Date of Award

Spring 2026

Language

English

Embargo Period

5-7-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of History

Program

History

First Advisor

Richard Hamm

Committee Members

Richard Hamm, Amy Murrell Taylor, Patrick Nold

Keywords

antislavery, slavery, abolition, Weed, Anthony, upstate New York, Stanton, Erie Canal, Douglass

Subject Categories

Political History | Social History | United States History | Women's History

Abstract

This work details the ascendance of the political antislavery movement in upstate New York, focusing on the roles a diverse array of actors played in constructing an unlikely Republican coalition of conservatives, reformers, black New Yorkers, nativists, prohibitionists, and abolitionists in the years preceding the Civil War. In weaving together the parallel and inextricable stories of powerful newspaperman Thurlow Weed, female reformers like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and black communities across the state, I argue the success of the political antislavery movement resulted from their combined efforts. Thurlow Weed was one of the most important politicians of the nineteenth century. The influential editor of the popular Albany Evening Journal and a skilled political machinist, Weed navigated the antislavery movement through the complicated antebellum years. Female reformers, often viewed as radical or peripheral, emerged in this period as important political actors, operating from within the emerging framework of the Republican Party by the late 1850s. Similarly, many black New Yorkers exercised their increasing political power in support of the newly formed Republican Party over more abolitionist oriented movements as a means of defeating the proslavery Democratic Party. This political process was dynamic, and at times violent, as New Yorkers increasingly engaged in the national and local struggle to limit the political grip slavery held over the country.

License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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