The Anti-Slavery Record, Volume 1, No. 7

This July 1835 pamphlet is a dispatch from the front lines of American abolitionism, when the movement was still young and dangerous. It carries the voices of fugitive slaves Stephen Downing and Francis Smith, who tell of abduction, pursuit, and the precariousness of freedom in a nation that treats human beings as property. The writers mount a moral assault on slavery, arguing it is not merely political or economic but a fundamental sin that strips people of their humanity. They also dismantle colonization schemes, exposing them as disguised expulsion rather than genuine liberation. The prose burns with conviction: this is not history written at a safe distance, but testimony rendered in the heat of the fight. For readers interested in how abolitionists made their case before the Civil War, this pamphlet offers raw, urgent evidence of the moral and emotional power they deployed.