The Anti-Slavery Effort :: Slavery Essays

The Anti-Slavery EffortSlavery in America back end be traced as far back as when Europeans began settling the northern American continent. The first town established in the late Worlrd was Jamestown in 1607, and the first slave arrived on the continent in 1619. European pioneers that colonised North America brought slaves with them to help settle the new land, work their plantations increase valuable cash crops such as tobacco and sugar, and to cook and plunder in their homes. Most people didnt see slavery as a problem at this time be bowel movement it was quite rare in the New World with only a few wealthy lan messers who owned slaves, however, common opinion would be swayed.Abolitionists first started appearing in America at ab egress the time of the American revolution. Opponents of slavery included some of our sublime Founding Fathers such as Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, scarcet Jay, doubting Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Rush, who felt up that slavery infringe d on the concepts of the Declaration of Independence. Most northern abolitionists were religiiously inspired, such as the Quakers, and felt that slavery was a sin that essential rectified immediately.The abolitionist cause was one a moral argument. They felt that the volume of slaves were being treated inhumanely and tortured. This disgust of southern slave-owners compelled a few abolitionists to act out in extreme measures, but the majority used peaceful protest methods. They used different methods to fight for their cause fanatics went to the utmost of their power in killing the opposition, while others pacively handed out pamphlets and flyers in protest, or participated in the Underground Railroad.One fanatic abolitionist who, in this writers opinion, just went too far is a man named John Brown. Browns anti-slavery efforts are most well-known for his raid on the Us weapons inventory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, 1859.Brown was born on May 9th 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut, and grew up in Ohio. During his adult life Brown had trouble holding down a steady job due to business reverses and and charges of illegal practices which followed him from the 1820s and on, but by the 1850s he became deeply intertested in the slavery issue.Brown and pentad of his sons became embroiled in the struggle between proslavery and anti-slavery forces for control of the territorial regimen in Kansas. By the spring of 1855, Brown had assumed command of topical anaesthetic Free-Soil militia. Within a year, proslavery forces had sacked the Free-Soil town of Lawrence, an incident that triggered a bloody retaliation by Brown.