American Anti-Slavery Society

The American Anti-Slavery Society

The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) was founded in 1833 in Philadelphia, by prominent white abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Lewis Tappan as well as blacks from Pennsylvania, including James Forten and Robert Purvis. It was based on the model of London's Anti-Slavery Society, which successfully abolished slavery in the British colonies. The society's goal was to immediately and unconditionally abolish slavery. The AASS sponsored speaking tours of orators, including Frederick Douglass, and published antislavery books, newspapers, and pamphlets. By the late 1830s, the AASS had hundreds of chapters and 250,000 members. They were seen as radicals by many in the South and attacked by white mobs. In 1870, the society was dissolved with the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment granting black men the right to vote.

by Aslaku Berhanu

References

DeBlasio, Donna M.. "American Anti-Slavery Society." Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass. Ed. Paul Finkelman New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Oxford African American Studies Center. Mon May 14 09:53:11 EDT 2012. <http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0004/e0019