abolitionism
[ab-uh-lish-uh-niz-uh m]
- the principle or policy of abolition, especially of slavery of blacks in the U.S.
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Origin of abolitionism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
autonomy, exemption, democracy, self-determination, liberation, emancipation, relief, privilege, release, sovereignty, self-government, immunity, citizenship, prerogative, rescue, salvage, autarchy, liberty, delivery, impunityExamples from the Web for abolitionism
Historical Examples
By Jove, if Abolitionism can make your grandma run, I'll forgive it a lot!
Pirate GoldFrederic Jesup Stimson
"Call it Abolitionism, or what you will," replied his Senior.
Red-Tape and Pigeon-Hole GeneralsWilliam H. Armstrong
But then, perhaps, this offspring of abolitionism is no man-child at all.
I doubt not this is the kind of liberty at which some of the champions of Abolitionism, viz.
Abolitionism Exposed!W. W. Sleigh
There is a worse evil than abolitionism, and that is the suppression of it by lawless force.
SlaveryWilliam E. Channing
Word Origin and History for abolitionism
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
abolitionism
The belief that slavery should be abolished. In the early nineteenth century, increasing numbers of people in the northern United States held that the nation's slaves should be freed immediately, without compensation to slave owners. John Brown, Frederick W. Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman were well-known abolitionists.
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Note
Abolitionism in the United States was an important factor leading to the Civil War.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.