The Abolitionist Movement - Essay Example

  How successful were they in accomplishing their goals?   The Abolitionist Movement was a broad movement that had a variety of ideas about how to free slaves and end slavery in the United States. Different individuals and groups used different methods to work toward abolition, and had their differences despite a common goal. Many abolitionists were Quakers, some were white politicians, and many others were freed slaves. They all had some sort of effect on slavery and its end, but in their own ways.

The abolitionist movement existed since the time of British colonization, and began mostly with the Quakers who believed that slavery was very wrong. Abolitionism was supported more and more in the northern United States, while its efforts were directed towards the southern states who relied on slavery for their agricultural economy. Many states began to make laws banning slavery in their own state, though it was often a gradual ban. The federal government had established that the import of slaves would be illegal by 1808, but this did not ban the owning and trading of slaves.

To end slavery as a whole would be much tougher. While many slaves were freed due to state laws being enacted as well as efforts by Quakers to plead for their release, the southern states would require much more convincing and pressure. Some of the most famous white abolitionists include some American presidents. . He was a Quaker and spent much of his later life working on petitions, letters to the press, and distributing pamphlets against slavery. He helped make slavery illegal in Rhode Island, and would help slaves to get on their feet after being freed.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was the author of “Uncle Tom's Cabin”, and she worked toward abolition by raising awareness of slavery but also by helping slaves to escape at the loss of their owners. Black abolitionists tended to be freed slaves who knew the hardships of slavery, and fought to end it. Many of them focused on writing as a way of raising awareness, as well as helping slaves to escape on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman was always voicing her opposition to slavery, and after she escaped became well known for helping hundreds of other slaves escape on the Underground Railroad.

Frederick Douglass was also very important, because he used his ability to read and write to make slavery a well known issue and to help give more voice to slaves. He wrote about his own escape from slavery, and was a leading abolitionist by the Civil War. The abolitionists were overall very successful in accomplishing their goals, but different methods worked better than others. White abolitionists succeeded mostly in working to make new laws that helped curb slavery and gradually bring it to an end, but the laws only worked so much and it took the Civil War to really bring change.

The idea of colonization didn't work as well because it led to many slaves dying of disease and was not a good solution for actually bringing rights and freedom. The publication of “Uncle Tom's Cabin” was very successful, however, because it helped change opinions. Black abolitionists saw more success, because they spread