Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction

by Kate Masur

In party politics, the latest incarnation of the third-party antislavery movement was the Free Democrats. The coalition first convened in Pittsburgh in 1852, attempting to recapture some of the energy of the Free Soil movement of four years earlier. The coordinator of the Pittsburgh meeting was Samuel Lewis, the former Ohio Liberty Party gubernatorial candidate. Frederick Douglass was among the New York representatives and served as a secretary of the gathering. At the heart of the Free Democrats’ endeavor stood pragmatic and committed leaders of the political antislavery movement, many of whom went on to become Republicans and play prominent roles in Congress during Reconstruction.