On March 23, 1827, an article was published in the Freedom’s Journal, which outlined from the guise of a “Christian Spectator,” the systemic abominations of the slave trade. Published 34 years before the Civil War began, this article outlines one of the many abolitionist perspectives of the period leading up to the war’s institutionalized abolition. While this article is written with a religious background, most of the piece is talking about very specific abominations of the slave trade, with a moral and religious theme residing very faintly in the background. The Freedom’s Journal serves as the first African American-owned and operated newspaper in the United States, and was a collection and public platform for any enslaved individual to speak directly for themselves and advocate directly for their individual and cultural rights. Although many papers and publications before and after the Civil War advocated for the rights ofc enslaved people, this paper was founded on the premise that enslaved people should plead their own cause, arguing that for too long others had advocated for their rights indirectly and spoken on their behalf. This article, with its religious context and publication in a rather unknown journal, still carries a lot of significance when trying to dissect broader themes of the early abolitionist movement(s).

Every American ought to feel that slavery is the opprobrium of the name of liberty.

The right of personal liberty, therefore, is not one which may be lawfully vindicated at all hazards.