Abolition

Solution Preview

The movement to end slavery was what Abolition was about. In the first half of the 19th century, there was a heightened awareness to slavery and an extreme effort by both blacks and whites to end it. This issue was also one that the unity of the country depended highly upon and would become a key issue during the civil war.

Many abolitionists united to form numerous antislavery societies. They sent petitions with thousands of signatures to Congress, held abolition meetings and conferences, boycotted products made with slave labor, printed mountains of literature, and gave innumerable speeches for their cause (African American Odyssey, 2011). Individual abolitionists sometimes advocated violent means for bringing slavery to an end.

Some main objectives of the movement:

â?¢Although both blacks and whites supported the movement, by the 1840s they differed in philosophy and method. Though the abolitionists opposed slavery, they by no means advocated racial equalityâ?"most of them wanted only gradual emancipation or even resettlement of blacks in Africa. The black Americans however, tended to couple anti-slavery activities with demands for racial equality and justice. At the time, only radical abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison demanded immediate emancipation of all slaves.

â?¢The movement for the abolition of slavery began with calls for freedom from Quakers and Mennonites (Velm, 2008) before the Revolution. An American Colonization ...