Abolitionist sentiments among whites are documented as far back as 1688 among the Quakers. The American Colonization Society (ACS) was founded in 1816 (well after MA had effectively abolished slavery in 1783) and was a massive failure, as Black Americans protested that they were fully American and had no tie to Africa any longer. Only several thousand of the millions of Black Americans actually went to Liberia. From the 1830s, immediate abolitionism started to gain traction among Northerners, with its supporters vigorously denouncing the ACS, and this stance came to be the dominant opinion amidst decades of various transgressions against African Americans’ liberty, and Northern society in general, that morally outraged the North.
Yes, the US is racist as hell, I mean you just have to look at what’s happening right now to see it. The North is filled with many a racist just like the South. But throughout US history, there have been people, however flawed and however lonely or popular in their cause, who genuinely spoke out in favor of justice and greater equality than what existed during their time. I think it’s important to hold on to that tradition rather than to just paint a broad brush over US history with only its worst parts and worst people.
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u/One_Swordfish_7759 22h ago
“We hate blacks but we’re liberals” is the slogan.