The Abolitionists

By: Kellie Carter Jackson, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Kellie Carter Jackson

The movement to abolish slavery transformed the political, social, and moral landscape of the United States forever. Though it began as a largely pacifist campaign to sway hearts and minds, the abolitionist movement became a protracted and impassioned battle for the very soul of a nation.

While most of us are familiar with the Underground Railroad, there was much more to the movement than helping individuals escape their bondage. In the eight lectures of The Abolitionists, Professor Kellie Carter Jackson of Wellesley College will bring you along as she traces the history of the fight to end slavery in America, from its relatively quiet origins to the turning point at Harper’s Ferry to the Civil War. Along the way, you’ll meet many of the leaders, activists, and agitators that created and sustained the cause of abolition and see how they used everything from political clout to storytelling to physical force to achieve their goals.

The Civil War may have ended the legal right to own slaves on US soil, but it was only the start of the battle for true freedom and equality in the decades to come. By understanding the full story of the movement and its aftermath, you’ll see why the constitutional, economic, and moral questions that arose in the era of abolition are still very much alive today.

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Well researched and great narration

Kellie Carter Jackson starts the narration by taking about how she became interested in history and story telling. And, she nails it. Lots to learn , this is a well researched series of lectures about a topic that gets swept under the rug. It’s very engaging, Jackson’s narration is excellent.

Highly Informative

Jackson gives an informative and concise account of the abolitionist movement in the United States from its earliest days to the present where it has morphed into the Civil Rights movement. She doesn't steer away from controversy, dealing with figures such as John Brown. But mostly what this is is an account of the challenges that had to be overcome by the abolitionists to free the slaves. She is careful to point out how African Americans were vital to the abolitionist movement. This would seem like a totally obvious thing, but apparently the historiography of abolitionism includes a tendency to focus solely on white abolitionists, as if somehow the enslaved and free blacks had nothing to do with the movement's success. The most powerful chapter contains excerpts from the writings of a formerly enslaved woman reporting in her own words on the horrific violence she endured from a very young age.

Well presented and informative

I learned a whole lot of names and facts that I have never known about considering I had been born and raised in Georgia. I’m starting to think that the cure for ignorance is learning.

Short listen but powerful impact

Well formulated! Each Lecture was filled with more information than the last. Overall I learned a lot. It’s a short listen but has a powerful impact!!

Great Lecture Series

I'd take her class every semester! This is a very accessible, brief but thorough look at abolitionists and the movement in the U.S.

The history was accurate and told from a unique perspective

Words with T were not pronounced such as written cotton. If you’re gonna be an educator, you need to pronounce words properly the tea is present and all of those words in this performance it was not.

Wonderful Introduction!

It is really important to study the abolitionist movement as well as incidents that have happened in history. This is a wonderful intro and overview! Listen to this!

Thorough and Concise

This set is full of important information about the meaning of and parties to the fight for racial emancipation, equality, and justice. The author makes clear, no-nonsense points in clear, no-nonsense fashion. Recommended.

Worthwhile listen but way too short

This course is more like a frame for a much more in depth dive. It raises too many questions it just doesn’t have the time to answer. This topic needs a vastly expanded course with more details about abolitionists, more context of the eras in which they live, and the enslavers’ arguments. More details also on the sheer amount of violence and abuse of state power (like the book burning mentioned, was that a one time event or frequent?) for the benefit of the slavers, and the context on which the argument that the oppression was not going to end without violence. More importantly, the section about the slave perspectives, which I know were purposely repressed in their day and are lost to us forever, but if it could be expanded it must be. By no means do I expect a sympathetic tone, but I am unaware how the slave economy worked and would like a better explanation for why slave families were so often torn apart because slavers had to sell them, as mentioned in passing. I know a lot of people have misplaced pride in the Confederate flag, but I feel that regardless of race, very few of us would ever want to live in the antebellum south. The hints of the era, including even in its idealized form we see in Gone With the Wind, come across as a backward, impoverished, highly propagandized failure of civilization, a trashy feudalist society, to enrich a very small handful of genuinely horrible parasitical scum willing to use coercion and violence to maintain their undeserved status lest they too would actually have to do work, actual labor, for themselves.