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Difficulty: MediumBlack Abolitionism and Anti-Slavery Activism

In his 1843 address at the National Negro Convention, Henry Highland Garnet declared:

'Brethren, arise, arise! Strike for your lives and liberties. Now is the day and the hour. Let every slave throughout the land of America, write his name on the wall, in characters of blood! ... Let your motto be resistance! resistance! resistance! No oppressed people have ever secured their liberty without resistance.'

Garnet’s call for direct action represents a significant departure from which of the following dominant anti-slavery strategies of the early 1840s?

  1. Moral suasion, which sought to end slavery by appealing to the Christian and moral conscience of slaveholders.Answer
  2. B
    Covert everyday resistance, which aimed to undermine plantation efficiency through tool breaking and labor slowdowns.
  3. C
    Grand maroonage, which sought to establish independent, self-governing communities in remote wilderness areas.
  4. D
    Decentralized conspiracies, which replicated the localized, quiet planning of the colonial-era Stono Rebellion.

Answer

Moral suasion, which sought to end slavery by appealing to the Christian and moral conscience of slaveholders.
The correct answer refers to moral suasion. Henry Highland Garnet's 1843 address urged enslaved people to engage in direct resistance, marking a radical break from the mainstream abolitionist strategy of moral suasion, which was advocated by William Lloyd Garrison and others who believed that slavery could be abolished by peacefully convincing slaveholders of the sinfulness of slavery.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus excerpt from Henry Highland Garnet's 1843 speech.
The text explicitly urges enslaved people to 'arise' and use 'resistance' to secure their liberty, advocating for open and collective confrontation.
Understanding the core message of the source text helps determine the specific abolitionist ideology being promoted.
2
Contrast Garnet's message with contemporary anti-slavery strategies of the early 1840s.
Garnet's call for active resistance directly challenged the mainstream strategy of 'moral suasion,' which rejected physical resistance in favor of appealing to slaveholders' moral conscience.
Comparing the stimulus with historical strategies identifies the strategy from which Garnet was departing.

Key Concept

Black Abolitionism and Anti-Slavery Activism
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Topics

Black Abolitionism and Anti-Slavery Activism

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