American Anti-Slavery Society
© Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-40758
Formed in 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society became the largest and most
influential abolitionist organization in the United States. Before the organization’s
inception, organized antislavery activism was heavily intertwined with organizations
that believed free blacks should be removed from the United States. The American
Anti-Slavery Society created a network of newspaper “agents” and lecturers to spread
their message that slavery was contrary to the Christian religion and that blacks were
equal to whites. These efforts were hugely successful, spurring over 1,000 anti-slavery
societies throughout the North. Disagreements within the organization led to a split in
1840.
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Antislavery activism and philosophy existed in North America well before William
Lloyd Garrison and Lewis and Arthur Tappan formed the nationally-focused
American Anti-Slavery Society (AAS) in Philadelphia in 1833. Overall, white
antislavery activism in the early nineteenth century was entangled with the
patronizing American Colonization Society (ACS), which had been commandeered
by slave-owning merchants who advocated that free black men and women should
be removed from the United States. Thus, when delegates from nine states gathered
together and declared that slavery was “contrary to the principles of natural justice,
of our republican form of government, and of the Christian religion” and that people
of color shared “an equality with the whites, of civil and religious privileges,” they
were striking out on radical new ground. The American Anti-Slavery Society became
the largest and most influential abolitionist organization in the United States,
boasting a membership of more than 100,000 by 1837 (Jeffrey 53).
The organization focused on the coordination of antislavery ideas and the
distribution of abolitionist news by creating a network of newspaper “agents” and
lecturers that toured the free states. Between 1833 and 1834, the AAS devoted 14%
of its annual income to supporting agents (Jeffrey 28). Although the national
organization had its own newspaper—The Emancipator—it served as a model for
small, reform-minded abolitionists who wanted to advocate the cause on a local
level. One of the most important efforts the AAS conducted was the “Great Postal
Campaign,” which flooded southern states with abolitionist literature in 1835.
Upwards of 1,000 separate anti-slavery societies emerged throughout the North,
especially in Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio (Jeffrey 53-54). Notably, most of
these organizations were divided along gender lines, and reform-minded women
created separate organizations (usually designated as “Female Anti-Slavery”
societies) that would become fundamental to women’s rights and suffrage
campaigns later in the century. Women led 41% of Massachusetts’ 183 antislavery
societies in 1838 (Jeffrey 54).
Debates about the role of women in the movement and ways to achieve abolition
spiked between 1836 and 1840, ultimately leading to a split in May of 1840.
Although it is easy to gloss over the complexities surrounding the formation of the
Tappan brother’s American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, much of the “schism”
in the AAS had to do with Garrison’s insistence that abolition could only be solved
through moral suasion rather than voting and the political process. For free black
men in particular, this aspect of the AAS proved particularly troubling, since states
like Ohio and Michigan continued to deny black citizens the franchise. Moreover,
Garrison believed that women had a fundamental role in shaping the movement
since they were at the frontlines of reform in the domestic sphere. This frustrated
men in the movement who believed that women had no place in the AAS hierarchy.
Consequently, when Abby Kelley was elected to the business committee, James
Birney and the Tappan brothers used the event to create their new male-dominated
and politically-oriented American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (Mayer 281282).
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Remaining members of the AAS responded by admitting women into full
participation while continuing to shun direct political action and nonresistance,
which were discussed in its new paper The National Anti-Slavery Standard from
1840-1872. Although prominent African Americans like Robert Purvis, James
Forten, and James Crummel played an important role in the founding of the AAS,
white men dominated the organization.
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Works Cited & Further Reading
Jeffrey, Julie Roy. The Great Silent Army of Abolitionism: Ordinary Women in the
Antislavery Movement. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Mayer, Henry. All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery. New
York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.
Ripley, C. Peter, ed. The Black Abolitionist Papers. Vol. I. Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1985.
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