NYT Opinion flashback: Was abolitionism a failure?
by Kelli
Today, we point to abolition as proof that we can improve society by eliminating one glaring evil. This is what unites “new abolitionists” across the political spectrum, whether they’re working to end the death penalty or ban abortion. We like the idea of sweeping change, of an idealistic movement triumphing over something so clearly wrong.
The problem is, that’s not really how slavery ended. Those upright, moral, prewar abolitionists did not succeed. Neither did the stiff-necked Southern radicals who ended up destroying the institution they went to war to maintain. It was the flexibility of the Northern moderates, those flip-floppers who voted against abolition before they voted for it, who really ended 250 years of slavery.
~ John Grinspan, New York Times Opinionator, January 30
[HT: Eric Scheidler; photo via entertainmentrundown.com]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
This is a very odd discussion, overall.
Abolitionists did not succeed in ending slavery. But their voice was a vitally important part to ending slavery.
The folks at Abolish Human Abortion will never be able to end slavery by their one strategy, especially if every pro-lifer quits every other strategy and joins with AHA.
AHA needs to stop imagining that they are messiahs who are frustrated by the rest of the pro-life pharisees. That is not the reality of the pro-life movement.
AHA needs to pursue their particular enthusiasm of attack the abortion infrastructure and educating the world. They need to at least tolerate the rest of the pro-life movement, and they would do well to cooperate with us. Our strategies are not opposed to each other.
“The folks at Abolish Human Abortion will never be able to end slavery by their one strategy,”
True, but that’s mainly because they are a little late to do that. :)
I’ve read that in some relatively isolated areas, backwoods forms of slavery existed until around 1935.
-in the great mississippi flood of 1927 (which makes hurricane katrina look like a spring shower), African-Americans were basically conscripted in some areas to further build dams along the mississippi, and whites were deputized with guns and authority to keep the African-Americans working as hard as any slave ever did.
we also have human trafficking presently. that could be addressed but won’t until a critical mass of moderate flip-floppers decide it is altogether unacceptable.