The Antislavery Constituency in Jacksonian New York City

Abstract

Historians have not adequately analyzed the popular constituency of the abolitionist movement, the sympathetic audience which, while not forming part of the active leadership, did support antislavery activities. Writing in 1967, David Brion Davis said ofantebellum reform in general, Little is known of the rank and file members, to say nothing of the passive supporters, of a single reform movement.' Davis' statement is still accurate, especially for abolition in the 1830s, the formative period when thedoctrineofimmediatismcame todominate the cause.2Prior to the formation of antislavery political parties beginning in 1840, the best sources forstudying theantislavery constituency are theabolitionist petitions submitted to Congress, a substantial number of which are preserved in theNational Archives. Thisarticleanalyzes such petitions from New York City, a center of national abolitionist activity in the 1830s. Three basic findings result from this analysis: a substantial majority of the malesigners wereartisans and shopkeepers; thewealth and occupational status of the signers declined considerably over thedecade; and a significant numberof radicalsassociated with the city's labormovement signed the petitions. These findings indicate that abolition had a broader, more diverse, and more popular constituency than has commonly been thought and that, when studying abolition's followers, historians should look to other sources in addition to evangelical revivalism and middle-class reform on which so much attention has been focused.