The majority of black males who were involved in the abolitionist movement, except William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, opposed the idea of women holding offices in the prominently male-run societies including the American Anti-Slavery Society. The push for women voting rights was seen as an unwarranted distraction from the abolitionist cause. However, black women were not deterred by such opinions, and thus they continued to participate in the anti-slavery campaign in various capacities as speakers and agents for various societies. White abolitionists would introduce black agents to doubting audiences as first-hand witnesses of slavery and its debilitating effects. This assertion explains how Frederick Douglas, as an antislavery spokesperson, became an American hero.
Newspapers also played a central role in the spread of the antislavery message. Specifically, African American newspapers would spend time explaining the ideas and goals of the abolitionist movement, especially to black audiences. For instance, Samuel Cornish, a black journalist, and adherent of the abolitionist movement established the Freedom’s Journal in 1827, which was the first black newspaper. A year later, Cornish published an extremely radical black newspaper, Rights of All, calling for immediate abolition, but it did not last long. Other black newspapers that supported abolitionism included Weekly Advocate by Charles B. Ray, Colored American by Philip A. Bell, the National Watchman, with William G. Allen as the editor, and Fredrick Douglass’s The North Star.
Before the Civil War, black abolitionists countered the proslavery message using different tactics and on several levels. For instance, Black intellectuals would respond fearlessly to elements of racism in scholarship, especially by questioning the persistent use of science to support racist practices in society. One writer commenting in The Colored American lamented, “We had hoped for much from science… We had fondly dreamed that she would ever rear her head far above the buzz of popular applause, or the conflicting opinion of the moral world…” (Franklin & Higginbotham, 2011, p.197). To counter such tactics, some black scholars, such as Robert Benjamin Lewis, used science to prove the claims that blacks were superior to whites. For instance, his 1836 four-hundred-page treatise deliberately ignored the existence of whites in the history of humanity backed by what he called scientific proof as a countermeasure to the proslavery narrative.
The Underground Railroad also played a significant role in promoting the antislavery agenda. This extensive network attracted thousands of people to the abolitionist movement. Wilbur H. Siebert, a historian, compiled a list of over 3200 active workers, but many more have remained anonymous to date. Levi Coffin, a white worker, also known as the president of the Underground Railway, worked tirelessly to promote the abolitionist cause. He helped over 3000 slaves to escape from their bondage. Another notable figure in the Underground Railway system was Calvin Fairbanks, who would travel south to transport slaves from Kentucky to their freedom. John Fairfield has been termed as the most daring conductor having come from a slaveholding family, but deciding to reject the idea and breaking ranks with his family to live in a free state. Freed slaves in Canada and the US would give him money and description of their friends and family members to go and help them escape. Conductors in the Underground Railway system were instrumental in the freeing of slaves by transporting them to safety from the hold of their masters.
Reference
Franklin, H. J., & Higginbotham, E. B. (2011). From slavery to freedom: A History of African Americans (9th ed.). McGraw Hill.