abolitionists

Was Emancipation Intended to Perpetuate Slavery by Other Means?

by Sean Wilentz

Protests movements have latched on to a misguided interpretation of the Thirteenth Amendment that argues it allowed and even encouraged the system of mass incarceration as an extension of slavery. A new global history extends that critique to the age of emancipation in general.

The Truth About James Loewen

by Ann Banks

HNN blogger Ann Banks writes that a small exchange typified the late James Loewen's insistence on telling the truth about history.

Today It’s Critical Race Theory. 200 Years Ago It Was Abolitionist Literature

In 1829, South Carolina and Georgia responded to a series of fires they assumed were set by enslaved people by banning both the abolitionist literature they blamed for inciting rebellion and the teaching of literacy to slaves. Today's battles over curriculum are likewise about ideas deemed threatening to social hierarchies.

The Fight against Climate Change Must Become the New Abolitionism

by Erik Curren

Why has it taken so long for the climate movement to accomplish so little? And, since the clock is ticking to curb runaway global heating, how can we do better in the future?

Immigration and the New Fugitive Slave Laws

by Manisha Sinha

The abolitionists’ protests against the fugitive slave laws, which deprived large groups of people of their liberty and criminalized those who offered assistance to them, should be an inspiration in our dismal times.

Cassius Marcellus Clay and Muhammed Ali: What’s in a Name?

by Joshua M Casper

They were born with the same moniker, and both changed history. Two names. Two men. Two identities, Muhammed Ali and Cassius Marcellus Clay will forever be linked.

Manisha Sinha breaks with modern claims. Says abolitionists were key to the abolition of slavery.

In The Slave’s Cause, she offers nearly 750 impassioned pages for considering abolitionism as a longstanding progressive force in American life.

Abolitionists are American Democracy’s Unsung Heroes

by Manisha Sinha

Abolitionists never stopped pushing at the boundaries of their society and laid the foundations of the interracial democracy we still aspire to.

Brooklyn Historical Society to Present Exhibition on Abolitionists

A major five-year exhibition opening Jan. 15 at the Brooklyn Historical Society will bring to life the stories of largely unknown Brooklyn abolitionists who led the anti-slavery movement.