The Abolitionist's struggle for the emancipation of all people, and the end of slavery as a legally sanctioned ownership of one class of humans by another, took as its rallying point the ideals of the American Revolution and the language of the Declaration of Independence.

They did not seek to "mitigate" the harsh circumstances of fellow humans bound to servitude. They repudiated schemes to "repatriate" black Americans to Africa. They did not attempt to create a "Slave Protection Agency" that would regulate the slave-based economy and the plight of those in bondage. They demanded the immediate end to slavery, and the immediate protection of the law and Constitution for all people.

Although the Abolitionist Movement gained momentum begining in the 1830s, the ineluctable injustice of slavery was clear to many at the founding of the new nation. An unsettled debate, at the outset of the Revolution, the question of slavery was left to each state to decide when the First Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, was adopted in 1776. But when it was replaced by the Second Constitution, slavery was legalized and protected in law.

Here you may read about the attitudes and demands of the Abolitionists who insisted the Constitution be made to live up to the ideals of the American Revolution.

Benjamin Banneker, writes to Thomas Jefferson, 1791 -- On August 19 of 1791, free black man Benjamin Banneker wrote to then Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, on behalf of black Americans then in bondage, and to include a copy of an Almanac published by Banneker.

Thomas Jefferson Responds to Benjamin Banneker -- On August 30, 1791, Thomas Jefferson wrote a brief response, indicating that he would submit the letter, and the Almanac, to the Secretary of the Academy of Science in Paris (and a member of the Philanthropic Society) as evidence in support of the intellectual equality of people of African heredity.

Statistics on Slave Smuggling Just Prior to the Civil War -- Captain Richard Drake, Slave Smuggler

"The Liberator" Inaugural Editorial -- William Lloyd Garrison, in 1831 (more than thirty years before adoption of the 13th Amendment), called for the immediate end of slavery.

Angelina Grimke's Appeal To The Christian Women of the South -- Angelina Grimke was drafted into the Abolitionist Movement when William Lloyd Garrison published a private letter she had written to him. A Southern woman of the slave-holding class, she never-the-less stood by her words, and eventually began publishing and lecturing for the immediate abolition of slavery. 

An Essay on Slavery and the Inadvisability of Women to Join Abolition Societies -- by Catharine E. Beecher, addressed to Angelina Grimke.

Angelina Grimke letters to Catherine E. Beecher (a selection):

Fundamental Principles of Abolitionists

Immediate Emancipation

Main Principles of Action

Connection Between the North and the South

Contract for Indenture of a 5 Year Old Girl, August 19, 1865 -- With the "official" end of Slavery, other means of owning the life and labor of "freed" people were devised.