The Limitations of Antislavery
The Limitations of Antislavery
This chapter argues that, if the antislavery organizations are also taken into account, it is possible to detect a significant chronological pattern which dovetails with the timing of economic changes in the South and the development of American nationhood. Unquestionably there was an element of causality here, but it should not be overestimated. Certain characteristics of antislavery thought may also be said to help account for the decline of antislavery after the early 1790s. These characteristics pertained especially to the nature of Revolutionary ideology, and accordingly it is scarcely surprising that the Quakers stand out as exceptions; indeed certain incompatibilities emerged between the religious and secular impulses in antislavery. The overall pattern was rendered still more interesting and complex by the development of two additional interrelated impulses, humanitarianism and sentimentality, which themselves were not altogether compatible.
Keywords: antislavery organizations, American nationhood, Revolutionary ideology, Quakers, humanitarianism, sentimentality
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