The Antislavery Movement

People who settled in New York and Brooklyn introduced slavery to people who once had freedom. Slavery grew rapidly causing the African Americans to establish an antislavery movement. The birth of the antislavery movement caused a number of Northern nations to come up with emancipation laws which can be grouped into two; Gradual and immediate emancipation (Finley, 2017).

Gradual emancipation favored the people who owned the slaves rather than the slaves themselves. The children of the slaves were to work as slaves from childhood until they become adults, then they were set free. There were no clear dates as to when the slaves who existed before the gradual emancipation laws were established would be set free (Jefferson, 2018). The legal and political rights of the slaves were not redressed. The Northern states anticipated on whether to stick to gradual emancipation or to adopt immediate emancipation after the revolutionary war (Levine-Gronningsater, 2014).

The abolitionist movement which intended to effect immediate slavery abolition was established in the early 1830s. William Lloyd Garrison became the leader of the antislavery movement in 1830. Garrison made a lot of impact in the immediate antislavery movement when he first wrote a book in an attempt to persuade the Northern slaveholders to set the slaves free. It has proved hard for immediate emancipation advocates to achieve anything since the Northern nations are not willing to abolish slavery completely (Sklar & Stewart, 2018).

Slavery denies individuals access to human rights. They labor without pay, have no right to political advancement opportunities, and do not enjoy a social life. I advocate for immediate emancipation to promote equality and access to fundamental right to mankind.

References

Finley, A. (2017). Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island by Christy Clark-Pujara. Labor, 14(4), 93-94.

Jefferson, T. (2018). The Movement for American Independence.Melish, J. P. (1998). Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and“ Race” in New England, 1780–1860. Cornell University Press.

Levine-Gronningsater, S. (2014). Delivering Freedom: Gradual Emancipation, Black Legal Culture, and the Origins of Sectional Crisis in New York, 1759-1870. University of Chicago, Division of the Social Sciences, Department of History.

Sklar, K. K., & Stewart, J. (2018). “Women’s Mobilization in the Era of Slave Emancipation: Some Anglo-French Comparisons,” from Women’s Rights and Transatlantic Antislavery in the Era of Emancipation, ed. by University Press, 2007), 98–120. In Pathways from Slavery (pp. 135-156). Routledge.