Historic Replicas

By the time slavery was abolished in 1865, there were an estimated four million slaves living in America, an astonishing one third of the population!  Slaves had built the southern economy from the ground up, and were an integral part of the American labor force.  So how did our forefathers finally abandon this terrible institution?  The answer is a testament to the power of public protest and the right to free speech.  Slavery was legal everywhere during America’s early years, and largely unchallenged, but there were always a handful of courageous citizens who saw slavery for the evil it was, and raised their voices in a cry for change. Historic weapons would eventually turn the tide in the Civil War guns, but the early crusaders fought with words and reason.  The anti-slavery movement, or abolitionism, began with the Quakers, a religious group that originated in Britain and built colonies throughout the Northeast.  The Quakers, who believed fervently in the equality of all human beings, rejected distinctions of wealth and nobility, an extremely radical concept in colonial America.  They were so far ahead of their time that four Pennsylvania Quakers signed an anti-slavery document in 1688, almost 200 years before slavery was finally outlawed!  They were the first group to ban slavery and formed the first abolitionist society in 1775 in Philadelphia.  They worked tirelessly to advance the cause of liberty, and by 1792, other abolitionists had created societies from Massachusetts to Virginia.  Change, however, was slow to come.