American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses is a book written by the American abolitionist Theodore Dwight Weld, his wife Angelina Grimké, and her sister Sarah Grimké, which was published in 1839.[1][2]
 | |
| Authors | Theodore Dwight Weld, Angelina and Sarah Grimké |
|---|---|
| Original title | American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Slavery and emancipation |
| Published | American Anti-Slavery Society |
| Publication place | United States |
- Northwest Ordinance
- Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
- End of Atlantic slave trade
- Missouri Compromise
- Tariff of 1828
- Nat Turner's Rebellion
- Nullification crisis
- End of slavery in British colonies
- Texas Revolution
- United States v. Crandall
- Gag rule
- Commonwealth v. Aves
- Murder of Elijah Lovejoy
- Burning of Pennsylvania Hall
- American Slavery As It Is
- United States v. The Amistad
- Prigg v. Pennsylvania
- Texas annexation
- Mexican–American War
- Wilmot Proviso
- Nashville Convention
- Compromise of 1850
- Uncle Tom's Cabin
- Recapture of Anthony Burns
- Kansas–Nebraska Act
- Ostend Manifesto
- Bleeding Kansas
- Caning of Charles Sumner
- Dred Scott v. Sandford
- The Impending Crisis of the South
- Panic of 1857
- Lincoln–Douglas debates
- Oberlin–Wellington Rescue
- John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
- Virginia v. John Brown
- 1860 presidential election
- Crittenden Compromise
- Secession of Southern states
- Peace Conference of 1861
- Corwin Amendment
- Battle of Fort Sumter
A key figure in the abolitionist movement, Weld was a white New Englander. His wife, Angelina, and sister-in-law Sarah, were from a Southern slave-owning family; both women were active in the abolitionist and women's suffrage movements. Theodore purchased in bulk from a reading room at the New York Stock Exchange issues of newspapers being discarded, hundreds if not thousands of them. He took them home to Fort Lee, New Jersey, and there the two women analyzed them, in essence running a clipping service, arranging the clippings by topic: diet, clothing, housing, working conditions, and the like. As the book says in its introduction, the Southern newspapers give themselves, especially in advertisements for runaway slaves, evidence of mistreatment of the enslaved. The book invites those interested to call at the office of the publisher, the American Anti-Slavery Society, to verify its sources. The book also analyzes arguments defending slavery. It was very influential in the formative days of the abolitionist movement.
Harriet Beecher Stowe used American Slavery as It Is as the direct inspiration for her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which also became very influential in the movement to end slavery. Stowe went so far as to reportedly sleep with the book "under her pillow at night."[3] Within the first year of publication, the book had sold 100,000 copies; it served as a vital combination of testimony from those affected by slavery and advertisements published by slavers themselves.[3] This method proved effective at gaining support for abolitionism, since slave-owners could not dispute their own words no matter how poorly it reflected on their character.
Other works inspired in part by American Slavery as It Is included William Goodell's The American Slave Code in Theory and Practice, and Charles Dickens' American Notes quotes whole ads from Weld and the Grimké sisters’ book.[3] As well, "The Grimké Sisters at Work on Theodore Dwight Weld’s American Slavery As It Is (1838)" is a poem by Melissa Range, published in the September 30, 2019, issue of The Nation. Frederick Douglass quoted from the book when giving speeches, and said that "not a single fact or statement recorded therein has ever been called in question by a single slave holder."[4]
A PBS miniseries, The Abolitionists, using material from the book, aired in 2013.[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Weld, Theodore Dwight. American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses (Transcription) (Electronic ed.). New York: The American Anti-Slavery Society. Retrieved 2013-07-05 – via Documenting the American South.
- ^ Monique Prince. "Summary". Documenting the American South. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
- ^ a b c Garvey, Ellen (January 25, 2013). ""facts and FACTS": Abolitionists' Database Innovations". In Gitelman, Lisa (ed.). "Raw Data" Is an Oxymoron. MIT Press. pp. 89–102. ISBN 978-0-262-51828-4.
- ^ Douglass, Frederick (May 22, 1846). American Slavery, American Religion, and the Free Church of Scotland: An Address Delivered in London, England, on May 22, 1846 (Speech). New Haven: Yale University Press. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
- ^ Derakhshani, Tirdad (January 6, 2013). "Inner angst of antislavery activists (Part 1)". Philadelphia Inquirer. p. H01 – via Newspapers.com.
External links
edit- 1839 original edition of the book
- American Slavery as It Is, available at Internet Archive.
- American Slavery as It Is, available at Google Books.
- American Slavery as It Is, available through University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Abridged modern edition, with 14-page introduction:
- Weld, Theodore (1972). Curry, Richard Orr; Cowden, Joanna Dunlap (eds.). Slavery in America: Theodore Weld's American slavery as it is. Itasca, Illinois: F. E. Peacock.
- Theodore Dwight Weld (1803-1895), biography by Worcester Women's History Project.