The anti-slavery movement aimed to abolish slavery, particularly the transatlantic slave trade. It originated in the mid-16th century and gained momentum in the late 18th century, led by England and Scotland. In the US, notable figures included William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The movement culminated in the American Civil War and the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery in the US. Abolitionist groups continue to combat illegal slavery worldwide.
An anti-slavery movement is a movement to abolish slavery. In US history, it has been called abolitionism, or the abolition movement. The anti-slavery movement is most commonly associated with the transatlantic slave trade, which involved the transportation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Western world as slaves. It is considered one of the great social movements of the 19th century when it showed its greatest influence due to the slave trade and slavery which reached its peak during that period.
The origin of the anti-slavery movement can be traced back to the mid-16th century when the African slave trade was in its infancy. In the 16th, Charles I, King of Spain, established the Leyes Nuevas, or New Laws, which abolished the enslavement of the original inhabitants of the lands of the newly discovered America under his rule. Charles I was greatly influenced by Friar Bartolome de las Casa, who deplored Indian forced labor in the colonies.
By the late 18th century, when the African slave trade was in full swing, the antislavery movement had begun to take shape. England led the charge, drawing inspiration from cases in Scotland questioning the legality of slavery. A Scottish-born judge, Lord Mansfield, was responsible for outlawing slavery in England in the 18th. The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, led by abolitionists such as William Wilberforce, campaigned for the abolition of the slave trade and of slavery in the British Empire, which was achieved with the Slave Trade Act 1772 and the Slave Abolition Act 1807 respectively. Black people themselves, who included Olaudah Equiano, were prominent in the British anti-slavery movement.
In the United States, members of the anti-slavery movement included William Lloyd Garrison, who co-founded the American Anti-Slavery Society; Frederick Douglass, a former slave who became one of the largest members of the abolitionist group; John Brown, who preferred violent techniques to pacifist ones; and Harriet Beecher Stowe, best known for the slavery-era novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Although the US abolished the slave trade in 1808, slavery still existed in the country. It was particularly rooted in the economic and social system of the South.
By 1860, the number of slaves in the South had risen to four million. A secession of the Southern states, collectively called the Confederate States of America, in response to the threat from their slave system, led to the American Civil War. By the end of 1865, the Confederacy had been defeated and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution had been ratified, thus abolishing slavery in the United States. The antislavery movement then began to subside as country after country passed antislavery legislation. . Abolitionist groups, however, still exist today to combat slavery that is practiced illegally in different parts of the world.
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