Abolitionism - what is it? The movement to abolish slavery would seem to have triumphed when a clause on the inadmissibility of the slave trade and the illegality of slavery was added to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but several illustrative examples of slavery have survived in the modern world.
What is abolitionism: definitions
There are several definitions of the term "abolitionism", but in all cases this concept denotes a socio-political movement against something.
Initially, abolitionism is a social movement for the abolition of slavery and the release of slaves. Later, the concept spread to other movements. For example, abolitionism is also a movement to abolish the death penalty, imprisonment (in criminology), end the suffering of all living beings (in bioethics and philosophy, for example, in the works of the modern philosopher David Pierce) or cancel copyright (in copyright).
Representatives of abolitionist organizations demand the abolition of any law, decrees, normative act or social institution for religious and (or) moral reasons.
What does abolitionism mean? Such a social movement exists in the framework of the controversy surrounding the problem of abortion or may be an extreme form of struggle for animal rights.
Despite the large number of interpretations and definitions of the same concept, abolitionism is usually a struggle against slavery and its forms (for example, serfdom, the transatlantic slave trade, and so on). Abolitionists demanded the release of slaves and the cessation of the slave trade.
A Brief History of Abolitionism
The first supporter of the movement was the Spanish missionary and sixteenth-century explorer Bartolome de las Casas. It was on his initiative that Spain was one of the first to adopt a law against the enslavement of the Indians of North and South America (1542), but soon this normative act was repealed. Oddly enough, the law prohibiting enslavement has become one of the main reasons for the export of slaves from Africa.
In the eighteenth century, the English Quaker sect opposed slavery, and by the end of the century, abolitionism had become part of the pan-European Enlightenment. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, most European states recognized the need to abolish slavery. The last country to abolish slavery was Mauritania (1981), before that (1948) slavery was declared illegal in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Abolitionism in the British Empire
Serfdom in the British Empire everywhere disappeared at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but until the eighteenth century, black slaves still served in the rich houses of London and Edinburgh. Many wealthy Englishmen, moving to the New World, took slaves from India with them. Until 1772, the status of such people remained not fully defined.
Several noisy trials, which led to a more active subsequent struggle by the abolitionists, took place in Britain in the eighteenth century.
For example, the following case took place. In 1772, Charles Stewart attempted to capture the runaway slave James Somerset in order to later send him to Jamaica to work on sugar plantations. But James Somerset managed to be christened in London. His godparents challenged the decision of the slave owner in court, demanding compliance with the Habeas Corpus Law, which stated that no one could be detained or restricted in any way unless there was a legitimate reason. The court ordered the release of James Somerset.
This precedent became the basis for the liberation of more than ten thousand slaves in the British Isles and other possessions of the empire. Slaves began to move away from their owners and reaffirm their right to freedom in numerous trials. However, in Scotland there continued to exist a completely legal slavery, which ceased in 1799.
In 1787, British philanthropist William Wilberforce launched an extensive campaign in parliament to ban the slave trade. As part of this campaign, the Slave Trade Ban Act was passed in 1807, and in 1833 slavery was completely abolished throughout the British Empire.
Abolitionism in the United States
In the USA, the beginning of the mass movement for the liberation of slaves is usually attributed to the thirties of the nineteenth century, when the American Society for the Struggle against Slavery appeared and the Liberator newspaper began to appear. After several years, two movements stood out in the movement: a peaceful majority led by William Harrison and a more radical minority led by Frederick Douglas.
The abolitionists for a long time stayed away from politics, but later it was they who were accused of threatening the union of the North and the South. The American constitution then left the final solution to the issue of slavery to the authorities of individual states. Then supporters of abolitionism founded the state of Liberia on the coast of Africa in order to transport liberated slaves there.
The idea failed for several reasons. Firstly, slave owners did not want to give up free labor, which brought huge profits, and secondly, the slaves themselves, born in the United States, already considered the States to be their homeland and did not want to leave America.
A sharp breakthrough was outlined during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. He declared slaves residing in territories that were in a state of rebellion during the Civil War free. In 1865, the thirteenth constitutional amendment was adopted, which finally abolished slavery in the United States.
Abolitionism in France
Abolitionism is a phenomenon not only characteristic of the largest colonial empires. In France, for example, the movement was not as numerous and eventful as in the United States or the British Empire, but still existed. The movement to abolish slavery in France began at the end of the eighteenth century, and slavery was completely abolished in 1848.
Famous representatives of the movement
Among the prominent representatives of this socio-political movement, we can distinguish William Lloyd Harrison (publisher of the Liberator magazine, sharply condemning slavery), Frederick Douglas (born a slave, was able to move to the northern states in his youth, organized a movement of abolitionists and attracted blacks to participation in the war), John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jonas Hopkins, Harriet Jacobs (ran by the slaveholder, who forced the girl to sexual contact, published the book "Cases of zhiz and slave girls "), Wendell Phillips, John D. Rockefeller. As you can see, there are many names.
Slavery in the modern world
Despite the fact that slave labor is prohibited by the Declaration of Human Rights, in the modern world slavery remains a very common occurrence. Experts from the international organization to combat slavery claim that now there are more than 27 million people in the world (about one million in Europe) who are in the position of slaves.