more, in the era of “Cotton is King,” southern slave
owners were reluctant to do away with the extremely
lucrative cotton-based agriculture. Finally, in response
to growing abolitionist attacks, the South intensified
its system of slave control, particularly after the Nat
Turner revolt of 1831. By that time, U.S. abolitionists
realized the failure of gradualism and persuasion, and
they subsequently turned to a more militant policy,
demanding immediate abolition by LAW.
By the late 1830s and early 1840s, abolition efforts
took on a new form. In addition to the traditional
activism, which was the hallmark of the movement,
abolitionists took more direct action such as seeking
public offices and establishing new political parties
such as the Liberty Party and the Free-Soil Party. After
1854, most abolitionists supported the party of Lin-
coln, the Republican Party, because of its northern
roots and antislavery platform.
With the onset of the American Civil War in 1861,
abolitionists urged the North to make abolition one of
its wartime goals. Their efforts were rewarded in 1863
when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emanci-
pation Proclamation. Although not comprehensive,
the proclamation declared slaves freed in most of the
Southern states. It was not until 1865 with the pas-
sage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitu-
tion that slavery was abolished throughout the United
States.
Further Reading
Jones, Howard. All On Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abo-
lition of Slavery.New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
abortion
The ending of a pregnancy by surgical or chemical
removal of the fetus from the woman. The intense
political debate caused in the United States by the
Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Roe v. Wade
(1973), which decriminalized abortion but placed
restrictions on when during pregnancy the procedure
could be performed, has been compared to that over
abolition of slavery in the early 1800s. Positions on the
abortion issue revolve around the pro-choice view that
a fetus is part of the woman’s body, not a separate
human being, and that, therefore, government laws
should not prevent her from aborting or disposing of
it; and the pro-life view that the preborn fetus is a
human being in development with rights to continued
life and that, therefore, abortion is the murder of inno-
cent human life, requiring legal protection. Both sides
agree that abortion is a moral issue but dispute
whether the individual woman or society at large
should make the decision whether or not abortion is
allowed. Liberal Democrats, women’s rights groups,
and mainline PROTESTANTchurches in the United States
(Presbyterian, Episcopal, Lutheran) have tended to be
“pro-choice”; conservative Republicans, the CATHOLIC
Church, and EVANGELICALChristians have tended to be
“pro-life.” As the U.S. SUPREME COURTbecame increas-
ingly conservative in the 1980s and 1990s, its rulings
on abortion allowed greater restrictions on abortions
by state legislatures. The social debate over abortion
continues to be intense.Further Reading
Hunter, James Davison. Before the Shooting Begins.New York:
Free Press, 1994.absolutism
The idea that a ruler or government has absolute or
total power. This implies that no other persons,
groups, or institutions have power. Examples of abso-
lutism include absolute monarchs like King Louis XIV
of France, Nazi leader Adolf HITLERof Germany, and
Soviet communist dictator Joseph STALIN. In each case,
the absolutist leader is not limited or restrained by
any other individual or power. Limits on an absolutist
ruler or government might come from (1) other peo-
ple with power who counteract the ruler’s authority;
(2) legal or constitutional limits on a ruler’s power;
(3) other institutions or groups (political parties, the
church, labor unions) who challenge the absolute
power of the state. This is why most absolutist leaders
and governments make all other people and institu-
tions dependent on them. So in Nazi Germany, the
Boy Scouts became The Hitler Youth; in Communist
Russia, the Boy Scouts became the Communist Youth
League. All private social organizations (clubs, frater-
nities, churches) become attached to the state and
under its control. A main writer on absolutism,
Thomas HOBBES, argues that the state must have
absolute control of individuals, property, information,
and police to prevent ANARCHYand chaos. Other argu-
ments in favor of an absolutist state include DIVINE
RIGHT OF KINGS(which says that God has placed a
certain person or family in power as his representative
on earth); the COMMUNISTdictatorship of the prole-
tariat (in which the working class or its representative2 abortion