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The Crusade Against Slavery

A comparison and contrast between black and white abolitionists throughout the decades

surrounding the Civil War: They collaborated at the time, although their philosophical and

methodological approaches diverged. While many white abolitionists were only concerned with

slavery, black abolitionists sought to combine anti-slavery efforts with calls for ethnic justice and

equality. Many black abolitionists opposed the colonization movement because they claimed its

ultimate goal was to drain the best of the free black people and sustain the system of slavery. The

African Americans who had achieved their freedom faced deportation back to their country of

origin. The deeply rooted traditions of racism and slavery could not enable Africans to dwell in

the United States and be considered equal to whites. On the contrary, many had no intention of

leaving their existing residences in the United States for another country.

There were diverse views of what freedom meant for each party, all of which contributed

to the popularity of the abolitionist cause. According to one anti-slavery journal, more discerning

observers regarded the proposal as less than anti-slavery: The Colonization organization is no

longer a humanitarian initiative. It may replenish its overdrawn coffers and execute more

transports than ever, but it is still dead (Filler 3). It will never acquire the credibility of those who

sincerely want the release of the enslaved person. The abolitionists defined freedom as the

natural and absolute right to individual liberty, irrespective of one’s ethnicity – and such freedom

granted everyone an equal right to own property. On the other hand, the era’s labor movement
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regarded freedom as an enslaved person being a free laborer who could change jobs if he wished,

accrue property, and have a family – without being granted the right to self-ownership.
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Works Cited

Filler, Louis. "The Challenge of Slavery." The Crusade Against Slavery. Routledge, 2017. 1-9.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315131573-1