During 1816-1860’s the abolitionist movement took on many different forms. The Christian argument (God created all men equal), was first taking on by the Quakers, “Quakers stressed the absolute universality of God’s love, the brotherhood of man, the sinfulness of physical coercion”. Following Quakers, the Colonizationists believed that the only way for blacks to attain freedom was if they were sent back to Africa. “These individuals could not be considered serious abolitionists….during these years some Colonizationists did believe that they were sponsoring Christian uplift of blacks.” Gradualist abolitionism, which was taking on by most white abolitionist was the idea that slaves would be free over time. Finally in the late 1820s and early 1830s a new more radical form of abolitionism came onto the main stream. Immediate abolitionism was the belief that slavery should end now and it was morally and constitutionally wrong. Although this form of abolitionism is attributed to William Lloyd Garrison (white abolitionist 1805-1879), African American abolitionists had demanded for an immediate end to slavery for years. “Black abolitionism was the parent of the white crusade.” One of the most influential voices to the immediate end of slavery was David Walker. 1
David Walker was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1785. He was born to a slave father and a free mother. Because of the laws regarding slavery, a slave’s status depended upon his mother status. Since his mother was free, Walker was free as well. Walker remained in the South for 30 years and so he was able to witness all the evils of slavery. Walker also experienced the dangers of an African American free or enslaved living in the South. According to Florence Jackson’s book,...
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... American 1791-1861. New York: Franklin Watts Inc., 1971.
(Jackson. 37-38)
Stewart, James. Holy Warriors: The Abolitionist and American Slavery. New York : Hill and Wang , 1996.
(Steward 44)
David Walker. n.d. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2930.html (accessed November 19, 2013).
3. David Walker. n.d. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2930.html (accessed November 19, 2013).
Hinks, Peter P. To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren: David Walker and the Problem of Antebellum Slave Resistance. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.
(Hink. 119)
4. Walker, David. "Documenting the American South ." docsouth.unc.edu. 2004. http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/walker/walker.html (accessed November 19, 2013).
(Walker. 3)
(Walker. 9-10)
(Walker. 17,19,25)
5. Watson, Harry L. Liberty and Power: The Politics of America . New York : Hill and Wang, 2006.
(Watson. 119)
David Walker was a black man that aimed to inspire American blacks to achieve the freedom they deserve. He grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina and his early childhood biography has little detail. His dad was a slave and his mother was free. His date of birth was estimated to be around 1797. In North Carolina, the blacks greatly outnumbered the whites. Although there were more blacks, they only had a small amount of them that were free. Walker’s childhood definitely had a great impact on his mindsight to feel the need to speak up for the blacks. Wilmington taught him a lot about how slaves were treated poorly and the history of their suffering. Also, there were certain things happening in Charleston that led him to the rebellion. Charleston happened to be the center for free blacks that had major goals. These ambitious blacks started many foundations as a group such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Authorities discovered this church and tried to stop it, making the blacks more on-edge. Although these events were eventually put to a rest, it was
Roediger, David and Blatt, Martin H. The Meaning of Slavery in the North. JStor. 1998. Vol. 18
Franklin, J., Moss, A. Jr. From Slavery to Freedom. Seventh edition, McGraw Hill, Inc.: 1994.
Hinks, Pete P. To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren: David Walker and the Problem of Antebellum Slave Resistance. 1997
The scope of the investigation is limited to the Second Great Awakening and the American Abolitionist Movement from 1830-1839, with the exception of some foundational knowledge of the movement prior to 1830 to highlight the changes within the movement in the 1830s. The investigation included an exploration of various letters, lectures, and sermons by leading abolitionists from the time period and a variety of secondary sources analyzing the Second Great Awakening and the Abolitionist Movement from 1830-1839.
Douglass, Frederick. The Heroic Slave. In Violence In the Black Imagination. Ed, Ronald T. Takaki. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Reynolds, Mary. The American Slave. Vol. 5, by Che Rawick, 236-246. Westport , Conneticut: Greenwood Press, Inc, 1972.
In early nineteenth century there was the antislavery movement which was a failure. This people who were fighting for antislavery did not have a great support. They were nice gentle people who argued with an expression of moral disapproval but did not participate in an exert of activities. Organizations were formed to help support the freeing of slaves but these organizations did not have enough economical support to help with the thousands and thousands of slaves reproducing in America. They were able to free some slaves and tried returning some of them to their home lands in Africa but that was a failure because the amount of money need it to ship the Africans back to Africa was a high cost compared to the economical support that they had. There was even resistance from some Afr...
Russell B. Nye: Fettered Freedom: Civil Liberties and the Slavery Controversy, 1830-1860. East Lansing, Mich., 1949
Walker never experienced slavery but was only a witness to the cruel institution. It is in his travels and observations that he becomes convinced of the cruelty of the institution in which he says “inhuman system of slavery, is the source from which most of our miseries proceed” (Walker Page 5). Although he had never been a slave, the racism and prejudices that existed still caused difficulties for him.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave details the progression of a slave to a man, and thus, the formation of his identity. The narrative functions as a persuasive essay, written in the hopes that it would successfully lead to “hastening the glad day of deliverance to the millions of [his] brethren in bonds” (Douglass 331). As an institution, slavery endeavored to reduce the men, women, and children “in bonds” to a state less than human. The slave identity, according to the institution of slavery, was not to be that of a rational, self forming, equal human being, but rather, a human animal whose purpose is to work and obey the whims of their “master.” For these reasons, Douglass articulates a distinction between the terms ‘man’ and ‘slaves’ under the institution of slavery. In his narrative, Douglass describes the situations and conditions that portray the differences between the two terms. Douglass also depicts the progression he makes from internalizing the slaveholder viewpoints about what his identity should be to creating an identity of his own making. Thus, Douglass’ narrative depicts not simply a search for freedom, but also a search for himself through the abandonment of the slave/animal identity forced upon him by the institution of slavery.
It may appear that in today’s America, slavery is looked down upon, and we’ve developed a long way from the past. However, before and during the Abolitionists Movement there were strong arguments for both sides of the subject. ("Arguments and Justifications: The Abolition of Slavery Project.") The gradual dominance in anti-slavery would not have been possible if people had not risked their lives and social standings to fight for the racial, social, legal, and political liberation for slaves. William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and the Grimke sisters are all prime examples of people who challenged pro-slavery, and protested the idea that one race was superior to another. Although abolitionists fought for their beliefs during this movement in the 1830s up to the year 1870 for the immediate emancipation of slaves, the ending of racial prejudice and segregation would not be possible if not by the influence of those courageous people, and should continue to be reinforced in today’s society. ("Civil Rights Movement.")
...ave Exposes Slavery,” in Kennedy, David M. and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Spirit: United States History as Seen by Contemporaries. Vol. I: To 1877. Eleventh Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
Knowles, H. J. (2007). The Constitution and Slavery: A Special Relationship. Slavery & Abolition, 28(3), 309-328. doi:10.1080/01440390701685514
Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve years a slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Print.