Abolitionism is a political and moral movement whose primary historical referent is the campaign to end the institution of chattel slavery, particularly as practiced in the Americas from the 16th through 19th centuries. The term also applies, by extension, to other campaigns seeking the total elimination of a practice or institution - including the abolition of capital punishment, of prisons, and of nuclear weapons - though without qualification it most commonly refers to anti-slavery activism. The movement drew from religious, Enlightenment, and natural rights traditions and ultimately succeeded in the legal abolition of slavery across the Western Hemisphere by the late 19th century.
In its core historical sense, abolitionism designates organized efforts to end slavery entirely, as distinguished from gradualism (phased emancipation), colonizationism (resettlement of freed people), or amelioration (reform of slavery's conditions without ending it). The distinction mattered politically: abolitionists were often in conflict not only with pro-slavery forces but also with moderates who accepted slavery's continuation in some form. In contemporary usage, “abolitionism” has been extended to movements seeking the elimination of prisons, police, or other institutions, though these uses are contested and the historical anti-slavery movement remains the primary referent.
Organized abolitionism emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries, with Quaker communities in England and the American colonies among its earliest institutional advocates. The movement gained significant political force in Britain through figures such as William Wilberforce and the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, resulting in the Slave Trade Act of 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. In the United States, abolitionism grew from scattered religious and moral protest into a major political force by the mid-19th century, associated with figures including William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth. The movement encompassed significant internal disagreements over tactics, political engagement, the role of formerly enslaved people in leadership, and whether the U.S. Constitution was a pro-slavery or anti-slavery document. The American Civil War (1861-1865) and the Thirteenth Amendment (1865) brought legal abolition in the United States. For a fuller treatment, see Abolitionism - History.
Abolitionism was not a unified ideology. Practitioners differed on several dimensions that remain relevant to historians and political theorists:
See Abolitionism - Debate for fuller treatment of these disputes.
Since the late 20th century, activists and scholars have applied the abolitionist label to campaigns for prison abolition, police abolition, and the elimination of other carceral institutions. Proponents argue these institutions function as continuations or successors of racial slavery. Critics dispute the analogy and the practical viability of abolition in these contexts. See Prison Abolition and Police Abolition.