Political Abolitionism

This Chapter deals with the wider question of political influence and how anti-slavery activists engaged with politics. In the past, this topic has been dominated by studies of anti-slavery petitions. While recognising the importance of petitioning, this chapter looks at complementary forms of political protest, chief among them the pledging of prospective parliamentary candidates, or what in the USA was called ‘the interrogatory system’. Pledging proved singularly effective in flushing out reluctant candidates but by its very nature it was seen as symptomatic of a new kind of politics that was at once brash, noisy and confrontational. The chapter looks at how these tactics were widely adopted in the USA, where direct political action eventually led to the organization of the Liberty Party, a new departure that took it as axiomatic that the existing two-party system (Whigs/Democrats) was not working. The chapter argues that the Liberty Party had a significant impact on divorcing the federal government from the idea of slavery.