“Let the Conflict Come!”: Boston’s Abolitionists and The Long Battle for the Thirteenth Amendment

The abolitionist movement of the 18th and 19th centuries had particularly strong roots in Boston, Massachusetts. As a port city in the first state to legalize slavery, it served as a major hub for the slave trade for over a hundred years. But Massachusetts also stood as the first northern state to outlaw slavery in 1783, instantly creating a population of over five thousand free African Americans eager to organize their efforts the abolish slavery for the rest of the nation as well. Despite the omnipresence of white oppression through every facet of their lives, black abolitionists found ways to fight back and meet goals that seemed impossible at the time. Kerri Greenidge takes a comprehensive look at this movement in Boston’s Abolitionists, illuminating the very creative and adaptive approaches taken by Boston abolitionists in their fight for freedom and equality.

It did not take long after the state’s abolition of slavery for black Boston residents to organize various establishments important to their community. By 1800 they had their own church, school, and Masonic lodge. Most lived in utter poverty, as white citizens often refused to employ blacks, except for the lowest possible paying jobs. The majority of blacks lived on the north slope of Beacon Hill, quickly portrayed by the white community as a den of moral decadence. But the supposed lawlessness occurring here held little significance compared to the truly subversive activities of abolitionists like David Walker, who published a pamphlet titled An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. The message of this pamphlet reverberated throughout not only the black community of Boston but all the way to the Deep South where slavery was the very foundation of social and economic life.

Walker hardly minced words in this publication, calling out slavery for what it was: “the most dehumanizing form of oppression in history.” Unlike the slavery seen in the ancient world, the American institution of slavery stood on the basis of color alone. It depended on the assumption that blacks did not count as fully human. Walker called out the hypocrisy of a nation theoretically based on the ideals of freedom and equality, yet so willing to subjugate and dehumanize a group of people based on their skin color. The effects of Walker’s words became apparent when North Carolina put a bounty on his head, dead or alive. While many white abolitionists dismissed him as a source of violent propaganda, the black Bostonians recognized a call to action in his words.

The next Boston based abolitionist to take the helm was William Lloyd Garrison, who differed significantly in his views from his contemporary white abolitionists. Instead of espousing the popular approaches of colonization or “gradualism,” Garrison held that blacks deserved immediate freedom and true equality. He started and edited the Liberator that served as the primary abolitionist publication in Boston for decades to come. While Garrison differed from Walker in his explicitly pacifist approach, his activities clearly had an impact as there was also a reward offered for his capture—for $5,000 by the state of Georgia. Many blacks found Garrison’s pacifism hard to reconcile with the reality of their lives considering the very real threat of violence they faced every day. Yet the relationship formed between the black community in Boston and Garrison proved quite effective in achieving a multitude of victories great and small for the abolition movement.

Garrison also stood apart from the rest in his belief that the entire American system was flawed. He saw the government in its totality as a government of slavery and oppression, which therefore required a complete overhaul in order to achieve true freedom and equality. But many in the black abolitionist community saw promise in the American system of government, believing the principles of freedom and equality it placed so much emphasis on in theory might one day take place in action. Maria Walker Stewart managed to bring together the pacifist anti-government sentiments of Garrison with Walker’s militant, yet pro-democratic views. Her articles published in the Liberator appealed broadly to the movement. Unfortunately, the community eventually rejected Stewart based on her gender alone , pointing to the internal hypocrisy within the movement itself.

Other leaders disagreed with Garrison’s approach, yet managed to avoid causing irreparable fractures within the abolition movement. Greenidge argues that rather than causing divisions, the various philosophical factions managed to diversify the larger message, and bring in a wider audience than it otherwise would have. People like Charles Sumner, a Boston attorney, brought important legal resources to the community. Unlike Garrison, he wanted to use the American political system to their advantage, rather than scrap it and start from scratch. He firmly believed the American economy would thrive more on free enterprise than slave labor, which he did not see as sustainable long term.

Unlike issues concerning women’s equality and American democracy, virtually everyone found themselves in agreement when it came to public education. This cause was of utmost importance to black Bostonians, as education represented a departure from servitude. In fact, the very first legal action taken after the state’s abolition of slavery was to petition for school funds. Fifteen years later, they received permission to start a black school but were denied funds. The community’s lack of finances stood as arguably the primary hurdle to achieving their educational goals. Successful legal action against segregation of railroads and prohibitions on interracial marriage galvanized the abolitionists, giving them the confidence to pursue the desegregation of public schools. They finally met this goal in 1855, yet ironically Boston was the last town in the state to do so.

The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 posed a major threat to the abolition movement. Aiming to quell antebellum tensions and placate the Southern states, this law provided the legal support for slave owners to track down their fugitive “property.” This created the very real possibility that any black Bostonian could be subject to kidnapping despite Massachusetts’ sixty year stretch since its abolition of slavery. It pulled out the rug of security from underneath those that had successfully fled their lives of slavery. This did not intimidate the abolitionists into inaction, however. Instead, they developed creative ways to undermine the stalwart of an institution of Southern slavery.

The Underground Railroad reached its organizational peak sometime after the American Revolution. In Boston, the organizations already set in place formed the basis for “underground” activity. They provided food, shelter, jobs, legal counsel and transportation to those seeking freedom. And when headhunters arrived to track down slave “property,” abolitionists employed a variety of tactics to undermine their efforts. They followed them around to pester them, posted hundreds of bills around the city describing the appearance of the slave catchers, and used the legal system to bog them down by repeatedly filing complaints. When the legal system failed them completely, resulting in the incarceration of a fugitive slave, the community would put their meager resources together and buy his or her freedom.

Enlistment became a source of controversy, like virtually every other issue with regard to black rights at the time. For whites, the war represented a fight over the preservation of the Union. They thought blacks had no claim in that battle. But the black community saw something far more epic and significant. It represented nothing less than the battle for freedom and equality. Once the Civil War had gotten fully underway, the Union began to recognize that it could no longer casually reject the offers of black men to serve their country. It needed their help. However, by the time this realization came, the multitude of offers of service did not come so easily. They questioned the necessity of white leadership of a black regiment and had not forgotten the government’s initial rejection of their service. These drawbacks ultimately gave way to cause of liberation, and hundreds of blacks enlisted in the 54th Regiment. When the War Department retrospectively refused to give black soldiers the same pay as whites, the abolitionist based movement again adapted to the situation at hand. They initially found a way to make up the difference in pay, but the soldiers rejected this on principle, insisting instead to go without pay for eighteen months until the War Department changed its mind.

The tireless efforts of the Boston abolitionists seemed to prove worthwhile when the government ratified the amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery. Unfortunately, their work could not simply end here, as blacks now occupied an unusual space—not slaves, yet not fully citizens with equal rights. The organizational structure firmly put in place by the Boston abolitionists enabled them to tackle these challenges as well, and Massachusetts quickly became one of the first to establish a Civil Rights Law preventing segregation and discrimination in public spaces. As Greenidge demonstrates, the Boston based abolitionist movement adapted to an onslaught of challenges, and effectively disseminated its principles across the nation, ensuring that “the ability of the country to repair itself would never be lost.”

Bibliography

Greenidge, Kerri. Boston’s Abolitionists. Beverly, MA: Commonwealth Editions, 2006.