American Slavery, Irish Freedom: Abolition, Immigrant Citizenship, and the Transatlantic Movement for Irish Repeal

2. American Slavery: An Irish Question

2 american slavery An Irish Question The world anti-slavery convention, held in London in June 1840, brought antislavery advocates from both sides of the Atlantic together to promote transatlantic cooperation in the campaign against slavery. Although differences in philosophy frustrated the attempt to unify the various antislavery groups at the convention, the event nevertheless launched a new phase in the movement, creating a loose transatlantic network of activists who, while they disagreed on tactics, did agree that they should concentrate primarily on attacking slavery in the United States. For Ireland, the convention marked the beginning of an organized effort against American slavery. Daniel O’Connell played a visible role in the proceedings , drawing the attention of the Irish press to the movement. In addition, a group of Dublin reformers attended the conference, and the event shaped the approach of their recently organized Hibernian Anti-Slavery Society (HASS). Antislavery sentiment spread in the months after the conference as both American and British abolitionists toured the island in the wake of the convention. O’Connell, the Irish press, and the HASS all recognized a special role for the Irish in the campaign against American slavery. The ties of emigration bound the United States and Ireland together, and Irish reformers hoped to make a unique contribution to transatlantic abolitionism by reaching out to their former countrymen and countrywomen now living in the United States and encouraging them to join in the fight against slavery in their adopted country. On June 12, 1840, the two-week convention began as delegates from Great Britain, the United States, and France met in London.1 Although organizers intended for the conference to create unity, dissension arose among the participants on the first day of the proceedings. The American delegation included american slavery: an irish question 37 several women, and British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS) organizers of the proceedings refused to seat them on the convention floor, relegating them to seats in the gallery. In response, members of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) protested and called for a vote on the issue. Because a majority concurred with the BFASS leadership and voted to exclude women, AASS leader William Lloyd Garrison, along with a number of other members of the society, protested by sitting with the women in the gallery during the convention. This incident marred the proceedings and split the nascent transatlantic abolition movement as convention members, and the societies to which they belonged, aligned themselves with either the Garrisonians or those who sympathized with the position of the BFASS. The disagreement did not, however, in itself cause the rupture within the movement. It highlighted divisions that already existed within American antislavery circles, bringing them to the attention of British abolitionists. Quarrels within the American movement thus expanded into the larger transatlantic antislavery community.2 The fissures among American abolitionists began in the late 1830s. Disagreement on issues such as the role of American churches in the movement, the use of political means to advance the cause, and the status of women arose as William Lloyd Garrison’s position appeared increasingly radical to more conservative American abolitionists. His condemnation of American churches as complicit in the continued existence of slavery upset many orthodox Christian abolitionists. His Christian anarchism seemed impractical to activists who hoped to use American political institutions to attack slavery. Finally, his recognition of women as colleagues within the movement disturbed those who believed that women did not belong in the public sphere. The controversies eventually fractured the AASS, as both Garrison and those opposing his views sought to dominate the society’s agenda. In 1840, after a majority in the society elected a woman, Abigail Kelly, to a key leadership position , Garrison’s opponents left the organization. The same year, Lewis Tappan formed an alternative national antislavery organization, the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS), which promoted an evangelical form of antislavery. At the same time, many political abolitionists fought slavery through membership in the new Liberty Party, challenging slavery as incompatible with the U.S. Constitution and promoting a political attack on slaveholding.3 This was the state of American abolitionism as abolitionists gathered at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in June 1840. Members of both the AASS 38 american slavery, irish freedom and the AFASS, dubbed “Old Organizationists” and “New Organizationists,” respectively, participated at the convention, and the woman question—raised as the proceedings began—brought...