Expansion and change in America: Kennedy, Cohen, and Piehl

Kennedy, Cohen, Piehl, Expansion and Change in America

The American Anti-Slavery Association

The early nineteenth century brought a series of changes in the newly formed United States, with people having the tendency to invest all of their resources in trying to improve conditions in the country. The slave issue in particular was provided with increasing attention from the masses, as a series of conflicts emerged as a result of people debating the morality of slavery and the degree to which this system affected thinking in the U.S. As a whole.

The American Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1833 in an attempt to address the slave problem. Its founders wanted to raise public awareness concerning the effect that slavery as a whole had on the states. Slave uprisings also contributed to people wanting to remove slavery from the country, with white southerners in particular fearing that slaves would eventually retaliate as a consequence of the suffering they experience and that they and their families are going to be in danger as a result.

William Lloyd Garrison was mainly responsible for creating the association and went through great efforts in order to have Congress acknowledge the institution's demands. "The societies sponsored meetings, adopted resolutions, signed antislavery petitions to be sent to Congress, published journals and enlisted subscriptions, printed and distributed propaganda in vast quantities, and sent out agents and lecturers (70 in 1836 alone) to carry the antislavery message to Northern audiences." (American Anti-Slavery Society) Individuals involved in the community focused on recruiting people from religious circles, as these were considered more likely to gain a complex understanding of the association's goals and principles.

The American Anti-Slavery Society was unhesitant about demonstrating its peaceful feelings toward African-Americans. As a consequence, several free black individuals were recruited and some served in high-ranking roles, this further contributing to the idea that slavery and the concepts behind it were wrong.

Even with the fact that slavery was still strong in several U.S. states and that it generated a significant part of incomes in these respective states, institutions like the American Anti-Slavery Society were particularly successful in their endeavors. These communities basically came together with the purpose of having the masses have a more complex understanding of slavery and the effects it had on the American public.