The massive abolitionist movement occupies an important position in the history of the American people's struggle for democracy. It exposed the evils of slavery, promoted the outbreak of civil war, liberated slaves, cleared the obstacles for the development of American capitalism, and promoted the development of capitalism to a certain extent.

Process The American abolitionist movement was a mass movement that started from 19 in the northern United States in the early 1930s and demanded the complete abolition of black slavery.

At the beginning of the independence of the United States, there was already a debate about whether to abolish slavery. With the sharp increase in the demand for cotton in the international market, plantation slavery in the south has also expanded greatly, which has a serious conflict with the development of industrial capitalism in the north and the bourgeois democratic nature of the country.

On the eve of the War of Independence, there were more than 500,000 colonial slaves in British North America, accounting for 1/6 of the total population at that time. By 1860, the number of black slaves in the south had grown to 3.953 million. From the 1930s (65438+2009), the abolitionist movement rose rapidly in the north, just as the slavers openly flew the American flag to smuggle slaves to the southern United States.

As early as the colonial era and the War of Independence, Franklin, Jefferson and others put forward the idea of abolishing slavery. After the independence of the United States, the northern States abolished black slavery one after another. However, due to the rapid development of cotton planting in southern States, plantation slavery has been expanding, threatening the democratic rights of the American people.

Around 19 in the 1920s, organizations of the abolitionist movement began to appear in the United States. From 1826 to 1827, 143 abolitionist groups gathered in Baltimore to condemn the evils of slavery. In the early 1930s, W.L. Garrison published the weekly Liberator in Boston (183 1 ~ 1865), and founded the New England Anti-Slavery Association with other abolitionists in 1832. People set up various abolitionist organizations and published many influential abolitionist publications. Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is a world-famous wake-up call, as well as the bloody complaints of runaway slaves such as the black leader Douglas and the famous "underground railway" in American history. It is estimated that there are 32,000 northerners running around on its east-west trunk line, and more than 654.38 million slaves escaped from the fire pit through these two trunk lines.

1833 In April, the National Anti-Slavery Association was established in Philadelphia, with its headquarters in new york. Subsequently, anti-slavery associations were established in all parts of the north. By the 1940s, there were about 2,000 such organizations with more than 200,000 participants, forming a massive mass movement.

abolitionist

At that time, abolitionists were oppressed and persecuted by reactionary forces in many ways, but they still insisted on actively carrying out various activities, published thousands of books, newspapers and distributed a large number of leaflets, and constantly promoted the development of the abolitionist movement. In addition, abolitionists also organized the "underground railway". Tubman, one of the famous organizers of the Underground Railway, was born a slave. She went deep into the southern States many times and helped hundreds of slaves escape from the south to be free. This activity of organizing slaves to escape shook the foundation of slavery to some extent.

People organized a liberal party to promote the abolition of slavery. Have the manpower to fight armed struggle. However, Garrison and others insisted on only moral preaching, disapproved of political action, and even opposed the organization of abolitionist political parties and armed struggles, and the movement split. Although there are differences in the means of struggle, the whole abolitionist movement has made progress on different roads. Uncle Tom's Cabin, published by Mrs. Stowe in 1852, gave a very touching description and exposure of the miserable life of black slaves, which aroused widespread repercussions in society and effectively promoted the development of the abolitionist movement. American Marxist Wedemayer and others called on workers to join the abolitionist movement. This movement has a broad mass base among workers, peasants, blacks and women in the north. In the 1950s, it won the support of people from all walks of life and gradually formed a political movement with the nature of a United front. /kloc-The John Brown Uprising in 0/859 pushed the abolitionist movement to a climax.

After the American Civil War broke out, abolitionists went to war. Driven by the broad masses of the people, the The Emancipation Proclamation promulgated by President Lincoln declared the final victory of the abolitionist movement.