Arguments Against Slavery
The strongest arguments against slavery were led by the members of the Quaker church. Though they were mostly located in the North of the colonies and later states, their literature reached all of the colonies. Newspapers and pamphlets were the most common forums for public debate, which abolitionists utilized to the fullest. These mediums also hosted arguments between the two sides of the debate. Abolitionists would publish articles and pamphlets in response to pro-slavery literature, and these advocates would do the same to them. Attacks on arguments were not just focused on the words written by the author, but the author himself. Character was called into question and accusations were thrown into their writings attempting to defame the author they were writing against.*
Some in religion wanted slavery to change, rather than be abolished. One thought was that the evil done to a slave was the sin, not slavery itself. So, the only change needed was in the cruelty of the slave trade and the cruelty inflicted by sinful masters. Many in the Quakers wished for abolition, though. There was an attempt to put down slavery by shaming those who took part, calling the act a “disgrace.” Freedom was the reason the American Revolution was fought in the first place. To call oneself a slave and to fight against English oppressors revealed the base knowledge that life as a slave was unwanted and worth fighting over. To gain freedom when true slavery was still enacted would be, and was, contradictory to the entire notion of freedom from the bonds of tyranny.*
*1 Zilversmit, Arthur. The First Emancipation: the Abolition of Slavery in the North. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967. Pgs. 144-146.
*2 MacLeod, Duncan. Slavery, Race and the American Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974. Pgs. 20-28.