Bowing the Knee to Slavery

Abstract

One common objection to the colonization movement was that it distracted from the fight for the abolition of slavery. Chapter 7 argues that the rift over slavery in America was deepening; antislavery and proslavery movements were moving toward extremes rather than reaching compromise or consensus. The chapter opens with the brutal murder of abolitionist newspaperman Elijah Lovejoy and discusses the gag rule passed in the US House of Representatives, which automatically tables any proposed legislation for the abolition of slavery. For enslaved and free black people in the United States, things are getting worse.