346 Political Activity and Resistance to Oppression: From the American Revolution to the Civil War
At the 1843 Buff alo National Convention, the pres-
ident, Samuel H. Davis, in support of Henry Highland Gar-
net, articulated an aggressive call to action that called for
violence. Davis encouraged African Americans to use the
American Revolution as the model of how to free them-
selves, using the tactics that white Americans had used in
their struggle for independence, such as resistance to unjust
laws. Even acts of war against the oppressor, Davis believed,
would be looked upon favorably by God and his desire for
a moral government.
Advocacy for the use of force emerged as early as 1838
at the state conventions in Maine and in 1841 in New Hamp-
shire, but the formation of a radical nationalist sentiment
within the black community surfaced with the revival of
the colored national conventions. In the absence of govern-
ment protection, the notion of violence developed in direct
response to the black community’s needs for protection.
In 1843, 23-year-old Henry Highland Garnet delivered his
speech “An Address to the Slaves of the United States” at the
National Convention and submitted it for approval to the
members and for mass distribution. Garnet’s address was
circumvented from publication, however, by one vote, but
fi ve years later, it was published along with David Walker’s
pamphlet Appeal.
Garnet suggested not that the slaves immediately use
force to obtain their freedom, but rather that they talk with
their masters and, if that did not work, cease to perform
any additional labor as slaves and, if that did not work, then
fi ght for their freedom, even if it meant death. Garnet did
not specifi cally advocate insurrection but argued that those
enslaved needed to take control of their own destiny and
that they should not allow themselves to be terrorized and
victimized by slaveholders because it was their moral re-
sponsibility to try by every means to escape.
Th e convention leaders, however, were uncomfortable
advocating that slaves use force, and Frederick Douglass
morosely predicted that an insurrection of the slaves would
end in their death, which was inappropriate for the conven-
tion to sanction. Other Garrisonians rejected the appeals of
Davis and Garnet and believed that the ballot and the po-
liticization of the abolition of slavery would lead to war and
all-out combat. Th e convention was evenly divided on the
issue of using physical force, but times had changed, and
Garnet and other younger leaders no longer looked for the
approval of black leadership or of white antislavery activ-
ists, moral suasion representing the old order of advocacy.of political action. Engaging in political reform, however,
meant that black leaders would have to separate themselves
from Garrisonian abolitionists, who were staunchly anti-
political. Th is was particularly true in Boston where Gar-
rison resided, but the chief centers of black activism by this
time were in New York and Philadelphia.
Th e dysfunction of the national conventions gave space
for the formation and emergence of the American Moral Re-
form Society (AMRS) and state conventions. Th e AMRS was
developed at the 1834 and 1835 national colored conven-
tions. At their fi rst meeting in 1836, they admonished black
churches to speak out and denounce slavery and the protec-
tion it received from the Christian church. Th ey called for
Americans to operate under the principles of a “higher law”
that they believed should dictate American responses to the
universal right to liberty. Eventually, by 1841, the demand for
church reform on the issue of race and slavery led to a con-
demnation of the institution itself. Members were also urged
to boycott slave-made products and to only use free-labor
products to support the free-labor stores whenever possible.
Many state conventions emerged to address particular
needs, such as temperance and education, but quickly ex-
panded their agenda to address all issues adversely aff ecting
the black community, including employment, slavery, and
the equalization of the suff rage requirements. Th e Albany
State Convention in 1840 was the fi rst to demand political
equality and to stress self-help and agitation. It was also the
fi rst state convention to send an appeal to a state legislature
and the fi rst to declare freedom from whites. Th ose black
leaders that continued to support a Garrisonian approach
to black freedom and equality provoked internal struggles
in intrastate cooperation, but fortunately the call once again
for a national convention in 1842 helped to organize and
diff use localized power struggles.
Th e agenda for the 1842 National Convention was tem-
perance; economic opportunity; agricultural and mechani-
cal trades; development of a manual labor school; a petition
for a grant of land from Congress for farming and other
purposes for the use of African Americans; and emigration.
A riot in Philadelphia in 1842, however, forced the organiz-
ers of the convention to drop their plans for safety reasons.
Th e organization of a convention in the subsequent year
was largely accomplished by those affi liated with the Lib-
erty Party. In August 1843, more than 50 black delegates
from across the nation met in Buff alo, New York, for the
fi rst time in seven years.