Abolition Essay Plan

Question 1

Failure Intro

Answer 1

• Abolition for black freedom
• King Cotton
• Sectional Tension
• P1 Lack of Unity, Temperly + Barnes & Drummond
• P2 Lack of Interest, De Tocqueville + Litwack
• P3 Political Limitations, Tulloch + Freehling

Question 2

Failure P1: Lack of Unity

Answer 2

Several movements:
- Many different groups like temperance or women’s rights
- Several different abolition groups like 1833 American Anti-Slave Society Founded splitting attention
Liberator:
- 1831 first published by William Lloyd Garrison
- Liberator Circulation didn’t exceed 3,000

H:
- Temperly, movement found difficult to agree on how to achieve aims, this handicapped effectiveness.
- Barnes and Dumond, most abolitionists had a straightforward moral attack, not violence of Garrison or Brown.

Question 3

Failure P2: Lack of Interest

Answer 3

South:
- 1831 Virginia, Nat Turner Revolt, 55 whites died before revolt ended. Southerners blamed abolitionists.
- South took action against them, excluded abolition literature, any thought to be sympathetic beaten & driven out
North:
- North feared blacks in society too
- North had dislikes too. 1837 Elijah Lovejoy killed by Northern mob in Illinois and became first abolition martyr

H:
- De Tocqueville, ‘The prejudice of race appears to be where it still exists.’
- Litwack, Pointed out the indifference of Northerners on the question of race.

Question 4

Failure P3: Political Limitations

Answer 4

Congress:
- Gag Rule stopping abolitions impact in politics
- Fugitive slave act
- Dred Scott ruled against abolition cause
- Abolitionists set up their own Liberty Party. In 1840 its presidential candidate won only 7000 votes.

H:
- Freehling, states’ rights were seen as sacrosanct, and autonomy was fiercely guarded.
- Tulloch, abolitionists may have been heroes with feet of clay, nonetheless they were heroes.