The Failure of the Anti-death Penalty Movements Before the Civil War: An Analysis Through the Perspective of the Leaders' Attention
Abstract
This paper investigates the rise and fall of the 19th-century American anti-death penalty movement, with a focus on how the shifting focus of its leaders contributed to its ultimate failure. By examining historical documents, the study reveals that although the movement flourished under the influence of Enlightenment thought, Romantic literature, and Evangelical religion, it began to decline as leaders turned their attention to other social issues, including abolitionism, temperance, and Romanticism. Using the evolving content of The Prisoners' Friend magazine and changes in the personal interests of leaders as examples, the paper argues that this shift in focus was a critical factor in the movement's demise. The absence of sustained attention and advocacy from core leaders robbed the movement of its momentum and vitality, leading to its eventual decline. The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the complexities of 19th-century American social transformation and offer historical insights for contemporary anti-death penalty movements.
References
- Filler, Louis, “Movements to Abolish the Death Penalty in the United States,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 284 (1952): 124–36.
- David Brion, Davis, “The Movement to Abolish Capital Punishment in America, 1787-1861,”, The American Historical Review 63, no. 1 (1957): 23–46.
- Dubber, Markus Dirk. The Journal of American History 90, no. 1 (2003): 333–333.
- Mathias, Matthew D, “The Sacralization of the Individual: Human Rights and the Abolition of the Death Penalty,” American Journal of Sociology 118, no. 5 (2013): 1246–83.
- No author, “The Punishment of Death,” The North American Review 62, no. 130 (1846): 42–50.
- Charles Spear, "Present Position of The Society for The Abolition of Capital Punishment," The Prisoners' Friend, no. 2 (Feb. 1850): 281–84.
- The prisoners’ Friend became concerned with prison reform, temperance, even romantic literature. There are 3000 subscriber for this magazine in 1846, but by 1854 The Prisoners’ Friend, had only half of it. (The Prisoners’ Friend, no.6, Jan. 1854, 216).
- The Prisoners’ Friend, no. 7 (Sep. 1854): 1–36.
- O’Sullivan, “Report in Favor of the Abolition of the Punishment of Death by Law,” New York (1841)
- Pratt, Julius W. “The Origin of ‘Manifest Destiny.’” The American Historical Review 32, no. 4 (1927): 795–98.
- Acts and Resolves passed by the General Court of Massachusetts, Boston (1857), 427-28