Description
From 1816 through general emancipation in 1865, white activists from northern Virginia (Fairfax, Loudoun, Frederick, Jefferson, and Berkeley counties) were leaders in the national antislavery movement. These men and women promoted gradual emancipation through moral suasion and were fairly effective into the 1840s. However, as slavery became a more contentious issue, white leaders receded from the field of public protest. At that point, African American men, born and raised in the same area during the 1810s and 1820s, became leaders in the abolition movement and Underground Railroad. This project explores the relationships between these black and white, male and female activists, and their shared traits: their tendency to be go-betweens, working with people of both races; their morally exemplary lives and advocacy; and their commitment to ending slavery through practical and moderate means. It argues that together, in various ways, these northern Virginians furthered the antislavery movement.
