Wendell+Phillips

EKB- Abolitionism, in the period before the Civil War, was based solely on the immorality of slavery. Abolitionists had no choice but to recognize that the country's economy depended greatly on the productivity of the South and thus on slaves. So, in this respect, the abolitionist movement was more a religious movement than a social movement. And just as many religious reformers before them, abolitionists were treated horribly, ostracized and in many instances, killed. Wendell Phillips, a prominent Boston abolitionist and transcendentalist, made a living traveling throughout the North and speaking about the sin of slavery to Americans, but he was ostracized by his own family and subject to violent mobs and beatings. In addition to violence, abolitionists also dealt with a lack of information. The abolitionist movement was very much subject to sectionalism during this time period, since the majority of abolitionists were middle class northerners who did not own slaves, and lacked true, first hand knowledge of Southern life. So the best abolitionists could do was preach to other northerners about the sin of slavery and hope that word would carry. Since constant debates Congress over slavery and other differences between the North and South had led to a division in the country, the abolitionist arguement could not spread effectively and into the South. Abolitionists did not know how slaves were to be freed, how slaves would would survive once freed, what current living conditions were for slaves, what living conditions would be for slaves once they were freed, and what the effect on the national economy would be once they were freed, but only that they needed to be freed. Immediate abolition, the immediate freeing of slaves, was based on the theological belief that sin was not expunged gradually, it was cast away immediately. If abolitionists had been able to properly see the institution of slavery in the South, they would have realized that many slaves were unskilled workers who relied on their owners heavily and that freeing them instantly would only cause slaves to be released into a world where they could not prosper. Other abolitionists, realizing that it was impossible to go from slavery to freedom overnight without serious consequences, had the idea of gradual emancipation. This was much more realistic, and recognized the slaves' needs to be trained and taught how to live independently. If the abolitionists had been able to properly observe slaves and understand the reasons behind slavery, abolitionists might have had more information on which to base their arguments and ideas for freeing the slaves. With more realistic ideas and stronger arguments full of evidence and first hand experience, the abolitionist movement might have been much more popular leading to less violence against abolitionists and a stronger sense of slave rights by the outbreak of the Civil War.

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