The first state is Alabama. I turn to an old book for this, “The Early History of Huntsville Alabama 1804 to 1870”. Please see link below for the book. Pages 52 through 60 speak to when attitudes toward abolition groups began to change and what changed them.
http://www.archive.org/stream/earlyhistoryofhu00bett#page/56/mode/2up
I have not looked at legislative records for Alabama but, I believe it is covered in a link I’ll post a little bit later.
Next is North Carolina and I won’t repost the info, from North Carolina’s historic society, which I covered last week. I again turn to a book for anti-slavery views and sentiments, in North Carolina, during the period.
“Ante-Bellum North Carolina: A Social History: Electronic Edition.” Johnson, Guion Griffis, 1900- 1989
CHAPTER XIX ANTI-SLAVERY SENTIMENT
http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/johnson/chapter19.html
I did look at North Carolina legislative petitions for the period and from 1809 through 1827 found 6 petitions. Two of those petitions were referred to committee and the rest were not considered. The petitions being filed indicates abolition group activity.
I also looked at newspapers for the period and found it interesting that prior to 1832, anti-slavery activity was printed (right along with ads for runaway slaves, etc.!). I would post these links but can’t get it to work for me so I’m not quoting any of them.
Moving on to Tennessee. Please see link below for wiki info on Greenville.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeneville,_Tennessee
Below is a link for info on the Tennessee Manumission Society.
http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/jefferson/misc/mnumsion.txt
Below is historic marker information. Please note; the first publications dedicated to abolition of slavery were printed in Tennessee.
The Manumission Intelligence & The Emancipator
LOCATION: West Main St., Jonesborough, TN, 37659
The Manumission Intelligence & The Emancipator were the nation’s oldest publications dedicate to the abolition of slavery. These Jonesborough based publications circulated between 1819-1920. Quaker Elihu Embree circulated The Emancipator and printed it in Jacob Howard’s print shop. A fire destroyed the shop on the corner of Main Street and First Avenue.
The link below is an excerpt from, THE PROGRESS OF EMANCIPATION IN TENNESSEE, 1796 - 1860 (JW Patton - Journal of Negro History, 1932) - jstor.org.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2714676
We get the following quote from the source: “Long before Garrison, Lundy, and Mrs. Stowe began their agitation of the abolition question the people of Tennessee were not only thinking but acting on the subject, not only teaching but practicing emancipation.”
One of the sources listed, on the page at the link, is for “Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History” by John Allison 1897. I read pages 77-80 of this book. If you’re interested in reading it you can just google the book title.
Looking at legislative petitions in Tennesse I found three. They were for 1821, 1825, and 1842. All three were tabled.
Last, but not least, we have Virginia. Please see link below for Virginia’s Abolition Society.
http://www.richmondfriends.org/History/AbolitionSociety.htm
The link below is for Golansville Quaker Marker who were early abolitionists in Virginia.
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=9213
Looking at Virginia’s legislative petitions I found six for the period 1831 - 1850. They were all referred to committee. The most notable one is the debate of 1831 - 1832. It was debated in the newspapers, who were largely in favor of the petition. I can’t get this link to work right either but you can google that specific debate if you’d like. There were legislators in favor of the proposal.
An excerpt from the March 7, 1850, speech by Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster sums it up well:
“Then, Sir, there are the Abolition societies, of which I am unwilling to speak, but in regard to which I have very clear notions and opinions. I do not think them useful. I think their operations for the last twenty years have produced nothing good or valuable. At the same time, I believe thousands of their members to be honest and good men, perfectly well-meaning men. They have excited feelings; they think they must do something for the cause of liberty; and, in their sphere of action, they do not see what else they can do than to contribute to an Abolition press, or an Abolition society, or to pay an Abolition lecturer. I do not mean to impute gross motives even to the leaders of these societies, but I am not blind to the consequences of their proceedings. I cannot but see what mischiefs their interference with the South has produced. And its it not plain to every man? Let any gentleman who entertains doubts on this point recur to the debates in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1832, and he will see with what freedom a proposition made by Mr. [Thomas] Jefferson Randolph for the gradual abolition of slavery was discussed in that body. Every one spoke of slavery as he thought; very ignominious and disparaging names and epithets were applied to it. The debates in the House of Delegates on that occasion, I believe, were all published. They were read by every colored man who could read, and to those who could not read, those debates were read by others. At that time Virginia was not unwilling or unafraid to discuss this question, and to let that part of her population know as much of discussion as they could learn. That was in 1832. As has been said by the honorable member from South Carolina [Calhoun], these Abolition societies commenced their course of action in 1835. It is said, I do not know how true it may be, that they sent incendiary publications into the slave States; at any rate, they attempted to arouse, and did arouse, a very strong feeling; in other words, they created great agitation in the North against Southern slavery. Well, what was the result? The bonds of the slave were bound more firmly than before, their rivets were more strongly fastened. Public opinion, which in Virginia had begun to be exhibited against slavery, and was opening out for the discussion of the question, drew back and shut itself up in its castle. I wish tooknow whether any body in Virginia can now talk openly as Mr. Randoph, Governor [James] McDowell, and others talked in 1832 and sent their remarks to the press? We all know the fact, and we all know the cause; and every thing that these agitating people have done has been, not to enlarge, but to restrain, not to set free, but to bind faster the slave population of the South...”
This speech caused Webster to resign from the Senate and finish his public career as Secretary of State.
WHEW! Another long one. I’ve got to take a break and will tell you what it all means to me in my next post.
Okay, now for the conclusion.
A book I found fascinating is, “The Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery in America 1808 - 1831” by Alice Dana Adams, 1908. She gives much insight to the views and sentiments of the period, both North and South, including those of prominent men. She discusses which Southern states were believed to become free states soon, such as Virginia within 15 - 20 years from 1825. The author states, “In this context it is interesting to note that of the one hundred and thirty abolition societies in the United States in 1827, one hundred and six were in the slave states, while but four were in New England or New York.” (p 37)
The link below is an excerpt from, “The Tennessee antislavery movement and the market revolution, 1815-1835.” I’ve copied some of the highlights.
“The activists’ faith in republican egalitarianism translated into faith in the republican political process. “The great and benevolent object which we have in view,” proclaimed the Tennessee Manumission Society in 1822, “is only to be attained by the consent of a majority of the members of our civil government” and “by a gradual reform of our laws.” (18) “WE MUST VOTE THEM DOWN,” Lundy likewise said of slaveholders”
“Meanwhile, the Panic 011819 sparked another important change in Tennessee. Out of the turmoil arose over a decade’s worth of popular demands for the increased political empowerment of common white men.”
“Far from the last gasp of a discredited movement, Tennessee antislavery activity of the 1830s was undergoing a renaissance. That renaissance drew on nonslaveholders’ fears that the emerging planter elite was establishing undemocratic control over the state’s political and economic life, and those fears would play an important role in Tennessee politics long after 1834.”
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-5467388/The-Tennessee-antislavery-movement-and.html
From everything I’ve read over the years, my conclusion is that if more clear thinking and less emotion had been employed, by both sides, Bleeding Kansas never would have happened. The War never would have happened.
I think the anti-slavery Southerners views were a mix of doing what is right, fear of slave revolts, and they had grown weary of the whole issue of slavery. Many of them wanted the slaves gone.
IMHO, the anti-slavery faction in the South was strong and was gearing up to begin the political process of abolishing slavery (voting the old pro-slavery faction out), when the Garrisionians appeared on the scene. Hysteria was the end result.
The pro-slavery Southerners got their britches in a wad and “rallied the troops”, which included the churches (my what a tangled web we weave...). The Methodist and Baptist churches split in 1845 with both declaring a Southern branch (the ones preaching that slavery is biblical).
Instead of the up-and-coming generation taking things in the direction they were already headed (abolishing slavery), the old power structure retained power by creating as much chaos as the Garrisonians were. The natural passing of power, from one generation to the next, couldn’t happen in this environment.
The link below is about Nashoba, TN. “Nashoba was a short-lived, but internationally famous, utopian community on the present-day site of Germantown in Shelby County. Nashoba was founded in 1826 by Frances Wright, who dreamed of demonstrating a practical and effective alternative to the South’s slave-based agricultural economy. Hardly a trace of the community could be seen by 1830, but Nashoba survives in historical accounts of American utopias.”
http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=N004
I think if the Garrisonians had focused their efforts on transitioning the slaves to freedom, as Ms. Wright did with Nashoba, our history would be much different.
Failure of leadership on both sides.