Essay #8

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Institution

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Historically, Hudson is known for its role in the abolitionist movement. The Underground Railroad passed through the town. Hudson was home to several prominent abolitionists during the 1800s. The most famous is John Brown, who led the Harper's Ferry Raid in 1859. John Brown gave his first public speech opposing slavery in the First Congregational Church in downtown Hudson. Western Reserve College (now Academy), located in Hudson was a hub for anti-salary activity and debate. Today, Hudson is known as acute Ohio town with a quaint main street boasting a historic clock tower; one of the most recognizable landmarks in Summit County. The town has grown rapidly in the last century driven by the top-rated public-school system.

Many Christians helped to start the abolitionist movement and provided the moral and rhetorical foundations and energy for the movement, focusing on the Gospel's emphasis on liberation. On the other hand, the New Testament’s concession to the existence of slavery in the ancient Roman world, and the existence of slaves in Israel were used to justify the slavery system by other Christians CITATION Hin11 \l 1033 (Hine, C.Hine, & Harrold, 2011). Many scholars and historians believe that the division in American Christianity over the slavery question was the major fissure that would lead to the greater liberal/conservative divisions in the late 19th/20th centuries. In some places, African-Americans were encouraged to become Christians; in other places, not so much.  Nevertheless, in the majority of the country, both north and south, churches were segregated and remained segregated to the modern-day. To this day, there is a distressing amount of segregation among various Christian churches.

The American Colonization Society pushed for the manumission of slavery starting in 1816. Manumission is not abolition, but a slow and gradual elimination of slavery usually by age. The society was formed in Philadelphia in 1816, and also believed that ex-slaves could never be assimilated successfully into American society so they encouraged “colonization” or the relocation of ex-slaves to various places including Liberia. Colonization was never highly successful as the first slaves were brought into Virginia in 1619. By that point, 8–10 generations had passed and slaves were no longer connected to Africa except in a racial way CITATION Hin11 \l 1033 (Hine, C.Hine, & Harrold, 2011). That meant, they were as connected to Africa as a 10th generation Scots or Irish settler, connected to those geographic areas. For such reasons, colonization became a secondary anti-slavery movement in America even though some were advocating it until the Civil War.

The American Colonization Society was an early attempt to phase out slavery in a way acceptable to slave owners. The society founded the nation of Liberia and sent freed slaves there, even though the slaves had often lived in America for generations and no longer had any familiarity with Africa. Many freed blacks supported the Society, thinking they would never get equal rights in America and sought to start over in Africa. Others thought the Society played into the racist notion that free blacks could never live among whites in America and that it was an attempt to expel them from the only nation they knew. North Star, a paper run by Frederick Douglass emphasized the necessity of Afro-American’s self-emancipation CITATION Hin11 \l 1033 (Hine, C.Hine, & Harrold, 2011). Abolitionist papers owned by white Americans were considered true vanguards of the abolitionist movement. The role of liberator attacked slavery, and it drew metaphors between tyranny, chattel slavery, and the evils of absolute power.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Hine, D. C., C.Hine, W., & Harrold, S. C. (2011). Opposition to Slavery. In D. C. Hine, W. C.Hine, & S. C. Harrold, African Americans: A Concise History. NewYork: Pearson.