A

abolition
The movement to abolish SLAVERY, while most notable
in the United States, can trace its origins to other
countries such as the United Kingdom. Although most
abolitionist activity occurred in these two countries,
antislavery efforts were under way throughout most of
Europe. In Britain, for example, abolitionists worked
to end the international slave trade and to free slaves
in the British colonies. Unlike the United States, slav-
ery had never flourished in the United Kingdom. Many
English did, however, prosper as a result of the slave
trade to the colonies. William Wilberforce, a statesman
and orator, headed the antislavery movement in En-
gland. In 1807, he helped persuade Parliament to pass
a bill outlawing the slave trade. In 1833, another bill
abolished slavery throughout the British Empire.
Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, an esti-
mated total of 15 million Africans were forcibly trans-
ported to the Americas. U.S. antislavery efforts may be
traced back to its early settlements. Among some colo-
nials, slavery was viewed with considerable disdain. In
the 1680s, for example, Quakers in Pennsylvania con-
demned slavery on moral grounds. In the late 1700s,
several prominent founding fathers of the American
Revolution, including Thomas Jefferson and Patrick
Henry, not only spoke out against slavery but sug-

gested the emancipation of slaves as part of the new

Republic’s CONSTITUTION.

Serious antislavery efforts, however, did not emerge

until the formation of the American Colonization Soci-

ety in 1816. This organization led antislavery protests

during the early 1800s. It sought to repatriate freed

slaves back to Liberia. The first periodicals dedicated

to the abolition movement were published by Elihu

Embree in 1819. This Jonesboro, Tennessee, based

weekly newspaper called for the immediate emancipa-

tion of Africans living in the United States. Embree

also established The Emancipatorin 1820. Eleven years

later, in 1831, William Lloyd Garrison, one of the best

known abolitionists, published another newspaper,

The Liberator. Garrison’s demand for the immediate

FREEDOMof slaves was well received and supported by

the American Anti-Slavery Society, which was founded

in 1833. Despite bitter opposition by southern slave

states, the abolition movement spread throughout the

northeastern United States. Violent opposition to the

movement surfaced with the murder, in 1837, of Elijah

P. Lovejoy by an angry mob. Lovejoy, a newspaper edi-

tor in Illinois, had published antislavery editorials.

The situation in the United States was complex

because the social and economic base of the 11 south-

ern states was agrarian and labor intensive. Further-

1