Abolitionist Argumentative Essay

Abolitionist Method Argument Essay

"So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war,” said the former president, Abraham Lincoln, as a greeting to Harriet Beecher Stowe, an abolitionist. An abolitionist is defined as a person who favors the abolition of a practice or institution, especially capital punishment or (formerly) slavery. America in the 1800s relied on slaves for their economy, and the slaves felt oppressed by the actions taken on them from the white slave owners. Free black and white people living in the northern, anti-slavery states, decided to speak up about their feelings and wanted to abolish slavery; becoming abolitionists. The most effective method of abolition was the usage of speech and press

For instance, Sojourner Truth was born a slave in New York. She had been bought and sold numerous times, and ruled into harsh punishments. From Women’s History, the narrator states, “As an itinerant preacher, Truth met abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass. Garrison’s anti-slavery organization encouraged Truth to give speeches about the evils of slavery. She never learned to read or write. In 1850, she dictated what would become her autobiography—The Narrative of Sojourner Truth—to Olive Gilbert, who assisted in its publication. Truth survived on sales of the book, which also brought her national recognition” (“Sojourner”). Despite not knowing how to read or write, she became an abolitionist by using her voice to convey her thoughts. Being treated in an inhuman manner with legally no freedom as a slave, she was still able to communicate her thoughts for abolitionism. Also, David Walker was born a free black man. However, he had been exposed to the brutal actions of slavery as a child, inspiring him to write Appeal, a pamphlet. He had spread excerpts from his pamphlet in numerous ways. From the David Walker Memorial Project, the narrator states, “Packaged and sent through the regular mail... Sewn into the linings of clothes... Smuggled ashore from ships when they docked in port... Walker’s Appeal was circulated in the South in many bold and creative ways. In early 1830, in the bustling port town of Wilmington, North Carolina, a slave named Jacob Cowan took delivery of two hundred copies of the Appeal. There was also a letter from Walker instructing him to distribute the pamphlets across the state” (“Walker’s Appeal”). Walker was a clothes dealer, who applied his sewing skills as a means to share his thoughts; his freedom of speech. He was free, still he decided to speak against slavery, meaning even free people could speak against slavery. Walker had a