Similarly, Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Stephens, in his “Corner Stone” Speech in Savanah Georgia in 1861, argues that black freedom is a threat to all society, which the constitution of the Confederacy corrects. African-American liberty is against the laws of nature and god, and to pursue black freedom is to undermine religious truths and government. Stephens denounces the Constitution of the United States because it, “rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error… They were attempting to make things equal which the Creator had made unequal.” As written, the US Constitution violates the will of god because it attempts to make all men, black and white, equal. Thus, the Confederate Constitution refuses …show more content…
Of course the abolitionist movement was born out principles of freedom that suggest they should believe in racial equality. Their idea of liberty comes from the same Enlightenment principles that Thomas Jefferson used when writing the Declaration of Independence. Also, liberty is hailed as part of the revolutionary ideology the US is founded upon. However, most abolitionists’ definition of liberty for African-Americans was different from the definition of liberty they believed in for themselves; their idea of black freedom meant gradual freedom from slavery and rejection of the possibility of former slaves becoming full American citizens with the same rights as themselves. This is because they did not want to see blacks integrated into American society. Instead, they connected black freedom with recolonization, a deeply racist practice of forcibly removing freed slaves from the United States and relocating them back to Africa. Black freedom meant their faithful application of Enlightenment principles of freedom from slavery, but it was decoupled from equality for blacks as if one could be free without be …show more content…
Respectful of black rejection of recolonization, inspired by religious ideas of perfectionism, these hardcore abolitionists believed in true equality linked to African-American freedom. In contrast to racist white Southerners, this group saw religious belief as validating rather than rejecting equality. Thus, they used a moral argument to try and change public opinion; according to one of the great orators of this movement, Wendell Phillips, their goal was to “alter public opinion” through radical agitation, trying to create a fervor around abolition, and creating enough noise to change people’s moral opinions about slavery and affect as many Americans as possible, even if they didn’t join the movement
On the question as to whether states’ rights was the cause of the Civil War, Dew references a speech made by Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, during his inaugural address as one that “remains a classic articulation of the Southern position that resistance to Northern tyranny and a defense of states’ rights were the sole reason for secession. Constitutional differences alone lay at the heart of the sectional controversy, he insisted. ‘Our present condition…illustrates the American idea that governments rest upon the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish governments whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established’”(13).
In the late 19th century African Americans were no longer slaves, but they were definitely not free. When we think of freedom today, we think of something totally different than what they endured in the late 19th century and early 20th century. For about 80 years, black southerners had to deal with these changes and hard times. Most would say that for those 80 years, it was worse than blacks being actual slaves. There are so many things that held down African Americans during this time. Some examples of this would be the involvement of the Jim Crow laws, not having the right to vote, and the lynching and peonage among African Americans.
The abolitionist movement reached its peak between 1830 and 1860. During this period, abolitionists, those who "insisted slavery undermined the freedom, righteousness, order, and prosperity of all society" (McInerney, 8) sought to identify, denounce and abolish this cruel institution using their rights of free speech and free press. With free press and free speech "abolitionists depicted slavery as raw, aggressive power carrying in it's wake the seeds of political, social, economic, and moral dislocation" (McInerney, 18). In other words, the evils of slavery were expressed by abolitionists in an attempt to convince American society that slavery was not only morally wrong, but it also went against the goal of the republic, which was liberty and equality for all. Two prominent abolitionists during this period who utilized the right of free press were William Lloyd Garrison with the Liberator and Frederick Douglass with the North Star. When examining Garrison and Douglass it is apparent that they had different approaches to writing against slavery because of their separate background. However, these differences can also be attributed to the fact that their writing audiences, inspirations and motivations for publishing their respective papers were distinct. Garrison and Douglass also had different but very influential effects on the Abolitionist Movement. These do not make Garrison and Douglass opponents; instead they demonstrate how white and black abolitionists had different approaches, methods, and styles of conveying their common message of abolishing slavery.
“The connection between the revivals of the Second Great Awakening and abolition was so strong that it would hardly be an overstatement to say that the revivals were responsible for antislavery becoming a radical national movement.” During the time period, evangelical religion underlay the culture of America to such an extent that the revivals of the 1830s resulted in “tangible” structures for social reform — the revivals touched many aspects of political and social life. The revivals implicitly created political obligations and led to a demand for an activist
Abolitionists thoughts became progressively conspicuous in Northern places of worship and politics in the 1830’s which contributed to the territorial ill will amongst the North and South, essentially dividing the nation in two. The southern economy grew increasingly dependent on “king cotton” and the system of slaves that sustained it.
It should be noted that the Declaration of Independence made it clear that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Although this progressive view was shared by many of the members of the Constitutional Convention, it is clear that the original text of the American Constitution is rather pro-slavery and up to a certain point protects the slave-owners. It is of utmost importance to note that the words slavery/slave are not used in the text of the Constitution.
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...
Some of the persisting goals of antislavery activism were legal emancipation, aid to runaway slaves through vigilance groups and the Underground Railroad, civil rights for freed blacks in the north, and education, suffrage, and economic advancement for African-Americans. Perhaps the most unifying ideal of the anti-slavery movement was that the racial basis for American slavery could be undermined by promoting Christian values, education and economic progress among free blacks to show that they were capable of succeeding as individuals in an integrated American society. Richard Allen, leader of the A.M.E. church, stated the case for black progress as an answer to the justifications of slaveholders: “if we are lazy and idol, the enemies of freedom plead it as a cause why we ought not to be free.” In addition to the connection between abolition and economic and social progress, most abolitionists worked for the assurance of civil rights and legal protection for free blacks, who lived in an anomalous condition of “freedom” without citizenship and with constant threat of discrimination, violence, and abduction to be sold into slavery.
But despite patriotic statement and vigorous public against colonization, there was a greater margin among black abolitionists and white who claimed to be abolitionists alike black people. In 1833 sixty reformers from eleven northern gathered in Philadelphia, creating an antislavery movements named American Antislavery Society (AASS). Its immediate goal was to end slavery without compensation for slaves oweners and rejected violence and the used of force. People involved were Quakers, Protestant clergymen, distinguished reformers, including three blacks by the names of Robert Purvis, Jame...
Slavery was a dominant part of the political and social arenas of 1800’s America. However, it was not homogenous as it divided America into two distinct groups: those who supported it and those who did not. Traditionally, the states in the north had been anti-slavery while the states in the south had been pro-slavery. Southern life and economy depended on slavery and therefore staunchly supported the continued legal status of slavery. The northern states on the other hand recognized the inhumane nature of slavery and campaigned to establish equality for all citizens. In order to establish solid reasoning for their stance, both pro-slave and anti-slave groups turned to theological inspiration for their actions. The Bible inspired both pro-slavery advocates and anti-slavery abolitionists alike. Religion was used in order to justify slavery and also to condemn it.
The United States was in a period of social and political adjustment in the early 1800s. Reform movements during this time period aimed to increase public awareness about their issues and to create social and political change. Groups such as blacks and women continued to be oppressed, so they created The Abolitionist Movement and The Women’s Rights Movement respectively, which aimed to fight for the rights that political leaders in the 19th century neglected. In the 1800s, the democratic values that most reform movements planned to obtain were free voting and public education. Most reform movements in the United States sought to achieve core democratic values such as liberty in different ways. The Abolitionist Movement aimed to emancipate all
Before the American Revolution, significant opposition to slavery already existed. James Otis, a Massachusetts lawyer emblemized this strain of thought when he wrote about the rights of natural born citizens and men. He argued that a man, black or white, should be guaranteed, as British subjects, the same rights and liberties. These liberties should protect men from slavery and afford them the rights guaranteed by the British Crown. Many other American colonists shared this attitude of abolitionism, however their reasoning relied on religious beliefs rather than modern political theory. A letter written by Phillis Wheatley to a Reverend exemplifies this justification for abolition. The letter expressed appreciation for the Reverend’s abolitionist views, but also compared the current situation to those of the Israelites when the Egyptians enslaved them. A parallel to the Bible furthered the view for many that slavery was unjust. This combination of Enlightenment ideals of natural righ...
Alexander Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, referring to the Confederate government: "Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery . . . is his natural and normal condition." [Augusta, Georgia, Daily Constitutionalist, March 30, 1861.]
All African Americans thought with the creation of civil rights, they would be free to do what all Americans could do. In the context of civil rights, emancipation means to be free from slavery. The process took much longer than they expected. Many fled to the North to gain their freedom, which was rightfully theirs. Legal slavery was removed from the North, but the population of slaves between the first emancipation and the end of the Civil war doubled, from roughly 1.8 million in 1827 to over four million in 1865. It was very difficult for southern farmers and those who owned slaves to immediately give up a lifestyle they were accustomed to and remove their slaves. White southerners viewed African Americans as their workers. They have lived with this mindset for so long, causing their transition to be challenging compared to the transition of the slaves in the north.
Also known as the Second Great Awakening, the Abolitionist Movement swept through the colonies in the early 1830’s. This was a movement to abolish slavery and to give blacks their freedom as citizens. Many men and women, free and enslaved, fought for this cause and many were imprisoned or even killed for speaking out. If it were not for these brave people, slavery would still exist today. The Abolitionist Movement paved the way in eradicating slavery by pursuing moral and political avenues, providing the foundation for the Underground Railroad, and creating a voice for African Americans.