The Abolitionist Movement

Who/What: The Abolitionist movement in the United States. It was a call to end slavery throughout the United States which received its greatest opposition in the south. Those who supported the movement generally believed that slavery violated the basic human rights of those enslaved and that it should be ended without question.

Where: The movement took place all over the United States. The call to end slavery began in the Northern "New England" states and moved downward. It was weakest in the south, but the point of the movement was to get the southern states to free their slaves. This was a movement which really encompassed all people living in the United States during the time.

When: The movement can be said to have taken place between the early 1820's to the 1860's, finally ending at the end of the American Civil war, and the addition of the 13th amendment to the constitution. The movement really picked up and became significant during the late 1850's into the 1860's.

Why: During this time, in the northern states, where slave labor was much less necessary for the productivity of the people there, slave labor began to be seen as unjust. It became clear to the people in the north that African Americans have the same human rights as Caucasian Americans and that slavery was simply unconstitutional and wrong. The movement was created to try to bring this sort of thinking to everyone, and to have everyone free their slaves, essentially abolishing slavery. This movement met its greatest resistance in the south where people required slavery to run their plantations. Since their entire lively hoods depended on slavery, they were very combative to the idea of freeing all of their slaves.

This movement embodied the idea that slavery was violating human rights and articulated the crimes that slavery was essentially committing. The movement holds the identity of all of those who saw slavery as a morally reprehensible act. Those who felt this identity were known as Abolitionists, calling for the complete and total abolition of slavery throughout the United States. They felt that slavery was simply unconstitutional and that the United States could no longer be a place which allowed such a heinous act to continue. The movement tried to show and publicize the evils of slavery in novels such as Uncle Tom's Cabin.