The Abolition Movement

EARLY 1800’S
The abolition movement became the most intense and controversial reform activity of the period. Beginning in colonial times, many Americans--called abolitionists--had demanded an end to slavery. By the early 1800's, every Northern state had outlawed slavery. But over the years, the plantation system of farming had spread throughout the South, and the economy of the Southern States depended more and more on slaves as a source of cheap labor.