History NOTES
Abolition and Anti-Slavery Politics 1748-1848
A trans-Atlantic development

I. Ideological Sources of Abolitionism
a. Scottish moral philosophers
i. Francis Hutcheson 1694-1746 ii. Adam Ferguson (1723-1816) iii. Adam Smith (1723-1790)
b. They all said that slavery was bad, inhumane

John Wesley (1708-1791)
Said human bondage was evil
Was a minister and convinced that the scriptures (bible) slavery was evil
Traveled to Georgia in the 1730s and saw African Americans in bondage on plantations
1774, published treatise… thoughts upon slavery
Quakers in Britain played the largest role in the British anti-slavery movement
1787, London Quakers established the society for affecting the abolition of slave trade

Clarifications of English law regarding slavery
Rex V Knowles, EX Parte Somersett (1772)

Slavery could only be justified anymore if supported by positive law
Must be justifications by law regarding slavery

II. Abolitionism in Britain
Middle class abolitionists in slavery wrote religious hymns, poems, book
Ottabah Cugoano 1757-1791
Olaudah Equiano 1745-1797
Book appeared in Northern states
Abolitionists artwork and paintings by William Blake… he was energetically opposed to human bondage, photos completed in 1796 where John Adams is about to be President
Example of kind of torment brought upon by slaves
1787 medallion by English potter and industrialist Joseph Wedgwood (1730-1795) “Am I not a man and a brother?”

III. From Colonization to Abolitionism in The United States
Antislavery became most important reform
Antislavery movement went through steps
ACS.. gradual end to slavery
Some ACS formers were racist, wanted to end slavery, but not live with black people
Early 1830s, William Lloyd Garrison 1805-1879 of Boston
Center of angelical reform of US
Colonization and gradualism is unsatisfactory
In 1831 published newspaper called the liberator, abolitionism newspaper
Said he would not equivocate, called for immediate emancipation for all black people in bondage
Immediate abolitionism… not gradual
Outraged slave holders especially after bloody insurrection of Matt Turner
Fall 1801, Southern leaders were almost in a state of panic

IV. The American Antislavery Society 1833
Arthur Tappan
Lewis Tappan
Much more militant insisted on immediate emancipation of slaves, forget about compensating slaveholders
Method of moral persuasion
Idea was to convince Americans that slavery was