Anti-Abolition Petition from Providence February 1836

Petition signed by 32 residents of Providence demanding the Rhode Island General Assembly pass acts disapproving of the activities of the Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society and similar organizations. This outlines the profound level of fear and distrust in the North over abolitionist doctrines. The signers of the petition argue that abolitionists and their belief in the immediate end of slavery in the South posed a grave threat to civil society and the Union.