abolitionist

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Related to abolitionist: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Abolitionist Movement

ab·o·li·tion·ism

(ăb′ə-lĭsh′ə-nĭz′əm)

Advocacy of the abolition of slavery.

ab′o·li′tion·ist n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ab•o•li•tion•ist

(ˌæb əˈlɪʃ ə nɪst)

n.

1. (esp. 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.

[1790–1800]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

abolitionist - a reformer who favors abolishing slavery

emancipationist

crusader, meliorist, reformer, reformist, social reformer - a disputant who advocates reform

Translations

abolitionniste

abolizionista antischiavista

abolicionista

abolitionist

[ˌæbəʊˈlɪʃənɪst] N (Hist) → abolicionista mf

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

abolitionist

[ˌæbəˈlɪʃ^ənɪst]

n → abolitionniste mf

adj [movement, sentiment, ideas] → abolitionnisteA-bomb [ˈeɪbɒm] n → bombe f atomique

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

abolitionist

n Befürworter der Abschaffung eines Gesetzes etc, → Abolitionist(in) m(f) (form)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

References in classic literature ?

Public opinion threatens the abolitionist with death, if he venture to the South; and drags him with a rope about his middle, in broad unblushing noon, through the first city in the East.

While upon the subject of ears, I may observe that a distinguished abolitionist in New York once received a negro's ear, which had been cut off close to the head, in a general post letter.

Let us try this public opinion by another test, which is important in three points of view: first, as showing how desperately timid of the public opinion slave-owners are, in their delicate descriptions of fugitive slaves in widely circulated newspapers; secondly, as showing how perfectly contented the slaves are, and how very seldom they run away; thirdly, as exhibiting their entire freedom from scar, or blemish, or any mark of cruel infliction, as their pictures are drawn, not by lying abolitionists, but by their own truthful masters.

That we may have no partial evidence from abolitionists in this inquiry, either, I will once more turn to their own newspapers, and I will confine myself, this time, to a selection from paragraphs which appeared from day to day, during my visit to America, and which refer to occurrences happening while I was there.

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"Why, wife, you are getting to be an abolitionist, quite."

"Abolitionist! if they knew all I know about slavery, they might talk!

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People would call me a low- down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum -- but that don't make no difference.

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He was a stranger to nearly every member of that body; but, having recently made his escape from the south- ern prison-house of bondage, and feeling his curiosity excited to ascertain the principles and measures of the abolitionists,--of whom he had heard a somewhat vague description while he was a slave,--he was in- duced to give his attendance, on the occasion al- luded to, though at that time a resident in New Bedford.

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His attention must be commanded by the signs that the Church, or religious party, is falling from the Church nominal, and is appearing in temperance and non-resistance societies; in movements of abolitionists and of socialists; and in very significant assemblies called Sabbath and Bible Conventions; composed of ultraists, of seekers, of all the soul of the soldiery of dissent, and meeting to call in question the authority of the Sabbath, of the priesthood, and of the Church.

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I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them.

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It was, undoubtedly, the Abolitionists who set the torch alight, who began the whole thing.