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The Abolitionist Movement

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The abolitionist movement of the 19th century was crucial in ending the common practice of slavery in the United States. Abolitionists all held the same goal of ending slavery, but they were divided on how they wanted it to be done. The two largest factions that the abolitionist movement divided into were the gradualists and the immediatists. These two groups held greatly to their ideals and viewed major events in the abolitionist movement differently. Events and topics such as popular sovereignty and the free soil party would have invoked different reactions in the two groups, despite them trying to achieve the same goal. The two major groups of the abolitionist movement, the gradualists and the immediatists, had differing views on how the …show more content…
The plan was to pass a bill that would allow each individual state to hold a vote that would allow the citizens to vote on the legality of slavery in their state. The bill never passed, however, if it were to have passed the gradualists and immediatists would have held differing opinions on the subject. If the bill passed the gradualists would have accepted it and generally would have little to no argument against it. This is because popular sovereignty could have resulted in the emancipation of slaves state to state. This would please the gradualists because this plan would have taken longer to fully emancipate all the slaves as it would occur at a very gradual pace. The gradual pace would allow the economy and society to stabilize between each emancipation of slaves. The immediatists, however, would not have taken well to the idea of popular sovereignty. This is because the immediatists believed that slavery was such an atrocious sin that it should be ended and eradicated as quickly as possible. So, because the idea of popular sovereignty would have taken a long time to implement and eradicate slavery, the immediatists would not have been on board. This was likely a contributing factor as to why the bill was not originally passed in the first place. Also, I believe that both the abolitionist groups would have held some resentment towards the plan due to the fact that it did not guarantee the …show more content…
The free soil party consisted of farmers and other workers that wanted to manage their own farms and do their labor without the help of slaves. This, I believe, would be pleasing to the abolitionists known as the gradualists. I believe this because these free spoilers could influence others that to do their labor without the help of slaves. If the free spoilers could prove they were successful without slave help, it could have resulted in others following them and doing the same. However relying on this solely to abolish slavery would have taken a very long time and the emancipation of slaves would have been an excruciatingly long process. This would have been pleasing to the gradualists who believed that this was superior to immediate emancipation. The long-term plan for emancipation by way of the free spoilers would not have been received well by the immediatists. This is because of the length of the process. The process would have taken a very, very long time, something that the immediatists did not want to wait for. Despite the immediatists not approving of relying on the free soilers for emancipation, I do believe they would have supported them politically. Politically, both groups shared common ideals with the free soilers and likely could have made great progress. However, solely relying on the free soilers would not have been an

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