Anti-Slavery Before The Revolutionary War Summary

Discussion of the Thesis

In the article, “Anti-Slavery before the Revolutionary War,” Sylvia R. Frey focuses on abolitionist thoughts, movements, and works, before the start of the Revolutionary War. In fact, Frey goes on as far as to say that the first acts of rebellion from a slave on the Middle Passage helped to initiate an anti-slavery movement. However, Frey argues that the intellectual movement against slavery had both religious and secular beginnings, and that at times, these two bases were also used to support the arguments of later-developing pro-slavery arguments. Firstly, religion was one of the main themes used by abolitionists to appeal to religious audiences. They used Bible verses as well as refutations of secular pro-slavery arguments. For instance, when attempting to appeal to the Quakers, George Keith used a verse from Exodus stating that anyone who steals and sells another man will die. This idea of “divine vengeance,” as Frey puts it, not only would scare the Quakers into ceasing from owning slaves, but it would hinder them from making a profit from them as well. In order

Frey explains that organized pro-slavery thought was scarce before the American Revolution. The reason for this may well be the modes in which anti-slavery arguments were conveyed. Anti-slavery arguments were, as aforementioned, usually comprised of religious or secular arguments. Pro-slavery arguments, which developed much later, did the same thing. They used the Bible to prove that slavery was actually a part of God’s plan, and while abolitionists used natural-rights arguments, pro-slavery was based on “republican ideologies,” as they stated that because owning property was a natural right, owning slaves was too, because they were property. Frey includes this to demonstrate an example of pro-slavery arguments and how they tried to use the arguments of abolitionists against