1833

Garrison and sixty-three delegates — including three Black men, James McCrummell, Robert Purvis, and James Barbadoes — found the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia in December 1833. The Declaration of Sentiments calls slavery a sin and demands immediate emancipation. Within five years the society has 1,350 chapters and 250,000 members.

Garrison, Arthur Tappan, and over 60 delegates — including three Black men — founded the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) in Philadelphia. Its Declaration of Sentiments, drafted by Garrison, demanded immediate emancipation with no compensation to slaveholders, denounced the Constitution's compromises with slavery, and called for moral suasion to transform public opinion. The AASS grew to 2,000 chapters and 250,000 members by the late 1830s. It trained a generation of organizers including Frederick Douglass, sponsored lecture tours, and flooded the South with antislavery literature — triggering the Congressional gag rule.

Britain's Slavery Abolition Act received Royal Assent on August 28, 1833, abolishing slavery throughout the British Empire — approximately 800,000 enslaved people freed, primarily in the Caribbean. The Act granted slaveholders £20 million in compensation (roughly £2 billion in 2024 terms) and imposed a four to six year 'apprenticeship' period on freed people. No compensation was paid to the enslaved. The British precedent made American slavery increasingly anomalous among Western nations and gave abolitionists a powerful argument: if Britain with its powerful planter lobby could abolish slavery, so could the United States. American slaveholders responded by intensifying proslavery ideology claiming slavery was a positive good.

Britain's Slavery Abolition Act received Royal Assent on August 28, 1833, abolishing slavery throughout the British Empire, freeing approximately 800,000 enslaved people primarily in the Caribbean. Slaveholders received 20 million pounds in compensation; no compensation was paid to the enslaved. The British precedent made American slavery increasingly anomalous among Western nations. American slaveholders responded by intensifying proslavery ideology claiming slavery was a positive good rather than a necessary evil.