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“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
- Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Our nation is standing on a precipice evaluating the greatest issue of our time. Despite slavery being abolished in 1865, hundreds of thousands of Americans are still enslaved today.
Slavery in its simplicity is an economic transaction based on supply and demand, but one that rips at the moral fabric of our society. Slavery is a reflection of the endless struggle between right and wrong. It forces us to evaluate definitions of equality, of systemic racism, of human worth.
Slavery was a taboo subject when Lincoln chose to no longer be silent. Slavery is a taboo subject today, but you are no longer silent. You understand that freedom requires action.
Thank you for being a defender of the vulnerable and a protector of freedom.
Happy Fourth of July.
With deepest gratitude,
Your Fellow Abolitionists
Many Americans, including free and formerly enslaved people, worked tirelessly to support the abolitionist movement. Some of the most famous abolitionists included:
- William Lloyd Garrison: A very influential early abolitionist, Garrison started a publication called The Liberator, which supported the immediate freeing of all enslaved men and women.
- Frederick Douglass: Douglass escaped slavery himself and published a memoir titled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. An instrumental figure in the abolitionist movement, he also supported women’s suffrage.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe: Stowe was an author and abolitionist who was best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- Susan B. Anthony: Anthony was an author, speaker and women’s rights activist who also supported the abolitionist movement. She is revered for her diligent efforts in fighting for women’s rights to vote.
- John Brown: Brown was a radical abolitionist who organized various raids and uprisings, including an infamous raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
- Harriet Tubman: Tubman was a fugitive enslaved person and abolitionist who was known for helping escaped enslaved people reach the North via the Underground Railroad network.
- Sojourner Truth: Best known for her speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?,” Truth was both an abolitionist and a women’s rights advocate.