sample slavery essay

sample slavery essay

The Abolitionist Movement: Overcoming Slavery’s Dark Legacy

1. Introduction

The cause of abolition was advanced foremost by a “radical” movement that posited the inconsistency of slavery with Christian and Republican ideals, and thus the abolition of slavery became inextricably linked to the demographic, economic, and ideological expansion of American society. The actions of “radical abolitionists” and the very presence of African Americans in the United States exerted a consistent pressure upon the nation to recognize that slavery and the racism inherent in it were moral ills to be cured and not the social/natural order. The legacy of the radical abolitionists and their struggle is evident in the presence of black Americans and the ideology of colorblind integration at the 21st century’s margin of technology and globalization.

The anti-slavery movement is a long and (hopefully) triumphant story, not of white Americans liberating black Americans, but black and white Americans working together to dismantle a system of oppression. That story begins in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, but the movement to abolish the institution of slavery did not gather force until the late eighteenth century, on the eve of the American and French Revolutions. The spirit or ethos of that movement was defined by a cluster of ideas and the efforts of millions of African Americans who made the movement a part of their aspirations for the integration of American and Western societies. Though the story of the abolitionists’ effort to remove the blot of slavery from the face of this earth is partly a story of failed and frustrated expectations, it is also an inspiring saga of steadfast commitment to a moral principle and unending struggle against overwhelming odds to translate that principle into practice.

• Humanitarianism and Higher Law

2. The Origins and Expansion of Slavery

Slavery, as a term, was often defined loosely during the late 17th century, and eventually comes to encompass all types of coerced labor. This transition to race-based slavery meant economic gain for many of the plantation owners in the south. Africans were an excellent source of cheap labor, and the ability to pass on the slave status to one’s children meant that not only was labor inexpensive, but that the enslaved population would be self-sustaining. This ideology of race-based slavery is what eventually led to the Civil War, and is the precursor to the subjugation and racism that would befall African Americans for the next 300 years.

The origins of America’s dirty little secret in regards to slavery dates back to before the early 1600s. Many factors led to the race-based slavery in the New World, the most important of which was the use of Africans as indentured servants. Many of the first slaves imported into the colonies around 1619 were brought over to provide a less expensive labor source than indentured Europeans. By 1705, the Virginia House of Burgesses stated that “All servants imported and brought into the Country…who were not Christians in their native Country…shall be accounted and be slaves.” Another reason that race-based slavery found its way into American society was due to the fact that other forms of labor taken on by Africans had many benefits to the masters. Native Americans were often difficult to enslave, as many Europeans of their time contracted deadly diseases as well as geographical familiarity.

3. The Cruel Reality of Slavery

Chattel slavery was unique in its ability to dehumanize and humiliate those who were held in bondage. Russian serfs and Roman slaves had a chance to become free; slaves in the United States did not. “Slavery implies the thought of that which regards a human being not as a human being, but as a thing,” explained George Harkins, a Choctaw leader during the removal period. In its total denial of human rights, black slavery was much worse than white indentured servitude. It was this fundamental difference that set the tone for the following century of race relations and meant that all efforts to communicate between the races about the status of blacks were virtually impossible. From the early days of colonies, the legal status of blacks began to change from small differences when compared to white indentured servants to conditions that were entirely unique to slaves and servile in the 1660s with the institutionalization of lifetime servitude, to the 20th-century climate of Jim Crow and second-class citizenship. Slavery created a lasting divide between the two races that placed African-Americans not only on the wrong side of a visible color line but also in a degrading position in which it was presumed that they could never be the equals of whites.

4. The Rise of Abolitionism

Equally significant was the fact that the Enlightenment gave rise to the first public opinion in European history. The earlier growth in literacy, the cheapening of print, and the spreading network of news exchange in the 17th century had already greatly extended the influence of the printed word. Now, in the late 18th century, many began to publish their ideas with the intention of reaching a wider spectrum of society than ever before, with the literary activity of non-elite social groups. This led on to a new sphere of intellectual exchange through the worlds of the town, the coffee-house, and the debating society, as well as through the older medium of the university and the newer one of the school. In France, the birth of the new public opinion could be squalidly and violently in the way the authoritative orders tried to suppress the activities of the philosophes. In a largely non-violent and peaceful manner, the same thing was happening there and in Britain. During the century, each of the two countries experienced a considerable expansion of the reading public and a growing sense of national identity, born of common language and historical memories, and encouraged by the more efficient forms of political centralization. In both countries, the government feared and attempted to control the new public opinion. The net effect was that intellectuals in France, Britain, and latterly Germany were coming to think that their ideas had a relevance to national affairs and political life. The British government of William Pitt the Younger (1783-1801), being particularly obsessed with the fear that the founding ideas of the French Revolution could spark the mass political agitation.

In the middle years of the 18th century, a number of people and events combined in a new way to bring about the change for which humanitarians had long hoped. Sometimes it is difficult to identify the precise moment when groups of social and intellectual phenomena that have been brewing for some time coalesce into a new and powerful historical force, but here a crucial moment can be seen quite clearly. Slavery was referred to Europe and the Americans of the time, including the American War of Independence and the French Revolution, had created a fervor for liberty and equality. In the 1780s and 1790s, these very concepts were gathering new momentum as a result of fantastic changes in European society and politics. This was the age of the Enlightenment, when new philosophy about human nature, reason, and understanding were rapidly spreading through the educated classes. There was an explosion of periodical and pamphlet literature, often wildly radical in content, though sometimes willfully obscure. It was the era of modern nationalism and the concept of political change through revolution. All these developments created a new critical climate in which the ways of traditional authority, including the institution of slavery, could be questioned as never before.

5. The Legacy of the Abolitionist Movement

Finally, there is the role of moral suasion in a vigilant minority. The power of a few in terms of social change is often underestimated, and the abolitionist’s fight was one of extreme endurance in the face of adversity. Founded on a simple yet radical idea that slavery was wrong, the movement created a full-time opposition in the form of a slave system and proslavery nation that was hostile to its very existence. It was only the force of law and rifles at the peak of the civil war that stopped them. Yet the idea of a vigilant minority seeking change against adversity has existed on through radical politics to today’s human rights lobby groups.

Recent historiography has gathered a new interest in the role of black abolitionists. Black leaders such as Douglass and Harriet Tubman have been revered, but the thousands of ordinary blacks who fought against slavery have generally been ignored. By viewing the antislavery movement as coming from the oppressed not the benevolent, the entire fabric of antebellum America and race relations shows a new light. The idea that oppressed peoples can move to change their situation seems to ring a universal truth and struggle, to understand this period of history is to understand the history of freedom and struggle in its own right.

By calling for the immediate abolition of slavery and for racial equality, Douglass held the nation to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. Both he and the Grimké sisters showed that African Americans and women could be powerful advocates for reform. However, it took many years and a civil war before Americans began to recognize their rights. The abolitionist’s role in ending slavery was one of immense negative outcomes, the death of over 600,000 people and the widespread destruction brought on by the civil war led many to view abolitionists as the cause of the war, and slavery as a problem that would have solved itself given time.

Historians have debated the legacy of the abolitionist movement. Some historians have found that after the Civil War, which was fought to end slavery, the federal government and the Supreme Court did not seriously work to protect the rights of African Americans. These historians claim that black Americans gained true freedom and citizenship only because of the modern civil rights movement of the 1960s. By contrast, some historians argue that there is a direct line between the civil rights movement and the abolitionist movement. They see the abolitionist movement as the starting point for the long struggle in America for racial equality.