Abolitionist Movement versus the Antislavery Movement

712 Words2 Pages

The abolitionist movement after 1830 had a greater impact on the nation as a whole then the antislavery movement before 1830 did. Antislavery movement slowly began to diminish and a new drastic form of opposition to slavery developed. The abolitionist movement had a greater impact because William Garrison drastically helped in creating abolitionism, blacks started to become abolitionist expanding the group in numbers, and soon after the movement started the drastic instances made it difficult to overlook.
Once the antislavery movement began to diminish William Garrison an assistant of an antislavery writer went to Boston in 1831 and created his own newspaper called the Liberator. The meek philosophy Garrison came up with became groundbreaking. Garrisons said people should view slavery from a black man’s point of view, not the white man who is a slave owner. He also thought that people should not think of what black’s image had on society but think of the harm it did to the blacks. Garrison was the first member of the antislavery movement to publicly stated blacks needed complete and instant emancipation. He proposed that they didn’t want to just free the blacks but rid the country of them and just keep the slaves. The first issue of The Liberator was very intriguing, he demanded that he will be heard and it may be harsh but it’s the truth. Soon the works of Garrison attracted a large amount of people. He was able to establish the New England Antislavery Society in 1832 then American Antislavery Society in1833. By 1838 there were about 250,000 members of the societies.
As abolitionism started expanding free blacks of the North took interest in the movement. The free blacks of the North lived in conditions far worse than the slave...

... middle of paper ...

...away slaves. Harriet Beecher Stowe published a book called Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It was the most influential document of the abolitionist literature. The book showed emotions of slaves that were treated cruelly by Uncle Tom. Although abolitionism was dividing both sides knew the amount of damage slavery was doing by dividing America. They knew slavery had to be extinguished.
Greater impact on the nation was definitely the abolitionist movement. The abolitionist movement was larger because William Garrison’s idea of starting abolitionism affected society view of slaves, since blacks joined the abolitionist group the groups’ numbers increased, and soon after the movement started the instances that took place made it difficult to overlook. Thanks to the abolitionist the nation saw how deeply it was being divided.

Works Cited

American History 14th Edition Alan Brinkley

Open Document