abolitionist

American  

[ab-uh-lish-uh-nist] / ˌæb əˈlɪʃ ə nɪst /

noun

• abolitionists
  plural

1. (especially prior to the Civil War) a person who advocated or supported the abolition of slavery in the U.S.

2. a person who favors the abolition of any law or practice deemed harmful to society.

   the abolitionists who are opposed to capital punishment.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• proabolitionist
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• abolitionists
  plural

Etymology

Origin of abolitionist

First recorded in 1830–40; abolition + -ist

Explanation

An abolitionist was someone who wanted to end slavery, especially in the United States before the Civil War — when owning slaves was common practice. Back when many landowners in the United States forced slaves to work their land, abolitionists believed that slavery violated the basic human right of freedom, and organized to make slavery illegal, writing anti-slavery literature, proposing new laws, and smuggling slaves into free Canada. The Latin root abolere means “destroy,” and an abolitionist is generally a person who wants to destroy any law or practice, like the abolitionists who fight to end the death penalty.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

abolitionist abolitionists

The exhibit explained that, prior to becoming an abolitionist, he had enslaved people in his household.

From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2026

Acknowledging that he lacked statutory authority to ban material from the mail, he nonetheless ruled against delivery of the abolitionist periodicals.

From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026

Douglass was separating himself from the abolitionist circle that had launched his career and putting himself in a remarkable middle position.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

Ferocious cross-examination of witnesses by one of Hanway’s defense lawyers, the abolitionist congressman Thaddeus Stevens, exposed the weaknesses in the prosecution’s case.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

One night, abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison heard Douglass tell his story to a rapt audience.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

The book that I’ve written with my colleague Daphna Renan, Supremacy, goes through the history of the court’s power—as well as what people thought of it—from abolitionists through the Civil Rights Movement to the present.

From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026

British abolitionists campaigned against Britain’s participation in the international slave trade during the years that followed the Zorg’s insurance trial.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 7, 2025

Known as prison abolitionists, these groups want to see as many prisons close as possible.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2025

Self-proclaimed abolitionists pressed this point when they mobilized in the 2010s.

From Slate ● Nov. 21, 2025

Clarkson, Wilberforce, and their fellow abolitionists had won.

From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson