The Failures of Anti-Slavery: The Anti-Slavery Movement's Respone
While ideas about slavery and the Haitian Revolution amongst the southerners and the political elite were beginning to solidify, the reactions amongst anti-slavers were more varied and ambiguous. The anti-slavery movement struggled to make sense of the Haitian revolution’s implications and largely failed to turn the revolution into an opportunity to end slavery in America.
For many anti-slavers, the Haitian Revolution proved assumptions about the danger of slavery and its inevitable collapse. Saint George Tucker, a Virginia law professor, pushed for the gradual abolition of slavery and the separation of the two races, an idea that was supported by Thomas Jefferson. In his dissertation on Slavery, Tucker argued that slavery went against the fundamental principles of American justice and liberty and that gradual abolition was necessary to preserve these principles.
These views were shared by much of the Anti-Slavery movement. However, for most anti-slavers, the Haitian revolution simply seemed to be little more than additional evidence of pre-existing ideas about slavery rather than an opportunity to end slavery in America. For some slave societies, political activities barely differed from the activities that were carried out before the revolution. Petitions for the gradual abolition of slavery continued to be sent to congress just as that had in 1791. This example is just one of the many reports of the numerous petitions that Anti-slavers would send to Congress and state legislatures to begin the gradual emancipation of slavery. These petitions would continue up until southern legislatures banned such petitions in the 1800s, arguing that the petitions could potentially incite a slave revolt.