1831 passes out as a significant year in the abolitionist movement for the litany of activities that started across the United States that would eventually culminate in the Civil War and the consequential proclamation of independence by Lincoln in the later years. However, the most significant event could arguably be the onset of abolitionist literature which were produced in the North and spread even to the South where slavery had taken significant root. This literature was facilitated by the establishment of two main newspapers, the Genius of Universal Emancipation and the Liberator. The latter was established and published in Boston where efforts by local abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison were taking root with his argument that the one third of America’s population had to be free from slavery. The former newspaper was established by a Quaker abolitionist, Benjamin Lundy.
It must be appreciated that the literature created immense agitation and arsenal for abolitionist to champion for the end of slavery. Some of the evidence supporting this agitation is increased pleas in the House during Petition Days for a vote to end slavery. In addition, it is in the same vein and in the same year that John Quincy Adams concurred with a French Magistrate who had posed the question to him as to whether slavery was the great plague of America. Quincy while answering in the affirmative reiterated that in his opinion slavery was the source of all problems in America. Evidently, the literature was having its effects and occasioning agitation for a positive end. It was in the same strain that strikes and rebellion occurred. One such rebellion was the Nut Turner rebellion in Virginia which was fatal. Indeed 1831 remains the focal point from which anti-slavery campaigns gained traction on a national footing.
Reference
Harrold , S. (2010). The Abolitionists and the South, 1831-1861. Humanities and Social Sciences , 2-4.
