American Slavery As It Is facts for kids
 |
|
| Authors | Theodore Dwight Weld, Angelina and Sarah Grimké |
|---|---|
| Original title | American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Slavery and emancipation |
| Published | American Anti-Slavery Society |
American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses is a very important book published in 1839. It was written by Theodore Dwight Weld, his wife Angelina Grimké, and her sister Sarah Grimké. This book played a big role in the movement to end slavery in the United States.
Contents
What is "American Slavery As It Is"?
This book was created to show people the harsh truth about slavery. It used real stories and advertisements from newspapers to prove how enslaved people were treated. The book was very influential. It helped many people understand why slavery needed to end.
One of the most famous books inspired by American Slavery as It Is was Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. She reportedly kept the book close by while writing her own novel.
The Authors and Their Mission
The main author, Theodore Dwight Weld, was a white man from New England. He was a key figure in the abolitionist movement, which worked to abolish slavery. His wife, Angelina, and her sister, Sarah, were from a slave-owning family in the Southern United States. Both women became strong supporters of ending slavery and fighting for women's rights.
How They Collected Information
The authors gathered information in a unique way. Theodore Weld bought many old newspapers from a reading room in New York. He took these papers home to New Jersey. There, Angelina and Sarah carefully read through them. They acted like a "clipping service," cutting out parts of the newspapers.
They organized these clippings by topic. For example, they had sections about what enslaved people ate, what clothes they wore, where they lived, and their working conditions. The book's introduction explains that Southern newspapers, especially ads for runaway slaves, often showed how badly enslaved people were treated. The authors even invited people to visit the publisher's office to see the original newspaper sources for themselves.
The Book's Impact
American Slavery as It Is quickly became very popular. Within its first year, 100,000 copies were sold. The book combined personal stories from those affected by slavery with advertisements placed by slave owners themselves. This method was very effective. Slave owners could not argue against their own published words, even if those words showed their bad character.
Influence on Other Works
Many other important works were inspired by this book. William Goodell's book, The American Slave Code in Theory and Practice, was one of them. The famous writer Charles Dickens even quoted whole advertisements from Weld and the Grimké sisters' book in his work American Notes.
Frederick Douglass, a well-known abolitionist who had escaped slavery, often quoted from the book in his speeches. He said that "not a single fact or statement recorded therein has ever been called in question by a single slave holder." This shows how powerful and accurate the book was considered.
In 2013, a PBS miniseries called The Abolitionists used material from American Slavery as It Is. This helped new generations learn about the book's importance.
