The Abolitionist Movement's Involvement in American Politics, 1750-1865

FAIN: HB-50274-13

Stanley Harrold
South Carolina State University (Orangeburg, SC 29115-4427)

I propose to write a comprehensive book analyzing the impact on American politics of the radical movement to abolish slavery. This subject is important because the relationship, during the 18th and 19th centuries, between abolitionist agitators and practical politicians has never been clear. The issue is: what was the impact of morally-based radicals who urged rapid emancipation on practical politicians who led the US into the Civil War in 1861. Currently historians either ignore the issue, deny that abolitionists had significant influence, or make vague references to abolitionist impact on popular opinion. Therefore I shall investigate direct unambiguous abolitionist relations with politicians, political parties, and government bodies between the years 1750 and 1865. The book will clarify not only a significant part of Civil War causation, but also how a major American reform movement functioned politically.

Associated Products

American Abolitionism: Its Direct Political Impact from Colonial Times into Reconstruction (Book)
Title: American Abolitionism: Its Direct Political Impact from Colonial Times into Reconstruction
Author: Stanley Harrold
Editor: Nation Divided: Studies in the Civil War Era
Abstract: This ambitious book provides the only systematic examination of the American abolition movement's direct impacts on antislavery politics from colonial times to the Civil War and after. As opposed to surveying indirect methods such as propaganda, sermons, and speeches at protest meetings, Stanley Harrold focuses on abolitionists' political tactics-petitioning, lobbying, establishing bonds with sympathetic politicians-and on their disruptions of slavery itself. Harrold begins with the abolition movement's relationship to politics and government in the northern American colonies and goes on to evaluate its influence in a number of crucial contexts-the U.S. Congress during the 1790s, the Missouri Compromise, the struggle over slavery in Illinois during the 1820s, and abolitionist petitioning of Congress during that same decade. He shows how the rise of "immediate" abolitionism, with its emphasis on moral suasion, did not diminish direct abolitionists' impact on Congress during the 1830s and 1840s. The book also addresses abolitionists' direct actions against slavery itself, aiding escaped or kidnapped slaves, which led southern politicians to demand the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, a major flashpoint of antebellum politics. Finally, Harrold investigates the relationship between abolitionists and the Republican Party through the Civil War and into Reconstruction.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/american-abolitionism-its-direct-political-impact-from-colonial-times-into-reconstruction/oclc/1076426566&referer=brief_results
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780813942292
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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