Black Abolitionists

Quarles virtually founded the history of black abolitionism, and he set the bar very high. Before Black Abolitionists, the story of antislavery was viewed almost completely as a matter of selfless, dedicated--or fanatical--whites, with blacks in the roles of desperate fugitives or bit players. Quarles up-ended the narrative and demonstrated that blacks were the key actors, with whites--with very few exceptions--taking at best supporting roles. This is an essential starting point for anyone interested in the antislavery movement or 19th-century U.S. society and reform.

I recently reviewed this exceptional book for a college history class: Benjamin Quarles did an exceptional job in supporting his well-balanced and non-biased arugment that even though widely neglected in history, the Negro played a significant role in the abolitionists crusade. Quarles's use of Primary sources made this non-biased argument possible. A quick summary of the book is as follows: The "new school" movement began in the late 1820s to the early 30s, and it gave free Negroes the opportunity to publicly speak their views on slavery and the equality of blacks. Even though not all blacks were abolitionists, their general attitude was, as John Scoble stated in 1853, "'...[to be] true to their brethren in bonds...and to remain by them whatever the cost'" (p.7). Whether he be free-born or slave-born, man or woman, an active aboltionist or a supporter of abolition, the Negro was true to his brother in slavery. Evidence of this was shown in Negro reformist sheets, and narratives written by former slaves. The kinship Negroes felt toward the slave was also shown in the formation of anti-slavery societies, in the trips to England in hopes of gaining anti-slavery support, and Negro participation in The Underground Railroad. This book is an excellent account of the Negro participation in the abolitionist movement, long neglected in history. The fact that this book has a well-balanced, greatly supported, easy to read, and truthful arument, makes it exceptional. Quarles said it best when he noted, "To the extent that America had a revolutionary tradition, [the Negro] was its protagonist no less than its symbol" (p.249). One will never feel the same about the Negroes' union in their struggle for freedom and equality, after he reads, Black Aboltionists, by Benjamin Quarles.