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The Spark That Lit The Match: The Use Of Petitions And The Emergence Of Antislavery Politicians In The Movement To Abolish Slavery In The District Of Columbia, 1816-1829, Timothy Brown

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The United States capital, Washington, D.C., became the focus of antislavery advocates in their quest to eliminate the domestic slave trade and slavery. By the War of 1812, the domestic slave trade was thriving in the capital. However, many saw it as particularly embarrassing to a nation predicated on the concept of freedom. This embarrassment was even felt by proslavery Southerners. Beginning in 1816, an attempt to restrict the trade in the Capital occurred when Virginia Congressman John Randolph called for the destruction of the domestic slave trade there. Despite being proslavery, he argued that the federal government, as the …