- Joined
- Feb 6, 2010
- Location
- Ohio
When most Americans think of abolitionists, they think of Northerners like William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Beecher Stowe. What most Americans don't realize is that there were many Southern abolitionists, and that they in fact were advocating universal, immediate emancipation as early as the 1810s, before William Lloyd Garrion's voice changed or Harriet Beecher's first adult tooth sprouted. The ranks of Southern abolitionists would eventually swell to the thousands, and they would continue to spread their message right up through the Civil War. I personally believe that they were not only the seed of the national abolitionist movement, but the heart and soul of it as well.
In 1827, there were 106 anti-slavery societies in the South, with an estimated 6625 members. This is compared to about 3 dozen anti-slavery societies in the North. (Source) At this time, however, very few of these societies or their members would be considered abolitionists (i.e., advocates of immediate and unconditional emancipation). Instead, the vast majority of anti-slavery proponents at this time were colonizationists, advocating that slaves should only be emancipated as quickly as they could be put on a boat and shipped to another continent.
But as early as the mid 1810s, one man was already promoting unconditional, immediate emancipation. His name was Charles Osborn, a member of the Society of Friends (a.k.a. Quakers) in Tennessee. He was born in 1775 in Guilford County, North Carolina, and came to Tennessee as a preacher in 1806. In 1815, he co-founded the Tennessee Manumission Society, which included the following charter resolutions:
Shortly after formation of this society, even slaveholders began to take interest. But this led to a change in the constitution, objective, and even the name of the society. It now became the "Manumission and Colonization Society", over Osborn's objections. The society would grow and flourish over the years, but like most anti-slavery societies of the time, it now favored colonization. Information about the early history of this organization is sketchy and contradictory, but it appears that perhaps Osborn's views of unconditional and immediate emancipation put him at odds with most of the membership. What is known for certain is that in 1816 he left Tennessee and moved to Mount Pleasant, Ohio, where in 1817 he began publishing an anti-slavery newspaper called The Philanthropist. I'll quote some passages from that newspaper in later posts to this thread.
The Philanthropist (not to be confused with James G. Birney's newspaper of the same name published in Cincinnati twenty years later) was more than just an anti-slavery newspaper. It denounced colonization and promoted the boycott of slave labor products. Although Osborn only published it for a year before moving to Indiana, this newspaper would have a major impact on the abolition movement. Benjamin Lundy, another Quaker, would be a leading contributor to it, and a couple years later it would inspire him to start his own abolitionist newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation, whose title he took from one of Osborn's articles (as shall be seen below). Lundy's newspaper would flourish for years, with an interstate readership, and would in turn give a young William Lloyd Garrison his start in the newspaper publishing business, and inspire him to publish The Liberator.
But Osborn apparently felt he could better spread the anti-slavery word verbally, as he did throughout the northwestern states, traveling from his Indiana home in the 1820s and 1830s. However in 1842, his abolitionist views got him in trouble even with the Indiana Society of Friends. The church leadership came out in favor of gradualism and colonization, and issued edicts that its Meeting Houses were not to be used to spread the abolitionist message, and that its members should desist in abolitionist teachings and writings.
Osborn refused to go along, and with several other Friends broke away from the Indiana Society of Friends and formed the Society of Anti-Slavery Friends. Years later, with anti-slavery sentiment growing in the North, the Indiana Society of Friends returned to their abolitionist views, and the splinter group rejoined with the parent. Sadly however, it came too late for Charles Osborn, who had died in 1850. But before that, William Lloyd Garrison had acknowledged Osborn's role as an abolitionist pioneer, reportedly claiming in Cleveland in 1847, "Charles Osborn is the father of all of us abolitionists."
(Later I'll add some posts to this thread with quotes from The Philanthropist. There are many other Southern abolitionists to talk about as well, most of them with much more source information available. Depending on how this thread goes, and how much time I have, I might start a series.
)
Other sources:
George Washington Julian, The rank of Charles Osborn as an anti-slavery pioneer
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Charles_Osborn
In 1827, there were 106 anti-slavery societies in the South, with an estimated 6625 members. This is compared to about 3 dozen anti-slavery societies in the North. (Source) At this time, however, very few of these societies or their members would be considered abolitionists (i.e., advocates of immediate and unconditional emancipation). Instead, the vast majority of anti-slavery proponents at this time were colonizationists, advocating that slaves should only be emancipated as quickly as they could be put on a boat and shipped to another continent.
But as early as the mid 1810s, one man was already promoting unconditional, immediate emancipation. His name was Charles Osborn, a member of the Society of Friends (a.k.a. Quakers) in Tennessee. He was born in 1775 in Guilford County, North Carolina, and came to Tennessee as a preacher in 1806. In 1815, he co-founded the Tennessee Manumission Society, which included the following charter resolutions:
Shortly after formation of this society, even slaveholders began to take interest. But this led to a change in the constitution, objective, and even the name of the society. It now became the "Manumission and Colonization Society", over Osborn's objections. The society would grow and flourish over the years, but like most anti-slavery societies of the time, it now favored colonization. Information about the early history of this organization is sketchy and contradictory, but it appears that perhaps Osborn's views of unconditional and immediate emancipation put him at odds with most of the membership. What is known for certain is that in 1816 he left Tennessee and moved to Mount Pleasant, Ohio, where in 1817 he began publishing an anti-slavery newspaper called The Philanthropist. I'll quote some passages from that newspaper in later posts to this thread.
The Philanthropist (not to be confused with James G. Birney's newspaper of the same name published in Cincinnati twenty years later) was more than just an anti-slavery newspaper. It denounced colonization and promoted the boycott of slave labor products. Although Osborn only published it for a year before moving to Indiana, this newspaper would have a major impact on the abolition movement. Benjamin Lundy, another Quaker, would be a leading contributor to it, and a couple years later it would inspire him to start his own abolitionist newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation, whose title he took from one of Osborn's articles (as shall be seen below). Lundy's newspaper would flourish for years, with an interstate readership, and would in turn give a young William Lloyd Garrison his start in the newspaper publishing business, and inspire him to publish The Liberator.
But Osborn apparently felt he could better spread the anti-slavery word verbally, as he did throughout the northwestern states, traveling from his Indiana home in the 1820s and 1830s. However in 1842, his abolitionist views got him in trouble even with the Indiana Society of Friends. The church leadership came out in favor of gradualism and colonization, and issued edicts that its Meeting Houses were not to be used to spread the abolitionist message, and that its members should desist in abolitionist teachings and writings.
Osborn refused to go along, and with several other Friends broke away from the Indiana Society of Friends and formed the Society of Anti-Slavery Friends. Years later, with anti-slavery sentiment growing in the North, the Indiana Society of Friends returned to their abolitionist views, and the splinter group rejoined with the parent. Sadly however, it came too late for Charles Osborn, who had died in 1850. But before that, William Lloyd Garrison had acknowledged Osborn's role as an abolitionist pioneer, reportedly claiming in Cleveland in 1847, "Charles Osborn is the father of all of us abolitionists."
(Later I'll add some posts to this thread with quotes from The Philanthropist. There are many other Southern abolitionists to talk about as well, most of them with much more source information available. Depending on how this thread goes, and how much time I have, I might start a series.
)Other sources:
George Washington Julian, The rank of Charles Osborn as an anti-slavery pioneer
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Charles_Osborn
Bringing the