on the sugar and cotton plantations in
the colonies.
In the 1600s certain people in the British
colonies of North America condemned
slavery on religious grounds.
There were few other protests, however,
until the 1700s. Slowly but steadily,
more and more people became opposed
to the idea of holding other human
beings as private property.
Antislavery Efforts Around
theWorld
The first formal organization to emerge
in the abolitionist movement was the
Abolition Society, founded in 1787 in
Britain. By 1807 Britain had abolished
the slave trade with its colonies. By 1833
all slaves in the British colonies in the
Western Hemisphere were freed. Other
countries in Europe soon followed this
example. France outlawed the slave trade
by 1819, and in 1848 slavery was
banned in all French colonies.
Slavery was abolished country by country
in South America. In Chile the first
antislavery law was passed as early as
1811. Slavery finally ended in South
America when Brazil passed an antislavery
law in 1888.
United States
In the United States the slave trade was
officially abolished in 1807, but the
smuggling of slaves continued until the
CivilWar. As cotton plantations devel-
An antislavery meeting is pictured in London,
England, in 1840.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Abolitionist Movement 11
oped in the South, the demand for
slaves increased. The Southern states
thus supported slavery. In contrast, by
1804 all of the states north of Maryland
had abolished slavery. The North
became the center of the abolitionist
movement in the United States.
The best-known leader of this movement
was William Lloyd Garrison. He
founded the American Anti-Slavery
Society in 1833. The U.S. abolitionists
did not always agree about how to end
slavery, however. Some wanted the government
to pass laws to end slavery.
Others tried to help individual slaves
gain their freedom. They established the
Underground Railroad to help escaping
slaves reach places of safety in the North
or in Canada.
The abolitionist movement gained
strength as more and more people
learned about the evils of slavery. People
were disgusted by the cruelty of the slave
hunters who brought escaped slaves back
to their owners. Harriet Beecher Stowes
novel Uncle Toms Cabin (1852) presented
powerful descriptions of how
slaves were mistreated. The book became
extraordinarily popular.
In November 1860 Abraham Lincoln
was elected president of the United
States. Lincoln opposed the spread of
slavery. The South felt threatened. Over
the next three months a series of Southern
states separated from the United
States and formed the Confederacy. This
led to the American CivilWar (1861
65). During the fighting, in 1863, Lincoln
issued the Emancipation
Proclamation. This document freed all
slaves in the Confederate states. In 1865
the Confederacy was defeated. Then
slavery was abolished in the United
States by the 13th Amendment to the
Constitution.
#More to explore
American CivilWar Brown, John
Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln,
Abraham Slavery Stowe, Harriet
William Lloyd Garrison Beecher Underground Railroad
An abolitionist
named John
Brown stole
weapons from
the U.S. government
in
1859. He
wanted to start
a slave rebellion.
He was
killed but
became an
abolitionist
hero.
Cassius Marcellus Clay worked to end slavery
even though he was from a slaveholding
family in the South.
12 Abolitionist Movement BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
Aboriginal
Peoples
Aboriginal peoples, or aborigines, are
groups of people who have lived in one
area for many thousands of years. In the
past, aborigines lived in areas far from
other cultures. They were unknown
until outsiders came into their lands.
Today there are only a few places left in
the world where outsiders have not
affected aboriginal cultures. Aborigines
still live in the rain forests of South
America, on the island of New Guinea,
and in the mountains of Malaysia and
the Philippines. They have kept many of
their original ways of life.
The Australian Aborigines are probably
the best-known aboriginal society. They
came to Australia more than 40,000
years ago. They still live there today.
Australian Aborigines were originally
hunter-gatherer tribes that moved from
place to place to find food and water.
They lived in caves or built short-term
shelters from branches, bark, and animal
skins. The men fished and hunted for
animals. The women gathered plants,
eggs, and other food.
The Aborigines lives changed when
Europeans arrived in Australia more
than 200 years ago. The Europeans
forced the Aborigines to move off their
land and to change their way of life.
Many Aborigines died defending their
land. Many others died from diseases
brought by the Europeans.
Today Aborigines live in all parts of Australia
and do all kinds of work. But
many Aborigines are poor. They do not
have the same opportunities as most
other Australians.
..More to explore
Australia Culture
Abraham
Abraham is an important figure in the
Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions.
He is considered to be the patriarch, or
founding father, of the nation of Israel.
The story of Abraham is told in Genesis,
the first book of the Bible. In modern
times archaeologists have found ancient
clay tablets that tell more of the story.
According to the Bible, Abraham came
from Ur in Mesopotamia (now Iraq).
His people were sheepherders who
moved from place to place. About 4,000
years ago they settled near Haran, in
An Australian Aborigine stands before a
large rock known as Uluru/Ayers Rock.
Parts of the rock and the land around it are
sacred to the Aborigines of the area.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Abraham 13
what is now Turkey. There God
instructed Abraham to leave his people
and move to a new land. Abraham
obeyed.
At age 75 he journeyed to Canaan (the
land that is now Israel) with his wife,
Sarah, and others. God told him that he
and his children would inherit that land.
At first Abraham and Sarah thought
they were too old to have children.
Abrahams first child, Ishmael, was born
to a servant of Sarahs. But Isaac was
born later to Sarah. The Bible says that
Abraham died at the age of 175.
Isaac inherited the land of Canaan. After
his death the land went to his son,
Jacob. God changed Jacobs name to
Israel. His descendants were the Jewish
people. In Christianity, Abraham is considered
to be the father of all who
believe in God. Abraham is important to
Muslims as well. They are said to be the
descendants of Abrahams son Ishmael.
In the Koran, the holy book of Islam, it
is said that Abraham and Ishmael built
the Kaaba. The Kaaba, a shrine in
Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is the holiest place
in the Islamic world.
#More to explore
Bible Christianity Islam Judaism
Koran Mecca Mesopotamia
Absaroka
#see Crow.
Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr was an adviser to the prophet
Muhammad, the founder of Islam. After
Muhammads death, Abu Bakr took
charge of the Islamic world. He is