Dbq Abolitionists Essay

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There are many arguments that show that the abolitionists were not successful in their efforts to emancipate slavery. One example is that the abolitionists struggled to be one confined group. They all tried to abolish slavery in their own ways. This meant the process took longer than it needed to. This shows how they failed to abolish slavery. Howard Zinn states they consciously measured their words to the enormity of the evil16.” This illustrates how the abolitionists wanted to be seen as a group that worked to free slaves, but many perceived some of their beliefs as too extreme. This demonstrates how the abolitionists failed to end slavery because they prolonged the emancipation process beyond what was necessary.

The main distinctions between …show more content…

Immediate emancipation, the concept of abolishing slavery immediately, would destroy the Southern economy as their main source of income was slavery and auctioning off slaves. Abolitionists like Garrison followed this ideology. Many believed that this was the only effective way to end slavery because doing so gradually would have taken too long and failed to free these slaves. Although it could be argued that this would not work and would instead destroy the south, many abolitionists failed to consider this repercussion. This demonstrates how the abolitionists' attempts to end slavery were unsuccessful. "Immediate Not Gradual Abolition" was written and published by British Quaker Elizabeth Hayrick. Here, she urged both genders to abstain from purchasing anything made with slave labour. She modified the standard Quaker boycott strategy by establishing a link between the rejection of products made with slave labour and the immediate abolition of slavery. One of the antebellum period's most important abolitionist works was this book17. There was also the ideology …show more content…

This theory was adopted by abolitionists like Douglass because they thought it was the only effective strategy for ending slavery. The public started to realise that some people did care about the South and that they only wanted to abolish slavery, not the South, which gave the abolitionists some success. The abolitionists gained a lot more supporters as a result. However, they were still at odds over the best course of action, which led to tensions within the group. Lastly, there was the concept of colonialization, which called for the abolition of slavery in various American colonies. By doing this, the nation would be able to observe the results of abolition. Later, it was realised that this would not succeed because it would be impossible to be found guilty in these nations. Some abolitionists attempted to reconcile pro- and anti-colonization viewpoints. The weekly anti-slavery publication Genius of Universal Emancipation's editor, Benjamin Ludy, supported limited colonialization plans in Haiti and Texas but opposed the American colonialization society. However, by the beginning of the 1830s,