Combating Slavery and Colonization: Student Abolitionism and the Politics of Antislavery in Higher Education, 1833-1841

Jirik, Michael E.

Publication:
Combating Slavery and Colonization: Student Abolitionism and the Politics of Antislavery in Higher Education, 1833-1841

dc.contributor.advisor	Sarah Cornell
dc.contributor.advisor	Manisha Sinha
dc.contributor.advisor	Barbara Krauthamer
dc.contributor.author	Jirik, Michael E.
dc.contributor.department	University of Massachusetts Amherst
dc.contributor.department	History
dc.date	2024-03-28T19:33:52.000
dc.date.accessioned	2024-04-26T18:16:10Z
dc.date.available	2024-04-26T18:16:10Z
dc.date.submitted	May
dc.date.submitted	2015
dc.description.abstract	During the early 1830’s, the nascent American Antislavery Society needed support at the local level. This thesis argues that college and seminary students were a crucial demographic that helped garner support for, and spread, abolitionism. Examining the proliferation of radical abolitionism at three locations, Lane Seminary, Andover Theological Seminary, and Amherst College, reveals that students developed intellectual and moral arguments to justify their abolitionist sentiments. Typically, student abolitionists rhetorically battled with faculty, administration, and other students, who all supported colonization, over competing solutions to the problem of slavery. At all three locations, faculty and administration sought to suppress student abolitionism for a number of reasons, chief among them was the adherence to contemporary racial prejudices. Despite faculty restrictions, student abolitionists remained active in the movement in various capacities and were pivotal actors that helped spread abolitionism. Centering these locations in the historical narrative of the antebellum era illuminates the power dynamics at institutions of higher learning and how concepts of race, freedom, citizenship, and free speech were intellectually debated. In turn, students were resolved to engage with the foremost problem facing society, racial slavery, and believed immediate emancipation and racial equality were the solutions. This history complicates the current trend in the historiography that focuses on the complicity of America’s universities with the institution of racial slavery and reveals that the history of student activism in the United States can be traced back to antebellum era campuses.
dc.description.degree	Master of Arts (M.A.)
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.7275/6953930
dc.identifier.orcid	N/A
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/33194
dc.relation.url	https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1220&context=masters_theses_2&unstamped=1
dc.source.status	published
dc.subject	History
dc.subject	Intellectual History
dc.subject	Political History
dc.subject	United States History
dc.title	Combating Slavery and Colonization: Student Abolitionism and the Politics of Antislavery in Higher Education, 1833-1841
dc.type	openaccess
dc.type	article
dc.type	thesis
digcom.contributor.author	isAuthorOfPublication\|email:mjirik@history.umass.edu\|institution:University of Massachusetts Amherst\|Jirik, Michael E.
digcom.identifier	masters_theses_2/205
digcom.identifier.contextkey	6953930
digcom.identifier.submissionpath	masters_theses_2/205
dspace.entity.type	Publication