 Ben Franklin was the first president of the first anti-slavery society in the United States.
In 1787, the Northwest Ordinance outlawed slavery in the Midwest.
Richard Bassett, a Signer of the Constitution, converted to Methodism, freed all his slaves and paid them as hired labor.
John Quincy Adams fought to end slavery by removing Congress' Gag Rule.
In 1807, Congress passed the Slave Importation Act, prohibiting further importation of slaves.
Prior to the Civil War, 19 of the 34 States outlawed slavery:
Pennsylvania 1787,
New Hampshire 1788,
Connecticut 1788,
Massachusetts 1788,
Rhode Island 1790,
Vermont 1791,
New York 1799,
Ohio 1803,
New Jersey 1804,
Indiana 1816,
Illinois 1818,
Maine 1820,
Michigan 1837,
Iowa 1846,
Wisconsin 1848,
California 1850,
Minnesota 1858,
Oregon 1859,
and Kansas 1861.
In 1856, U.S. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts helped found the Republican Party, which had as its original platform:
"Resolved...it
is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in
the Territories those twin relics of barbarism - Polygamy, and Slavery."
Senator Charles Sumner took a vocal stand against slavery, accusing Democrats of having a "mistress...the harlot, Slavery.",
On
May 22, 1856, Democrat Congressman Preston Brooks approached Charles
Sumner as he sat at his desk in the Senate chamber and struck him with a
thick gutta-percha cane with a gold head.
Brooks beat Sumner till his desk, which had been bolted to the floor, was knocked over.
Blinded
by his own blood, Sumner got up, staggered down the aisle and collapsed
as Brooks continued striking his motionless body til his cane broke.
Some Senators tried to help Sumner, but Democrat Congressman Laurence Keitt brandished a pistol.
William Cullen Bryant, editor of the New York Evening Post, wrote:
"The
South cannot tolerate free speech anywhere, and would stifle it in
Washington with the bludgeon and the bowie-knife, as they are now trying
to stifle it in Kansas by massacre, rapine, and murder...Are we to be
chastised as they chastise their slaves...a target for their brutal
blows?"
Charles Sumner died MARCH 11, 1874, having never fully recovered from those injuries.
Charles Sumner stated:
"Familiarity
with that great story of redemption, when God raised up the slave-born
Moses to deliver His chosen people from bondage, and with that sublimer
story where our Saviour died a cruel death that all men, without
distinction of race, might be saved, makes slavery impossible."
Charles Sumner continued:
"There
is no reason for renouncing Christianity, or for surrendering to the
false religions; nor do I doubt that Christianity will yet prevail over
the earth as the waters cover the sea." |
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