Final Research Paper: The Abolitionist Movement

Farid Ghamsari

Dr. Stephanie Brown

English 306

11/2/2016

The Significance of the Black Abolitionist Identity

 in the American Abolitionist Movement

            The Abolitionist Movement in the United States is a movement that many are familiar with. It called for the complete and immediate abolishment of slavery in the United States. It was an intense and significant movement which grew larger and larger until it became one of the major factors leading up to the civil war, after which, the movement ended, having achieved its goal of abolishing slavery throughout the United States. While the general history of the Abolitionist movement is relatively common knowledge, the path through which the identities that made up the movement is much less known. For most of the history of the United States, historians have publicized the idea that the Abolitionist Movement was most intensely fought by Whites, creating the idea of “The White Liberators”. However, in recent decades, historians have gone back to the events of the movement and have focused on the immensely significant role that Blacks had in their own liberation. These recent publications will show that The Abolitionist Movement was a large culmination of several independent groups with differing identities and ideals that led them to fight for the movement. This essay will primarily focus on the two largest and most consequential groups in the movement, the White Immediatists and the Black Abolitionists.  First, the essay will present a comprehensive background of the relevant historical information necessary to understand how slavery and the Abolitionist movement both began and developed in the United States. Here it will also go into detail about one Black Abolitionist leader in particular who helped champion the Black Abolitionist identity through his life and work. Next, it will elaborate on the two aforementioned identities and how each developed and the role that each played in the Abolitionist Movement, focusing on the significance of the Black Abolitionists in changing the rhetoric of the Movement, and in doing so, making it stronger. Finally, the essay will discuss and analyze an artifact from the movement which exemplifies the significance of the Black Abolitionists and portrays the how the new Black Abolitionist Identity introduced stronger and more impactful rhetoric to the movement.
            Before the Abolitionist movement, the practice of slavery was relatively ubiquitous throughout the United States. Especially in the South, there was a significant need for cheap labor and slavery quickly became a relatively prevalent practice. Before the US became an independent nation, there were only relatively small groups, such as the Quakers, that did not practice slavery, believing that it was immoral and a violation of human brotherhood (Ferrell 7). Over time, these small groups eventually moved from simply not practicing slavery themselves, to open opposition of it, pushing for it to stop all throughout the United States. The American Abolitionist Movement was defined as the movement to immediately and completely Abolish Slavery throughout the United States.

The movement really began in 1776, just before the United States gained its independence. Up until this time, most if not all states, were fairly accepting of the practice of slavery, but groups which found it morally irreprehensible were constantly growing larger and more adamant about the opposition to it. These groups, mostly present in the North of the US, grew more powerful during this time and slavery slowly lost favor. Over the next 50-60 years, the northern states slowly began introducing legislature which first banned slave trade, and then slavery altogether. By the 1820’s most northern states had all but abolished slavery in the north. (Ferrell 28).

            Slavery in the South was a much more engrained practice however. In the North, slavery had been becoming a practice of convenience over time, but in the South, slavery was needed to work plantations. By using slavery, plantation owners could make significantly more money due to not needing to pay wages for the work. The drive for increased production, profit, and wealth was exceedingly powerful and for the most part trumped morality in the South. In addition, the disjointed nature of the south, which would have great stretches of land between plantations, also hindered the spreading of ideas. The South strongly resisted the abolitionist movement for these reasons and actively fought it on a number of occasions with laws such as the Fugitive Slave Law. In 1793, the law was passed which forced northern states to return runaway slaves to the south. (Ferrell 27). For Southern Slave Owners, an end to slavery would essentially be an end to their entire way of life, completely derailing their livelihoods. For this reason, it is easy to see why Southerners would want to resist the ideals of the Abolitionist Movement as strongly as they did.

However, even after slavery was condemned in the North, free Blacks were actually not significantly better off than the slaves who lived in the south. During this time, in the North, there was still severe discrimination and racism that existed towards free Blacks (Litwack). Blacks in the North had to fight very similar battles to those fought in the south. In the 1820’s, The Abolitionist Movement in the North gradually became a mission for civil rights for all free men living in the United States in addition to its goals to abolish slavery. It is important to note that this mostly applied to black men and not women, who still did not obtain equal civil rights until much later in the US’s history. The Abolitionist movement and its goals was significantly assisted by new several abolitionist newspapers such as The Liberator, started and written by William Lloyd Garrison, an important white leader in the Abolitionist Movement (Shortell).

By the 1830’s, The Liberator, along with several other newspapers, launched a renewed Abolitionist campaign in the North, focused on complete racial equality, and began launching a more focused campaign to end slavery in the south. (Stewart). The South strongly resisted these campaigns, unwilling to give up their slaves for any reason that couldn’t trump their financial successes. These newspapers along with Black leaders led to a high point of turmoil in the North during the 1830’s and 40’s. During this period, even Northern Whites who had freed their slaves were worried about a resulting race war if the Abolitionist Rhetoric continued in the way that it was. This period of time is known as the Antebellum Period of the Abolitionist movement and is considered the most radical period of the movement, pushing for complete racial equality and “respectability” for African Americans. This Antebellum period can be considered at the crisis of the Abolitionist Movement under Griffin’s framework for describing political protests. (Griffin)

            White newspapers had a large and significant impact on the movement, helping it expand and grow beyond what its capabilities would be without them. However, Black Abolitionists also had a significant impact throughout the movement, eventually culminating in the Black Abolitionist Identity during the Antebellum period. Since the beginning of the Abolitionist Movement in the US, Blacks were actively fighting slavery in a way which pushed it to its limits before it was completely abolished in each area. Examples of this have been seen in many ways throughout the different areas of the US. In Massachusetts, back in 1776, Black slaves were able to run from their owners, and once they had escaped, they would be considered free by Massachusetts law. At this point, they would then return and lawfully emancipate the rest of the slaves who were still residing with the owner (Sinha). In Vermont, Black Abolitionists were able to constitutionally institute universal male suffrage. From there they were able to vote on the issue of slavery, and with the large number of Black voters, were able to condemn it (Sinha). Black leaders had lasting impacts on the initial abolition of slavery in the North, but soon after slavery was abolished in these areas, the Black Abolitionists lost steam after having been freed and moved into the background of the Abolitionist Movement. It was only in the 1830’s and 40’s when free black men became a strong source of leadership. This was due to many prior slaves becoming strong writers and orators who spread abolitionism to other African Americans in a way that no white Abolitionist could have. They helped make abolition an African American cause and movement which forcefully thrust the movement forward. Black leaders such as Henry Garnet, Henry Bibb, and Fredrick Douglass championed the Black Abolitionist cause and spread the ideals with a new found zeal and strength. (Harold 118).

Fredrick Douglass was an African American who had been born a slave in Maryland. For many years, he was beaten daily by his owners until he was hired to another slave owner who treated him slightly better. (Ferrell 122). Douglass escaped slavery in 1838 and moved to the North. There, he began reading The Liberator and was greatly inspired by William Lloyd Garrison. Soon after, Douglass wrote his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass” which contained a slave narrative that became wildly popular as an insight into the life of a slave. Douglass gained much acclaim and became a dominant figure in the Abolitionist Movement. He was such a strong orator and writer that many found it hard to believe that he had ever been a slave. During his life, he wrote several more influential works such as “My Bondage and My Freedom” (Chaney 17), and gave numerous influential speeches. He is remembered for establishing different themes throughout his writing to depict different ideas such as Black-Heroism and the equality of men by being men. One of the most influential speeches he gave was of the Creole slave ship revolt, in which a black leader, Madison Washington, led 19 slaves in a successful revolt against their captives while killing only one crew member. They redirected the ship to Britain where the all of the 135 slaves aboard were declared free (Bernier). His speeches and writings personalized the atrocities of slavery and brought them onto a public scale. The works allowed White people to see how evil slavery could be, and they let slaves see how they could begin to champion their own freedom as Douglass and those he spoke of had done (Davis).  Other Southern Black Liberators began writing and an increasing force grew from their collective identity as more slaves began to understand their own power to revolt and free themselves. (Davis)

Fredrick Douglass entered the protest at a very critical point. His rhetoric changed the conversation and role of Abolitionism. It shifted from being a predominantly white-led movement, as shown by William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator, to one primarily led by free Black leaders. He also helped in creating a following and support for the movement in both free and enslaved blacks, which pushed the movement to a breaking point. The following section of this essay will explore in more depth, the rhetoric and individual identities involved in the movement as it rhetorically shifted from White Abolitionism to Black Abolitionism in the movement. It will also further explore how Frederick Douglass acted as a key figure in this shift as an embodiment of the Black Abolitionist Identity.

            From its beginnings, the Abolitionist Movement was primarily led by people known as White Immediatists. The Immediatists were present since the beginnings of slavery in the US and saw their beginnings in small groups such as The Quakers. The Immediatists were those who believed that slavery should be condemned because they saw it as a heinous crime to God and American Ideals (Stewart 6). These Immediatists saw emancipation as the only way to rid America of the injustices of the slavery and reconcile the US with God, and they called for the immediate and complete abolishment of slavery all over the US. (Stewart 7). This identity while being strong and influential, was a fairly small one. The percentage of the population in the North that consisted of these religiously moral Immediatists was relatively minimal, despite the speed with which their messages spread in the North. William Lloyd Garrison was initially an Immediatist and with the use of his newspaper The Liberator he was able to spread this message quickly and broadly. The Immediatists identity saw its strongest era in the early 1830’s. At this point in time, many others joined the Immediatists under the idea that slavery was morally irreprehensible. These newcomers were less interested in its immorality in the face of God, but instead simply felt that the practice was immoral and should be abolished on that ground alone (Stewart 7).

As mentioned previously, the south resisted the ideals of the Immediatists strongly. The south was deeply racist and saw slaves as property rather than human individuals. This helped them ignore the ideals of the Immediatists as unjustified and pointless. There were few Southern Abolitionists prior to the 1830’s and these people were often attacked or harassed by pro-slavery extremists (Harrold 18). For this reason in addition to those expressed earlier in the paper, the spreading of information and Abolitionist ideals was slow to spread in the south. To southerners, the economy held by slavery was significantly more important and valuable than the values that white Immediatists seemed to be preaching. The south considered Northern Immediatists to be fanatical and unrealistic, asking Southern Slave owners to simply give up their largest and most valuable investments (Harrold 15). These Immediatists, while spreading a relatively moral message, were often zealous in their method of doing so. Many Immediatists were followers of “William Lloyd Garrison’s radical brand of abolitionism, [and] became infamous for breaking up services in churches [and other venues] that barred antislavery meetings,” (Olson).  Though it seems that the Immediatists had good intentions, their methods through which they tried to achieve emancipation were overly radical and disrespectful. This is one issue that kept Southern leaders from wanting to even think about emancipating their slaves. The southerners were outraged by the ways Immediatists tried to push their agenda and in many ways dug themselves in deeper into their Pro-slavery ideals due to the Immediatists. (Stewart 12).

                The Immediatists radicalism and zealotry caused them to fail in many regards in their protest. Their methods failed to develop a strong identity in the North and were immensely counterproductive in the south. This failure of the White Immediatists to can be accurately described through an article written by James Jasper. In Jasper’s article “The Emotions of Protest: Affective and Reactive Emotions in and around Social Movements”, he articulates the necessity of properly cultivating emotions in a protest, especially one that requires a basis around morality. (Jasper). He articulates that it is important for a protest to develop a proper frame for its participants to align with. By this, a frame is meant to represent a mindset or collective of ideas behind which members of a particular protest can feel a part of, and essentially align to its frame. For this protest, it was important for the Immediatists of the North to create an Injustice Frame around slavery in the south. An injustice frame be considered a “way of viewing a situation or condition that expresses indignation or outrage over a perceived injustice”. (Jasper). The act of slavery, while clearly amoral, was not being represented by the Immediatists in a strong enough Injustice Frame for great amounts of society to be outraged and align with the cause. This failure clearly depicts why the White Immediatist Identity had so much opposition and resistance.

                In the early 1840’s however, a new Abolitionist Identity began to arise. This abolitionist identity was that of the Southern Black Abolitionist (Stewart 21). This identity was championed by African American leaders such as Fredrick Douglass, who had previously been slaves, before they went on to be strong African American Abolitionists (Stewart 21). The Black Abolitionist Identity was built by these leaders and slowly grew into the south, attaching the identity to all Black Slaves, who craved their freedom.

This new identity created a pivotal role in the Abolitionist Movement. The Black Abolitionists, rather than calling for the abolishment of slavery, simply due to its immorality, called for equal rights, through the definition of manhood. This expressed the idea that Black men, were clearly men, and experienced manhood in the same way as white men, questioning how the color of a man’s skin could dictate anything. Black Abolitionists were not only fighting slavery, but calling for equal rights in northern society which was still very strongly racist (Shortell). It was at this time that the White Immediatist Newspapers such as The Liberator also began pushing messages of civil rights and total racial equality. The Black Abolitionist identity restructured the rhetoric through which slavery should be addressed, as well as the way in which free African Americans should be treated. This identity was much stronger than the previous Immediatists in that it connected with black individuals in the south who were still enslaved. Many previously enslaved Black writers became leaders of this movement and identity by expressing the plight of the slave through narratives and memoirs as seen in Davis’ book, The Slave Narrative. These narratives and others like them gave insight into the life of the slave and clearly portrayed the injustice’s taking place in the south. One story in the collective tells of how David George, was “’whipped many a time on [his] naked skin’ after seeing his family cruelly abused” (Davis 51). Stories like this personalized the pain and suffering being caused by slavery and made this available not only free white and black people in the North, but also any literate slaves in the South. When Black slaves were able to see one another rise up against the injustices, it made them feel stronger about their own independent identities and more rebellious towards their captors.

The new Black identity, while developing this sense of strength among Black individuals, also created a new rhetoric through which to address the racism that persisted in the North (Bernier). Fredrick Douglass, one of the strongest orators and writers of the Black Abolitionists, can be considered a model and embodiment of the identity, and created many of its defining moments and its rhetoric. In one speech, Douglass argued, “I am here but to urge the right of every man to his own body, to his own hand, and to his own heart” (Bernier). In this, he is arguing that simply by the humanity and manhood of black men, they should have their lives in their own hands, as do all other men. With this, he elicits emotions of rebellion and revolt from Southern slaves, while also softening the hearts of white racists in the North who have tried to dehumanize Black men.

The Black Abolitionist Identity was much more successful in the attacks against slavery than the previous Immediatist Abolitionism. This, in large part, is due to the effect that it had on Southern Slaves. Slaves felt encouraged to run away from their owners, in hope of securing their freedom as their African American Leaders had (Litwack). In many ways, this weakened the South’s hold over their slaves more than any other attempt from the North previously had. The increasing numbers of runaway slaves led to severely heightened tensions between the North and the South, ultimately becoming one of the main factors that led to the Civil War (Litwack).

Once again looking at Jaspers’ discussion of emotions in protests again make it clear as to why this Identity so much more successful in the progression of the movement. Jasper argues several key points to the success of a protest, one being the proper framing of injustice. The new Black Abolitionist Identity, no longer simply framed slavery as amoral and a sin to God, but instead defined it as an injustice to the men who were enslaved. Through the rhetoric of collective manhood for both Blacks and Whites, a collective identity of man was able to be created. With this identity, it became clear that the immoral injustice of slavery was not just a problem for Black men, but also White men too, who were connected in their collective manhood. This rhetoric framed the injustice of slavery in a way in which Black and White men could easily align themselves and feel wholly part of the collective identity.  This connection that was growing between them was easily quantified by the amount of slaves that were able to escape and were hosted by Black and White Northerners (Lamb). Southern slave owners were mostly outraged by the rhetoric and actions of the Black and White Northerners who refused to return the runaway slaves, saying that they were, “’stealing’ under federal law” (Lamb). With this, the Black Abolitionist Identity not only connected all those who wanted the abolishment of slavery under a single emotional frame and collective identity, but it also alienated and enraged the Southern Slave holders. The next portion of this essay will focus on one artifact, The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass which embodied the Black Abolitionist Identity, and discuss how it, like many other slave narratives, was so effective in cultivating the Black Abolitionist Identity.

  The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass was an Autobiography in which he personalized the issues of slavery for many who had been disconnected from it by discussing his own painful history as a slave. He and other Black Abolitionists, correctly understood how to frame his works to elicit strong emotions from his readers and give them an intimate view of slavery and its atrocities. The book employs pathos, ethos, and logos to solidify the Black Abolitionist Identity and use them to bring all of those who opposed slavery to one solid force against it.

The Narrative of Fredrick Douglass primarily uses pathos to personalize the atrocities of slavery for anyone reading the book by portraying Douglass’ own plight through the process of slavery before finally escaping to his freedom. The book tells countless stories of being estranged and beaten.  He says while working for his owner, Mr. Covey, “[Mr. Covey] lashed [Douglass] till he had worn out his stitches, cutting him so savagely as to leave the marks visible for a long time after (Douglass 52). The extent to which the brutality and painful atrocities of slavery are expressed through this novel are somewhat troubling. It elicits pain and disgust at how the practices of slavery could honestly be continuing in such a manner. In another story, Douglass describes his suffering at his breaking point: “Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!” (Douglass 55). The personal and intimate description of Douglass’ soul and spirit being crushed draws an intense empathy from the reader, feeling truly sorry for Douglass. These among countless other stories of brutality and suffering under the chains of slavery are bulk of The Narrative.  The physical pain and distress brought to the slaves was portrayed and publicized through this book in a manner which could elicit strong emotions from any reader. From Northern Abolitionists, it drew sympathy for the slaves and moral disgust at the practices that continued in the South. From freed and enslaved blacks, it drew empathy for one another’s suffering, but it also created a sort of empowerment. Seeing Fredrick Douglass, who himself escaped slavery, empowered Blacks to believe that they could too, and they began to fill this Black Abolitionist Identity, fighting for their own freedom. This form of Black empowerment through The Narrative of Fredrick Douglass was able to provide one of the key factors that led to the escalation of the issue up to the civil war (Sinha). As stated before this rhetoric and powerful emotional appeal was crucial in the development of the complete Abolitionist Movement. The autobiography and other narratives like it, many examples of which can be found in Charles Davis’ book The Slave Narrative, were able to portray slavery and Southern slave owners in a rhetorical frame of severe injustice. The amorality of this injustice painted Southern slave owners as a clear target as all of the different Anti-Slavery groups and peoples were able to align their own personal frames behind the one presented by the slave narrative. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in particular was one of the first and most prolific slave narratives, bringing together the different Abolitionist groups by eliciting a strong set of emotions in its readers and bringing about a larger Black Abolitionist Identity through its message.

The book, while being powerfully emotional and striking chords throughout the many sects of the Abolitionist Movement, also held a strong amount of ethos in its content that previous Abolitionist writings were missing. Fredrick Douglass, by having been a former slave, created a new authority with his autobiography. Up until that point, any writings that had been distributed by the White Immediatists could not have held nearly the form of weight that the book did or any other slave narratives. When the White Immediatists spoke and wrote of the problem, it was a far removed description of the atrocities that slavery produced and was. Due to this distance, their writings had no strong impact on anyone who was not actively an Abolitionist or part of the Immediatist cause (Mailloux 85). Their calls of the amorality of slavery were generic and could not have held the authority that The Narrative did, having been written by a former slave who had truly experienced these atrocities. The fact that The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was a book about experiencing slavery from someone who truly had, brought an authority in its writings that no White Immediatist literature could have. The way the autobiography was viewed was fundamentally different due to this distinction. It contained the gritty real truth with experience which spoke its readers in a way that all previous writing had been missing. This experience of having been a slave helped Frederick Douglass and his autobiography sway his audience with significant ethos (Mailloux 85). The authority The Narrative held made its readers take the atrocities seen in the book as truth and fact and to feel the need to take arms against it. This exposure led to a growing Black Abolitionist Identity as more individuals felt that they had learned just how amoral slavery was. However, Douglass also gains an additional authority through being such an eloquent speaker and writer. As a former slave, to be literate at all was uncommon. His ability to write and speak so powerfully additionally gave him a fair amount of ethos as well, portraying him as a strong and respectable leader.

Finally, The Narrative of Frederick Douglass also used Logos to build the Black Abolitionist Identity in a slightly subtler way. When Douglass’ autobiography became published and publicized, a revelation spread across the minds of the slaves residing in the south. They were reading the narrative of a former slave, who had taken charge of his life and escaped and had become well regarded and strong. The story of the narrative logically led Blacks still enslaved in the South to begin fighting more intensely for their own freedom (Chukwu).  After Frederick Douglass’ Narrative spread, more Slave Narrative’s began spreading as well, further increasing slaves’ resistance against their masters. This is where the final piece of the Black Abolitionist Identity is created. After seeing The Narrative as well as other narratives of slaves escaping and truly being free in the north, the slaves of the south were able to join the Black Abolitionist Identity and began advocating more seriously for their own freedom. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass spread the message that if Frederick Douglass could do it, so could anyone else bound by slavery (Aptheker). This appeal to logos fundamentally changed the way slaves viewed themselves under slavery and launched them into feeling united under the Black Abolitionist Identity (Aptheker).

Through appeals to emotion, authority, and logic, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass among other slave narratives, brought together a new identity of Black Abolitionists to further propel the Abolitionist movement towards its goals. This new Identity was united in their new intimate view of the atrocities of slavery and its amorality. This identity was also headed by a new set of Black Abolitionist leaders such as Frederick Douglass who held an authority on the suffering caused by slavery having once been slaves themselves. These narratives also pushed southern enslaved Blacks into the new Abolitionist Movement by showing them the potential to escape slavery and to join with the spirited and ever growing Black Abolitionist Identity.

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is just one of many examples of writings that helped bolster the Black Abolitionist Identity. These writings were able to personalize and portray slavery in a way that the previous White Immediatist Identity was wholly unable. The Black Abolitionist Identity was one that was able to reach many more groups of people by displaying slavery as injustice to the enslaved and strengthened the movement by changing its rhetoric from being about an immorality in the face of God. The Black Abolitionist Identity, with these changes, was significantly stronger than the previous white Immediatist identity and shows how important a sense of identity is in throughout the course of a movement. The White Immediatist Identity, through its zealous methods, turned many people away from its ideals, however moral they may have been. The Black Abolitionist Identity, essentially pushing for the same final goal, did so with a rhetoric that was able to many more people feel attached to the identity, and therefore the goal.

While the Abolitionist movement was unable to actually achieve its goals diplomatically, it was able to lead to significant tension in the United States resulting in the Civil War. Additionally, the effect of the Black Abolitionist Identity in creating a larger push for the abolishment of slavery was crucial in raising tension to that point.

Works Cited:

Aptheker, Herbert. The Negro in the Abolitionist Movement. 1st ed. Vol. 5. New York: International, 1941. Print. Pp. 2-23.

Bernier, Celeste-Marie. "From Fugitive Slave To Fugitive Abolitionist." Atlantic Studies 3.2 (2006): 201-24. Web.

Chaney, Michael A. Fugitive Vision: Slave Image and Black Identity in Antebellum Narrative. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2008. Print.

Chukwu, Dan O. "Background to the Era of New Abolitionism." Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 17 (2007): 1-15. Web.

Davis, Charles T., and Henry Louis Gates. The Slave's Narrative. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985. Print.

Ferrell, Claudine L. The Abolitionist Movement. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006. Print.

Harrold, Stanley. The Abolitionists and the South: 1831-1861. Lexington, KY: U of Kentucky, 1995. Print.

Jasper, James M. "The Emotions of Protest: Affective and Reactive Emotions In and Around Social Movements." Sociological Forum 13.3 (1998): 397-424. Web.

Lamb, Benjamin. Angry Abolitionists and the Rhetoric of Slavery: Moral Emotions in Social Movements.  Springer International, 2016. Print. Cultural Sociology.

Litwack, Leon F. "The Abolitionist Dilemma: The Antislavery Movement and the Northern Negro." The New England Quarterly 34.1 (1961): 50-73. Web.

Olson, Joel. "The Freshness of Fanaticism: The Abolitionist Defense of Zealotry." Perspectives on Politics 5.04 (2007): 685-701. Web.

O'Loughlin, Jim. "Articulating "Uncle Tom's Cabin"" New Literary History, Philosophical and Rhetorical Inquiries 31.3 (2000): 573-97. Johns' Hopkins University Press. Web.

Shortell, T. "The Rhetoric of Black Abolitionism: An Exploratory Analysis of Antislavery Newspapers in New York State." Social Science History 28.1 (2004): 75-109. Web.

Sinha, Manisha. The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition. Yale UP, 2016. Print.

Stewart, James Brewer. Abolitionist Politics and the Coming of the Civil War. Amherst: U of Massachusetts, 2008. Print.