Slavery Condemned: First Abolitionist Article Published
The first American abolitionist essay appeared nine years before Paine wrote Common sense—and it didn't just call slavery wrong, it demanded immediate emancipation and reparations. The anonymous writer in the Pennsylvania Journal argued that freed slaves deserved land as compensation, a claim so radical that even most abolitionists wouldn't touch it for another century. Three weeks later, America's first abolitionist society formed in Philadelphia, directly inspired by these words. The Continental Congress was already meeting in that same city, drafting protests about British tyranny while 500,000 people remained enslaved in the colonies they claimed were fighting for liberty.
March 8, 1775
251 years ago
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