The+Abolitionist+Movement_Dimitri


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=The Abolitionist Movement=
 * The founding fathers did not directly address the slavery problem.
 * President Monroe supported the resettlement of African Americans in Liberia.
 * William Lloyd Garrison's //The Liberator// gave the Abolitionist Movement a helpful push.
 * Along with the Women's Movement, many women also supported the Abolitionist Movement.
 * Slaves were essential to the south's economy; the south's economy had an affect on the north's economy.
 * The Abolitionist Movement was the precursor to the American Civil War.

Unfortunately, this country's founding fathers failed to address the issue of slavery directly. They left the problem for future generations to solve. Even since the colonies, many United States-people believed that slavery was unscrupulous. During the early 1800s efforts to gradually reduce slavery were underway. Many African Americans were being moved to the country of Liberia. Noble as that project was, those African Americans were several generations removed from Africa which made acclimation difficult. With the publication of his newspaper, //The Liberator,// in 1831, William Lloyd Garrison breathed new life into the Abolitionist Movement. Although, his approach was different: Garrison did not advocate the gradual removal of slavery, he ardently supported the immediate emancipation of slaves.

//“I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? . . . On this subject I do not wish// //to think, or speak, or write with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — and I will be heard. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.”// (Seldon) - W.L. Garrison, 1831 Other prominent supporters of the Abolitionist Movement included Lucretia Mott, who was also part of the Women's Movement, and Frederick Douglass, a freed slave who also published a newspaper (The North Star) in addition to an autobiography.

The economy of the United States' south revolved around agriculture. Inherently, many workers were needed to harvest and plant the crops. The most profitable workers were, of course, slaves. They could be threatened with life and limb to work, and they were payed with the minimum required nourishment. Southerners certainly objected to abolitionism and Thomas Dew, a southern academic, insisted that slaves did too. He alleged, "that . . . the slaves of good [slaveholders] are his warmest, most constant, and most devoted friends."(Appleby, Brinkley, Broussard, McPherson, and Ritchie 103) Even some of the northerners opposed abolitionism. They believed that, if slaves were freed, the south's economy would collapse which would mean that southern debtors wouldn't have enough profit to pay their northern creditors. In addition, the agricultural south supplied the industrial north with cotton for textiles. Some others warned that abolitionism would spark a civil war; it did.


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