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Essay / Anti-Slavery and Abolitionist Movement - 657
The United States of America was a free country for all its citizens, if they had white skin. Unfortunately for African Americans who had been forced into slavery, there seemed to be no way out of the predicament they found themselves in. In the early decades of the 19th century, there was a movement called the anti-slavery movement, and slaves had some difficulties. reason to want to live again. Later, there would be another movement in the 1830s, known as the abolitionist movement, led by two legendary Americans, William Lloyd Garrison and Fredrick Douglas. Both movements played a monumental role in the country's evolution and proved essential to the emancipation of slaves. With both movements underway and the push toward ending slavery, the idea of ending slavery in America was going to be now or never. The anti-slavery movement had begun in the early 1800s and would continue for many decades, until it completed its task of ending slavery in the United States. This movement had helped prevent slavery from entering the North and ended the international slave trade in 1808. The great British anti-slavery leader William Wilberforce had been an important figure in ending slavery and had helped achieve this in the British Empire. It showed the world that if a country as dominant as Britain could end slavery, it was possible for every other nation, including the land of the free. This movement only really took off in the 1830s; because many of its members remain silent and do not really engage in the movement. During the anti-slavery movement, members of the American Colonization Society attempted to return kidnapped Africans to their homelands, even if they were three or four generations removed. This was made...... middle of paper ......ve told the country that slavery was not acceptable and needed to be eliminated immediately. The abolitionist movement clearly had the greatest impact on the nation as a whole. The United States was in turmoil in the early 1800s, with many problems existing, one of which was slavery. Slavery was clearly preventing Americans from taking the next step as a country, and few people had seen and heard enough of slavery. The anti-slavery movement would start the line of movements to end slavery and pave the way for slaves to regain their stolen freedom. The abolitionist movement would produce great American names, including William Lloyd Garrison and Fredrick Douglas, and take America to a place they had never known before. A truly free America was about to become a reality for blacks and whites across the United States of America..