American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) 305Constitution a proslavery document and eschewed voting,
running for offi ce, forming an antislavery party, or engag-
ing in other forms of political participation. Conservatives
also feared identifi cation with the unpopular cause of wom-
en’s rights, which they feared would detract from the abo-
litionist crusade. As a result, when delegates at the AASS
annual meeting in 1840 elected Abby Kelley to its business
committee, President Arthur Tappan resigned along with a
contingent of delegates. Led by Lewis Tappan, the disgrun-
tled factions dramatically walked out of the convention and
later established a separate organization, the American and
Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.
Th e departure of the Tappanites cleared the way for the
dominance of Garrisonian principles of nonviolence, gen-
der equality, and political disengagement. Th e AASS moved
its headquarters to Boston in 1843, and Garrison assumed
its presidency that year, a position he would hold until- Th ough it continued to stay out of party politics, the
AASS was a conspicuous presence in the public sphere as
sectional tensions worsened in the 1840s and 1850s. Aft er
the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, the society launched
a lecturing campaign from 1851 to 1853 to protest it, em-
ploying an interracial slate of speakers including Susan B.
Anthony and Sojourner Truth. It also used its political neu-
trality to praise or condemn politicians from all parties ac-
cording to their views on abolition.
Th e AASS declined during the Civil War as local units
folded and the government fi nally instituted immediate
emancipation in 1863. Th e organization produced no an-
nual report aft er 1861, stopped issuing pamphlets aft er 1862,
and had no fi eld agents by 1865. As the war approached its
conclusion, society members debated whether their pur-
pose had been fulfi lled. Garrison resigned in 1865 with
the ratifi cation of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.
Wendell Phillips assumed the presidency of the AASS, and
those who stayed in the organization believed that their
work would be fi nished only when African Americans re-
ceived the same legal rights as whites. For the remaining
members, this moment arrived in 1870, with the ratifi ca-
tion of the 15th Amendment guaranteeing suff rage to all
male Americans regardless of race. Th e society offi cially
disbanded on April 9, 1870, at a fi nal meeting at Apollo
Hall in New York City. History would show that the 15th
Amendment was insuffi cient to ensure the legal and civil
rights of African Americans, but in its time, the American
Anti-Slavery Society was a tenacious force that was essen-
tial to the struggle for emancipation.
throughout its history for its political philosophy and in-
clusion of women, the AASS kept the cause of immediate
abolitionism in the public sphere and helped bring about
its achievement.
Prior to the establishment of the AASS, most Ameri-
can abolitionists asserted that whites and blacks could not
coexist, and therefore free African Americans should be
returned to Africa. In 1832, the New England Anti-Slavery
Society (NEASS) became the fi rst abolitionist organization
to replace a colonizationist perspective with an immedi-
atist one. Th e NEASS urged a swift end to slavery, argued
against compensating slaveholders, and did not advocate
for the removal of the black population. Aft er the founding
of the NEASS, New York abolitionist Arthur Tappan issued
a call for a national organization committed to the same
immediatist principles. On December 6, 1833, 63 delegates
convened in Philadelphia and signed a formal declaration
establishing the American Anti-Slavery Society. Among the
society’s founders were three African Americans, refl ecting
the organization’s commitment to an interracial member-
ship, and William Lloyd Garrison, a Boston abolitionist
already renowned for his newspaper the Liberator, which
began publishing in 1831.
Th e AASS’s structure combined a national offi ce in
New York City with local and state units. Th e national of-
fi ce oversaw the society’s extensive publication work, which
produced thousands of pamphlets and a newspaper, the
National Anti-Slavery Standard, that were crucial to circu-
lating the organization’s message. Th e AASS also employed
fi eld agents who lectured mostly in the North and Midwest
and sent petitions to Congress addressing such issues as the
abolition of slavery in Washington, D.C., and the annexa-
tion of slaveholding Texas. Th e AASS attracted support from
abolitionists who shared its equation of slavery with sin and
its desire to purge the nation of that sin, an understanding
inspired by evangelical Protestantism. At its annual meeting
in May 1836, the Society counted over 500 local chapters
in 15 states. In 1837 and 1838, it added another 350 units,
employed 38 fi eld agents, had issued 600,000 pamphlets,
and despite the fact that Congress had imposed a gag rule
tabling all antislavery petitions in 1836, had sent 400,000
petitions with almost 1 million signatures.
But internal disagreements simmered through the
1830s, fi nally coming to a head at the society’s annual
meeting in 1840. A conservative faction within the AASS
was dismayed by the political approach avowed by William
Lloyd Garrison and his supporters, which considered the