The Most Absolute Abolition: Runaways, Vigilance Committees, and the Rise of Revolutionary Abolitionism, 1835–1861 by Jesse Olsavsky (review)

Abstract

In this illuminating history of the Underground Railroad, Jesse Olsavsky places vigilance committees and fugitives at the center of the antislavery movement. The title is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who called vigilance committee members “abolitionists of the most absolute abolition” (p. 8). Olsavsky describes the emergence and work of the vigilance committees (VCs), in collaboration with runaways, as bridging ideological divides and driving a more confrontational approach to ending slavery. He views vigilance committees, and by extension, the Underground Railroad, as a social movement, and traces the organizations, networks, ideas, and methods that sustained it. Olsavsky ultimately argues that fugitive slaves became the teachers and scholars of abolition through VCs. Many previous historians have viewed the Underground Railroad as a side project of abolitionists, one that involved isolated and dramatic acts of bravery by runaways and activists. Olsavsky describes the vigilance committees and their allies as a highly organized, practical, and effective movement that was built on the knowledge of fugitives. As he writes, “Antislavery societies focused on propaganda and ideas; VCs helped fugitives” (p. 61). Olsavsky highlights the importance of what might seem like the mundane record-keeping of VCs. For example, vigilance committee agents William Still, Jermain Loguen, and others conducted extensive interviews with runaways in order to document the evils of slavery, deepen their arguments, bolster their networks, and consider the best ways to resist slavery. Based on existing records, Olsavsky estimates that VCs helped thousands of fugitives and perhaps as many as twenty thousand. Olsavsky joins other recent scholars in emphasizing the leadership of Black activists in abolition. He notes the diversity of the vigilance