318 Political Activity and Resistance to Oppression: From the American Revolution to the Civil War
seated had limited involvement in the debates and the for-
mation of policies and procedures. Likewise, they did not
hold positions of authority as offi cers, nor were they on
any executive committees; this trend continued through
the Civil War. It appears that, despite Garrison’s endorse-
ment, there was still considerable controversy over whether
blacks should be allowed membership in the societies or
even be allowed to attend the meetings, and the same ten-
sion existed in the female antislavery societies.
Black Americans, however, did benefi t greatly from
white abolitionists eff orts as they advertised black businesses,
off ered assistance in getting black inventions patented, and
in general gave black Americans the broader public avenues
for expression they so desperately needed. Traveling orators
such as Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, Wil-
liam Wells Brown, Sarah Mapps Douglass, Frances Ellen
Watkins Harper, William and Ellen Craft , and others were
hired by the AASS to make the case that slavery and racism
were indeed a national issue that needed resolution.
By 1838, the AASS had almost 250,000 members and
1,350 affi liated societies. Th ey published antislavery tracts
and slave narratives that portrayed the horrors of slavery
in vivid fashion. Th ey sent over 1 million petitions to Con-
gress in 1835, leading the House of Representatives to adopt
the “gag rule,” which prohibited the reading of petitions on
the subject of slavery from 1836 to 1844. Eventually, the gag
rule was overturned with the help of former president John
Quincy Adams.
Over time, black abolitionists came to feel that white
abolitionists were more concerned with theoretical ideas of
equality and freedom. Th ey determined that more power-
ful opposition was needed to eff ect the necessary structural
changes within America, and they increasingly lost hope in
the idea of a peaceful end to slavery. From the middle of the
1840s until the Civil War, many African American aboli-
tionists called for the use of force and revolution as the only
way to ascertain the liberation of those still enslaved.
See also: Abolition, Slavery; American and Foreign Anti-
Slavery Society; American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS)Kay Wright LewisBibliography
Berlin, Ira. Slaves without Masters: Th e Free Negro in the Antebel-
lum South. New York: New Press, 1971.
Davis, Davis Brion. Th e Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolu-
tion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.In 1791, Prince Hall founded one of the earliest organi-
zations, the Prince Hall Grande Lodge, and made antislav-
ery part of the Masonic lodge’s platform. Although most
early free black societies were established by and for men,
black women formed organizations such as the Benevo-
lent Daughters, the Daughters of Africa, and the American
Female Bond Benevolent Society. In addition, the black
church quickly emerged as the stronghold of black activ-
ism by the end of the 18th century. Such religious leaders
as Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and Daniel Coker housed
antislavery activities in their churches and were instrumen-
tal in the formation of the colored convention movement.
Th e insurrectionary attempts of Gabriel Prosser, Nat
Turner, and Denmark Vesey in Virginia and South Caro-
lina evidence a revolutionary-minded disposition among
the slaves who sought to assert their right to be free. Th ey
shook the foundation of slavery and white Southern society,
making black insurrection another reason that slavery was
a bad idea to white antislavery activists.
Aft er the American Colonization Society (ACS) re-
vealed their pro-colonization ideas, the free black population
protested, taking the lead in condemning an organization
that they argued contributed to black oppression and up-
held enslavement as reasonable. Organizing against the ACS
led to the mobilization of the black abolitionist movement.
African Americans banded together in local groups to pro-
test expatriation and called for the immediate abolition of
slavery and racial inequality. David Walker established the
Massachusetts General Colored Association in Boston in
1826, which began a correspondence with other Northern
black leaders. Th e New York based Freedom’s Journal func-
tioned as a liaison between black communities from Wash-
ington, D.C., to Maine.
By 1830, black abolitionists had begun to challenge the
principles that sustained white antislavery activity, namely
colonization and gradualism. William Watkins, Jacob
Greener, and Hezekiah Grice invited a young white aboli-
tionist named William Lloyd Garrison to the 1831 Colored
Convention, which transformed Garrison’s views and led
him to denounce the ACS and gradualism as well. It was
this demonstration of leadership that led the newly formed
American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) in 1833 to ask Afri-
can Americans to form auxiliary societies.
From the very beginning, though, black leadership’s
fusion with Garrison’s organization was problematic. At the
fi rst meeting, the public record indicates that the six blacks