Black Abolition
The movement to end racial slavery began along the African coast as Africans resisted slave traders. As the trade in captive Africans increased, so too did the resistance against slavery. Captive Africans engaged in armed rebellion, work stoppages, and self-liberation.
By the late 18th century, an organized movement to legally abolish racial slavery took shape around the Atlantic. This movement drew inspiration from earlier antislavery rebellions and developed new tactics to combat racial slavery, from petitions and literature to networks and strikes. Though abolitionists of all backgrounds worked together, Black abolitionists often took a more radical stance than their white counterparts, envisioning futures of racial equity beyond legal emancipation.
Abolition in Action
At the end of the 18th century, a movement to legally abolish racial slavery emerged across the Atlantic. This was one of the first mass human rights campaigns in world history.
Though white and Black abolitionists worked together, Black abolitionists often took a more radical approach, looking beyond slavery’s legal end to a future that guaranteed rights and equality for all Black people.
Black Abolition: Global Impact
Black Abolitionists used a variety of tactics and techniques to push for the end of racial slavery and the liberation of Black communities. Through rebellions and revolutions, networks and strikes, and publications and petitions, the work of abolition took many forms.
Refusals
1884 medal commemorating the jangadeiros’ strike
Allegorical illustration of Francisco Nascimento
On plantations and other sites driven by involuntary labor, enslaved people resisted by escaping, conducting work slowdowns, and intentionally damaging property.
The refusal to work struck at the heart of racial slavery by targeting enslavers’ profits. The enslaved and their allies used this economic power to press for abolition throughout the Atlantic, engaging in a type of mass action that would be followed by future labor movements.
Petitions
Request for freedom certificate, 1881
Petition of Prince Hall to the Massachusetts General Court, February 27, 1788
Enslaved and free Black people used petitions to seek state protection and demand full legal rights in legal systems where they had limited political voice.
Thousands of petitions were written by groups and individuals as part of the broader abolitionist movement. Petitions mobilized communities, spread the word about abolitionist causes, and placed public pressure on governments to end slavery.
I may be doomed to the stake and the fire, or to the scaffold tree, but it is not in me to falter if I can promote the work of emancipation.
David Walker, 1829
Networks
Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society collection box, ca. 1836
Members of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, ca. 1850
Black abolitionists formed and joined antislavery societies across the Atlantic, such as London’s Sons of Africa, the Société des Amis des Noirs in Paris, and the American Anti-Slavery Society. Local and national organizations connected a diverse group of abolitionists worldwide.
These organizations hosted public meetings, founded abolitionist newspapers, and petitioned courts to end racial slavery. Other abolitionists formed more clandestine networks, working undercover to assist enslaved people.
Publications
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African
Black abolitionists shared their experiences, illuminating the horrors of racial slavery and advocating for freedom.
Starting in the 18th century, abolitionists developed a new genre of literature—slave narratives. These autobiographies and biographies detailed life under slavery and quests for liberation, beckoning readers across the world to embrace the abolitionist cause.
Revolts
French colonists flee the city during the battle of Cap-Français, Saint-Domingue, 1793
Anticolonial and antislavery revolutions spread through the Atlantic world in the 18th and 19th centuries. These movements differed in their demands but placed a common focus on individual and collective rights.
Through armed rebellion and political action, enslaved and free Black people led revolutions that called for the end of racial slavery. These revolutionaries sought new societies built on the foundations of racial equality and shared sovereignty.