The Journal of the Civil War Era

Abstract:

This essay examines abolitionist support for Native Americans before the Civil War. It argues that Native American rights were of central concern to abolitionists, and that Indians shaped abolitionism. Organized abolitionist participation in the Indian's cause began in 1829, after an antiremoval movement emerged in response to the election of Andrew Jackson. Antiremovalists, including black and white abolitionists, opposed relocating eastern Indians and were particularly involved in protesting the removal of the Cherokee Nation. Among the insights abolitionists gained through their participation in the antiremoval movement was that slave-holders were responsible for Indian removal. By the late 1830s, Cherokee removal and the ongoing Second Seminole War convinced abolitionists that southerners were using the federal government to expand and protect slavery. From that point on, abolitionists regularly made Indian removal a central component of their argument against the Slave Power.