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Who were the notable abolitionists?

The nineteenth-century movement to abolish slavery (end the buying and selling of Africans for use as forced laborers) in the United States had many notable leaders. One of the earliest abolitionists was Benjamin Lundy (1789–1839), a Quaker (member of a Christian religious group) who founded the Union Humane Society. He also started the antislavery periodical Philanthropist, which was known as Genius of Universal Emancipation. His efforts anticipated the rising movement toward emancipation (freeing of slaves), which took hold in the 1830s. Preachers Lyman Beecher (1775–1863) and Charles G. Finney (1792–1875) both also used their roles as moral leaders to call for abolition. Besides abolition, advocated the liberation of women and proposed other national reforms.

Finney inspired brothers Arthur Tappan (1786–1865) and Lewis Tappan (1788–1873), prominent New...

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