Slavery

While slavery became increasingly important to the southern states, free Black communities, northern whites, and religious groups began to criticize the institution. The first major anti-slavery organization in the U.S., the American Colonization Society (est. 1816) sought to free and relocate slaves to Liberia, Africa. By the 1830s, a broader abolitionist movement formed that sought not to deport slaves, but simply free them. Northern presses published works by former slaves, describing the horrors of their enslavement, and offered scathing critiques of the system. White southerners responded in kind, writing full-throated defenses of slavery that went beyond earlier defenders of slavery. Among the notable defenders was Samuel A. Cartwright, a Louisiana doctor whose papers the library holds. He invented diseases to help explain slave behavior. For example, "drapetomania" was an illness that supposedly caused otherwise happy slaves to run away from their plantations.   

Abolitionists. 

Antislavery movements -- United States -- History -- 19th century.

American Colonization Society. 

African American Abolitionists.

Fugitive slaves.

Slavery and the church.

Slavery -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 19th century.

Slavery -- Southern States -- Justification.

Slavery -- United States -- Controversial literature.