1801: Abolitionism
“In reference to the question of Slavery, it may be reasonably supposed, that the Lord of light and life will not for ever slumber, he will not for ever see his children trodden down under the iron hoof of Southern despotism” (Smallwood, 1851, p. iii).
Frederick Douglass
Source: New-York Historical Society
So begins the autobiography of Thomas Smallwood, an enslaved Black man born in Prince George’s County, Maryland, in 1801. Freed at age 30, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he became part of an active community of free and enslaved Black churchgoers at Ebenezer Methodist Church (Ferré-Rode, 2013). Smallwood had heard of and sought out the fiery abolitionist Charles Torrey who had been jailed in Annapolis for infiltrating a legislative meeting of Maryland slaveholders (Harrod, 2000, p. 282). Together, Smallwood and Torrey created the first Underground Railroad line from Washington, D.C. through Baltimore to Toronto, Canada. While Torrey was eventually caught and hung for his abolitionist efforts, Smallwood and his family escaped to Toronto where they joined a thriving free Black community (Ferré-Rode, 2013).
Smallwood and Torrey represented the growing urgency that caused many people to more actively combat slavery. Slave rebellions, fugitive slaves, and political and religious movements rose to confront and resist the institution. Historian Manisha Sinha (2017) wrote, “The connection between slave resistance and abolition in the United States was proximate and continuous. Prominent slave revolts marked the turn toward immediate abolition. Fugitive slaves united all factions of the movement and led abolitionists to justify revolutionary resistance to slavery” (p. 2). Smallwood represents the influence that free Black people, fugitive enslaved persons, and Black church members had in mobilizing white and Black groups to criticize slavery and actively resist it.
The abolition of slavery challenged the economic model upon which the South derived its wealth and stability. It threatened the legal, cultural, and political status quo of the North and South (Jeffrey, 2008, p. 1). And in many ways it challenged the notion of a racial hierarchy in the United States. Historian Tunde Adeleke (1998) noted,
Pro-slavery advocates and racial conservatives justified discriminatory politics on alleged deficiencies inherent in the character and conditions of blacks. Blacks, according to popular reasoning, were disadvantaged and degraded in consequence of behavioral and situational imperfections—that they were lazy, ignorant, backward and morally decadent…. [R]acial conservatives described these traits as inherent, perhaps even divinely conditioned, and, therefore, permanent. (p. 128)
South Carolina statesman John C. Calhoun, accepting this view of the inherent inferiority of Black people, argued that slavery was a “positive good” (Kendi, 2017) – benefiting the country and the black population.
Abolitionists tapped into a long history of subtle and overt resistance by African Americans. While denigrated, abused, and enslaved, Black people found ways to celebrate their culture, stay connected to their families and friends, and whenever possible, defy their slave owners and seek their freedom (Franklin and Schweninger, 2000, p. 18-19; Kendi, 2017).
The abolition of slavery challenged the economic model upon which the South derived its wealth and stability. It threatened the legal, cultural, and political status quo of the North and South (Jeffrey, 2008, p. 1). And in many ways it challenged the notion of a racial hierarchy in the United States. Historian Tunde Adeleke (1998) noted,
Pro-slavery advocates and racial conservatives justified discriminatory politics on alleged deficiencies inherent in the character and conditions of blacks. Blacks, according to popular reasoning, were disadvantaged and degraded in consequence of behavioral and situational imperfections—that they were lazy, ignorant, backward and morally decadent…. [R]acial conservatives described these traits as inherent, perhaps even divinely conditioned, and, therefore, permanent. (p. 128)
South Carolina statesman John C. Calhoun, accepting this view of the inherent inferiority of Black people, argued that slavery was a “positive good” (Kendi, 2017) – benefiting the country and the black population.
Abolitionists tapped into a long history of subtle and overt resistance by African Americans. While denigrated, abused, and enslaved, Black people found ways to celebrate their culture, stay connected to their families and friends, and whenever possible, defy their slave owners and seek their freedom (Franklin and Schweninger, 2000, p. 18-19; Kendi, 2017).