Abolition

{{race}}To '''abolish''' is to formally end an institution, usually a law or practice.<ref>http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abolish</ref> There have been many such acts of abolition throughout the course of [[human]] [[history]].

'''Abolition''' is a term often used to describe the efforts to end [[slavery]] in the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] world in the 1800s.

==Slavery==
In 2007, the [[UK]] marked the bicentennial of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, a celebration which was marked by officially sanctioned acts of "remembering" the legislation passed into law by Parliament in 1807 and the impact that the ceasing of the legal trade in [[Africa]]n lives had upon the course of history.<ref>http://www.history.ac.uk/1807commemorated/</ref>  Commemorative acts such as these have served as nothing more than exercises in self-affirmation. 

It seems that [[West]]ern nations such as Britain are incapable of acknowledging the [[Irony|barbarity]] of their [[slave trade | slave-trading]] histories unless accompanied by the self-assurance that they also played a significant role in ending it; distancing themselves from the immoral, unethical doings of those [[British Empire|Britons]], [[Spain|Spaniards]], [[French]], [[Netherlands|Dutch]], [[American]]s and others that came before them, preferring instead to relish in the work that their reformed ancestors undertook in confronting the remaining pro-slavery nations that they previously collaborated with.  

Prominent anti-slavery parliamentarians, scholars and abolitionists such as William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson have done more to re-affirm Britain’s self-righteousness than any eminent pro-slavery activist of the 18th and nineteenth centuries.  Indeed, contemporary 
ignoramuses
 Anglocentric academics such as [[Niall Ferguson]], in keeping with the self-congratulatory line assumed by the establishment since abolition, pay lip service to British involvement in the trade, preferring instead to trumpet the "civilizing mission" of the Royal Navy some two hundred years ago when, on what he calls a "moral mission", it stationed a squadron in [[Sierra Leone]] with the task of preventing "American and European slave ships leaving the African coast for America [in order to] bring an end to the Atlantic slave trade."<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jun/16/british-empire-kenya-deaths</ref> ([[Two wrongs don't make a right]], sir.)

There have been some official apologies issued by the nations of the world for their treatment of other humans as property, but this has little practical effect.<ref>Listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery#Apologies</ref> Slavery and its racial effects continue to plague society.

One recurrent problem with abolishing slavery involves the consequent economic disruption. Whether one emancipates suddenly or gradually, freed slaves in any sort of numbers can become an instant underclass needing employment and/or land at someone else's expense. And the former slave-holders have lost not only their sacred private "[[property]]", but also a workforce. So freeing slaves becomes a delicate socio-economic problem - with or without racism.  [[Haiti]] remains an economic basket-case two centuries after its slaves won their freedom. Tsarist [[Russia]] botched the emancipation of its [[serfdom | serfs]] in 1861: the expectation that they would recompense former owners over time did nor make for social harmony, and the [[October Revolution | Bolshevik Revolution]] of 1917 built on the disharmony and its results. Meanwhile, the [[United States of America]] still hasn't sorted out a fair and just deal for its former slaves - sharecropping and [[Jim Crow laws | Jim Crow]] and civil rights notwithstanding. No wonder many of today's wage-slaves fear their emancipation from drudgery when technology and automation seem to offer loss of [[job]]s in exchange for a future leisured post-scarcity<ref>
{{wpa | Post-scarcity}}
</ref>
economy of abundance...

==Other uses==
===Animal rights===
Within the [[animal rights]] movement, ''abolitionism'' refers to the position that all human use of animals for food, clothing, [[animal testing]], [[hunting]], and entertainment should be abolished.<ref>http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/</ref><ref group=note>What is to become of domesticated breeds and species that either cannot survive in the wild or have no place to survive in the wild, but must not be kept or otherwise supported by humans, is conveniently glossed over.</ref> The term is most often associated with [[Gary Francione]], but was written about by philosopher Tom Regan beforehand. Abolitionism stands in contrast to what its proponents perceive as [[animal welfare]] or reformist activism which seeks more humane conditions in zoos, slaughterhouses, etc.  Animal rights abolitionists may take a view against any animal welfare activism at all, on the grounds it implicitly endorses caging animals and only wants bigger cages.

By comparison: the Humane Society is considered animal welfarist.  [[PETA]] uses abolitionist rhetoric ("animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertainment") but in practice often engages in animal welfare activism.  The [[Animal Liberation Front]], [[Hardline]] subculture, and many [[veganism|vegans]] are purely abolitionists.

===Gender===
{{main|Abolition of gender}}

==See also==
*[[American Civil War]]
*[[Slavery]]
*[[Gary Francione]]
*[[Abolition of gender]]
==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}
==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Civil rights]]
[[Category:United States history]]

Categories: Civil rights, United States history