Black Abolitionists were extremely vocal on the cruelty of slavery. The genius speeches of Frederick Douglass and the hard-hitting journalism from Ida B. Wells electrified many, for example. But it wasn’t only Black people making anti-slavery arguments.
Many white abolitionists were disgusted by the institution of slavery, but white people love to pretend EVERYONE thought slavery was acceptable during that time – so we shouldn’t judge their ancestors too harshly. The truth, though? They didn’t!
One European who called out slavery was Alexis de Tocqueville. In his book “Democracy In America,” he wrote that the Southern American was a lazy brute! They were lazy because they never had to work themselves, and the whipping and cruelty they enacted to control the enslaved made them violent and depraved.
Another example was William Wilberforce. Though born wealthy, he became devoted to ending the slave trade after an intense religious experience. He was a powerful abolitionist voice within the English government, and felt ending slavery was what God wanted.
Whites would like us to think that there was never any dissent when it came to slavery, but that’s a lie – plenty of their own people were disgusted by it at the time! We can’t let white lies about history distort the truth – and we have to be honest about what we continue to experience today to truly move forward.