uh freedom of slaves with no Compass compensation for slave owners okay we'll start with gradual one example the most prominent early on example of gradual abolitionism is the American Colonization Society this organization was unique in that it focused on free black Americans they LED and were LED and supported by prominent politicians some of whom are enslaved some of who owned slaves They promoted gradual abolition with limited compensation for slave owners so they also did promote gradual abolition abolition on top of focusing on the uh free black Americans again like I said included all three black Americans even if they had never been slaves the whole point was that they planned to send them to Africa in a colony with resources to survive Freedom From Slavery and returned them to Africa even though at this point by the 1800s it had been for most

**[6:33]:** the overwhelming majority of them you know over 90 percent at least two or three generations if not more since their ancestors were sold and transported to the United States or then the colonies um society to do this they the the founded the colony of Liberia in Western Africa you see here on the map Liberia the plan was basically a failure as it found little support amongst the black community for obvious reasons and my phone was going off uh by 1843 4500 individuals were transported

**[7:17]:** and sixty percent of those who were transported died within a short time uh by that period between 1816 and 1843 4 500 had been transported and 60 of them had died largely from disease they were they were descendants of Africans but again often at least a generation or two removed from their ancestors who had been transported The Colony interestingly declared independence in 1847 and is the oldest modern Republic in Africa the capital of Liberia is Monrovia named after one of the most prominent uh members of the society and president at this point in 1816 James Monroe we haven't talked about him yet we will once we return to the political uh political story another gradual abolition group is the American anti-slavery Society the Declaration of this Society the founding document of the society became a foundation for abolitionism it grew very quickly had 250 000 members and over 1300 different local chapters by 1838.

**[8:30]:** their approaches to gradual emancipation or abolition the way that they would argue for this and push for it was often with Evangelical Revival style Gatherings to discuss the ills of slavery so travel around the country get people together um and again across the North not the South across the North to discuss the problems of slavery have speakers come in and like I said 250 000 members 1300 local chapters they also produce pamphlets and other media items they lobbied for legislation and in fact just between 1835 and 1838 they will send over 500 000 over half a million petitions to the national government to the point where the national government had to uh or didn't have to decided to pass a rule to prevent any petitioning which is a problem because the First Amendment uh this Nash the National Organization eventually split for several reasons including the role of women the gradual approach and the methodology

**[9:33]:** of pushing for abolition because there were there were prominent women here but there were some in the society who didn't think that women should be involved or that if women were involved it would push they would start pushing for their own rights which did start to happen the the this is also coincides with the start of the women's suffrage movement for women to get the right to vote but local chapters even though the National Organization such as it existed started to fall apart and split the local chapters were made active until the Civil War so that's two groups on the gradual side but let's turn it around and look at radical abolition gradual abolition was

**[10:11]:** popular at first but it was eventually suppressed by radical approaches as time went by again particularly the 1840s and into the 1850s one of these radical approaches or one of these uh part of this is civil disobedience um this was an idea I should have put him on the name of the person on here hold up real fast

**[10:39]:** Henry David thorough

**[10:48]:** Civil Disobedience an idea from Henry David Thoreau this is the idea to ignore and break laws that support slavery and its expansion this range from non-violent or violent in application it could be peaceful protests like sit-ins during the Civil Rights era in 1960s to acts of treason by someone who we haven't talked about named John Brown in 1859 Thoreau himself advocated for peaceful Civil Disobedience regarding fugitive slave laws Thoreau his idea was that because fugitive slave laws were abhorrent and immoral and forced people back into an evil system that Northerners should not follow them they should break the law because it's an unjust law um but civil disobedience is is not a new idea and we well it's something that is prominent even to this day the civil rights movement and the in the 1940s 50s 60s and 70s was built on civil disobedience particularly I mentioned sit-ins right going to a place that isn't

**[11:54]:** that says they don't serve people of color and sitting there until they give service that is civil disobedience right but again it has many forms it could be peaceful like that it could be violent and we'll see both throughout the the you see both throughout history we'll talk about a violent version like I mentioned with John Brown um Civil Disobedience could also be utilized by anti-slavery Advocates or abolitionists it could be used by gradual abolitionists or radical abolitionists right it's just a general idea that as it played out got categorized more under radical abolition because of how it was actually used Thoreau advocated for peaceful regarding the fugitive slave laws something to keep in mind if you have the slavery paper assignment uh another person on the side of the radical abolition side was um I just said side but twice in a sentence it was weird is William Lloyd Garrison he was one of

**[12:51]:** the leaders of the American anti-slavery Society uh but his radical approach helped cause the split I mentioned he in fact condemned the U.S Constitution as a pro-slavery document he was also against organized religion for the same reason because in every major religion less so Judaism but at least for Christianity when we took aim at um there was justifications for slavery in the Bible sorry not was our justifications for slavery in the Bible um he founded and was the editor of a newspaper called The Liberator he advocated for the immediate emancipation of all slaves and for working outside the system because the system was one built on slavery right he condemned US the Constitution he believed that slavery was an emergency both politically and more importantly morally now he was exceeded as too extreme by many but he was one of the most vocal prolific and fiery radical abolitionist and again I don't explain this but

**[13:53]:** just just to be clear radical abolition is their definition at the time now we look back at people like Thoreau and Garrison and realize they weren't radical at all they were quite reasonable in my estimation I think they

**[14:02]:** were quite reasonable um but at the time they were certainly within the general umbrella of radical abolition one last group and where we will conclude our discussion of slavery is that a political party Rose on the uh based on radical based on radical I don't know what that was uh why I made it and then I mocked it um based on the uh radical abolitionist beliefs and in fact they were also another split from the American anti-slavery Society they pushed for the immediate abolition of of slaves but working through politics through the system whereas Garrison was working for pushed for working outside the system they wanted to go through the system they believe the Constitution was an anti-slavery document unlike Garrison because the only mention of it is a Three-Fifths Compromise and in fact their leader um the man pictured here whose name you'll will get later was a presidential candidate both in 1840 and

**[15:07]:** 1844 but he never really came close to actually winning but he'll be worth mentioning in those at least one of those elections they did elect a few anti-slavery members of Congress but they had little more uh did little more than keeping anti-slavery and abolitionism in the political discourse they kept the arguments going but they themselves accomplished very little but they were the group pushing for radical abolition through the system itself Garrison wanted to go outside the system whereas Thoreau was just about civil disobedience so these are some of the arguments or and and advocates on the anti-slavery and abolition side and remember all of this was targeting the North because get none of this was going to through to Southerners so that concludes our Deep dive in slavery we now will return to the general political narrative uh depending on where this this lecture may be placed it's either the end of unit two or

**[16:11]:** we're going back to the end of War of 1812. I sometimes move this around depending on the class but I guess I don't really have a conclusion here see you next time hear me next whatever I'm done