In October, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History released a new book entitled Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings 1760-1820 which restores to view some of the extensive anti-slavery literature that flourished in early America. The book reprints fifteen anti-slavery texts that, almost without exception, have been out of print for nearly two centuries. The texts, reproduced from rare surviving copies from a handful of archives, were edited by a team made up of scholars at every rank from undergraduate to full professor.

“As the twenty-first century begins, it is easy to forget that slavery was not universally accepted during the Founding Era,” said James Basker, President of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and General Editor of the book. “Despite the failure of the founders to eradicate slavery at the national level, there were - as this literature attests - energetic and articulate opponents of slavery who attacked it relentlessly and achieved significant gains in many parts of the country.”

The editors’ goal was to distinguish important texts and documents written by early American abolitionists that were forgotten or lost and make them available again to students, teachers, librarians and the public. The texts are reprinted with short editorial introductions written by twelve undergraduate editors that place them in historic context, and with essential notes that clarify the most obscure references. In addition, each of the twelve chapters is being published in a separate pamphlet version, to enable teachers and students to acquire individual works from the larger collection.

The twelve students who each contributed one chapter to the book were the first ever to be named Gilder Lehrman History Scholars [click here for more information on the History Scholars Program]. The Scholars program is designed to identify and cultivate the brightest undergraduate historians from across the country. They hailed from Harvard University, Texas Tech University, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Columbia University, Princeton University, University of Maine, Stanford University, University of Notre Dame, Tennessee State University, Oregon State University, Johns Hopkins University and St. Olaf College. During the summer of 2003, the students, selected from an applicant pool that included more than 400 undergraduates from more than 200 colleges and universities, spent eight weeks living in New York City, researching anti-slavery documents in the Gilder Lehrman Collection, and studying with some of the top historians in the United States, including Christine Stansell, Thomas Bender, Steven Mintz, Kenneth Jackson, Catherine Clinton, and Sean Wilentz. [The work of the 2004 and 2005 Gilder Lehrman History Scholars will also result in published materials.]

“I’d challenge any reader to find these texts anywhere else,” said Basker. “These are very rare documents that do not appear in modern editions and, basically, are not available in college libraries. We set out to inform Americans about this important movement in our history. You cannot know a history that is not visible to you now. The texts and the astute analysis by these bright, young historians bring us closer to the ideas and sentiments of the early anti-slavery thinkers.”

"In Early American Abolitionists Professor James Basker has assembled a stunning array of documents authored by well known and scarcely known antislavery supporters during the post-Revolutionary generation," said James O. Horton, Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History at George Washington University. "Before the explosion of the radical abolition movement of the 1830s, these African American and white advocates for freedom formed antislavery organizations and spoke out against America's tolerance of slavery, its most un-American institution. For those in search of our nation's earliest voices for universal freedom, this is a treasure trove."

“Every scholar interested in slavery will be grateful for the appearance of this book,” said Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. “It brings together little-known and hard to find texts illustrating the depth and richness of anti-slavery thought in the late eighteenth-century and early republic. It forces us to think in new ways about the history of the crusade against slavery.”

Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings 1760-1820 is available free of charge to history teachers, professors and institutional libraries. To order a copy, educators and librarians should email their name, title, school or library and mailing address to resources@gilderlehrman.org. Plans are underway to make the book available for commercial release in the future.

Publication was made possible by the generosity of the Julienne M. Michel Trust.

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