January 1, 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, an order by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 which freed all slaves in states not under Union control. Two years later, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to abolish slavery was adopted. Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film “Lincoln” recounts the President’s efforts in January 1865 to persuade members of the House of Representatives to pass the amendment, which had already been approved by the Senate. 

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Though Lincoln’s actions led to the formal abolition of slavery, contemporaries of his had dedicated their lives to the cause in the previous decades. Some of these abolitionists are well known to us, while others history has largely overlooked. “The Abolitionists,” a new PBS documentary premiering on January 8, tells the story of one particular group of individuals who were strikingly different.

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PBS writes: “Called by many names, the abolitionists tore the nation apart in order to make a more perfect union. Men and women, black and white, Northerners and Southerners, poor and wealthy, these passionate anti-slavery activists fought body and soul in the most important civil rights crusade in American history. What began as a pacifist movement fueled by persuasion and prayer became a fiery and furious struggle that forever changed the nation.

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“Bringing to life the intertwined stories of Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina Grimké, Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Brown, The Abolitionists takes place during some of the most violent and contentious decades in American history, amid white-hot religious passions that set souls on fire, and bitter debates over the meaning of the Constitution and the nature of race. The documentary reveals how the movement shaped history by exposing the fatal flaw of a republic founded on liberty for some and bondage for others, setting the nation on a collision course. In the face of personal risks — beatings, imprisonment, even death — abolitionists held fast to their cause, laying the civil rights groundwork for the future and raising weighty constitutional and moral questions that are with us still.”​