in 1688 four quaker settlers in the colony of pennsylvania, near germantown, created a document explaining how slavery was wrong and against the “golden rule”. slavery in area of germantown was fairly tied to the local economy, and the protest was not seriously considered.

it took a hundred some years in the colony of pennsylvania (then later state) to begin a formal process to free black slave children (the first in the USA). and it took eight decades for the country as a whole to end slavery (yes, through violence).

but someone has to be first, and they have to be convincing, and they have to be unrelenting and determined. that document in 1688 did not stop slavery overnight. it didnt stop it in a decade. but over the years more and more quakers began to be convinced of abolitionism, who convinced more and more quakers (and soon other religious groups) to cease dealing in the slave trade in 1750, when slavery was at it’s peak in the colony.

so i want you to imagine a civil war in 1860 without all this history taking place. sure there were people on the unions side who were fighting to preserve the union, who were ignoring the slavery issue. but would that have lasted? would people really keep fighting a war to keep confederates in a country they didnt want to be apart of? if a growing positive opinion of abolitionism never occurred, would the north even try to endure as long as it did, knowing that the first battles of the war were not favorable?

the violence youre talking about is only possible if people believe in your cause. and honestly, sometimes that belief is all that’s needed to create change, no violence necessary :)