The Address to the Slaves of the United States of America (1843) was Henry Highland Garnet's speech calling enslaved African Americans to resist slavery by every means necessary, including violence, making it a defining example of radical resistance and early Black religious nationalism in AP African American Studies Topic 2.19.
The Address to the Slaves of the United States of America is an 1843 speech by Henry Highland Garnet, a formerly enslaved minister and abolitionist. Speaking to a national convention of Black activists, Garnet did something most abolitionists wouldn't. He spoke directly to enslaved people themselves and told them that voluntarily submitting to slavery was a sin. In his words, "TO SUCH DEGREDATION IT IS SINFUL IN THE EXTREME FOR YOU TO MAKE VOLUNTARY SUBMISSION." He urged them to use "every means" to win their freedom, including direct action and violence if necessary.
The speech matters in the CED because it shows two ideas fused together. First, it's radical resistance, the strategy that rejected slow moral persuasion in favor of overthrowing slavery through direct action (EK 2.19.A.1). Second, it's early Black religious nationalism, because Garnet wrapped his call to resist in religious language. Enduring slavery without resistance wasn't just unfortunate, it was sinful. God demanded action. That combination of religious conviction and a call for collective Black liberation is exactly what the AP exam wants you to recognize when this speech appears.
This term lives in Topic 2.19 (Black Political Thought: Radical Resistance) in Unit 2: Freedom, Enslavement, and Resistance. It directly supports learning objective 2.19.A, which asks you to describe nineteenth-century radical resistance strategies promoted by Black activists. The Address is one of the clearest examples of EK 2.19.A.2, the rejection of moral suasion in the 1830s and 1840s. While moral suasionists tried to appeal to white Americans' sense of ethics, Garnet skipped the appeal entirely and addressed enslaved people as the agents of their own freedom. It also fits EK 2.19.A.3, since radical activists leveraged publications and speeches detailing slavery's horrors to encourage resistance. If you can explain why Garnet's approach differed from moral suasion and what made it 'radical,' you've got the core of this topic.
Keep studying AP® African American Studies Unit 2
David Walker's Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (Unit 2)
Walker's 1829 pamphlet is the Address's older sibling. Both texts used religious arguments to justify resistance to slavery, and Garnet was openly building on Walker's foundation 14 years later. Think of them as the two anchor texts of radical resistance, one written, one spoken.
Moral suasion (Unit 2)
Moral suasion is the foil that makes the Address make sense. Suasionists believed slavery would end if you appealed to white Americans' conscience. Garnet's speech is the loudest rejection of that strategy, arguing that enslaved people couldn't wait for slaveholders to grow a conscience.
Henry Highland Garnet (Unit 2)
Garnet was a minister, and that's not a side detail. His religious training shaped the speech's central claim that submitting to slavery is sinful. Knowing Garnet's role as a Black clergyman helps you explain why the Address counts as early Black religious nationalism.
Black Political Thought: Radical Resistance (Topic 2.19, Unit 2)
The Address is the go-to evidence for the whole topic. When a question asks you to describe radical resistance strategies, citing Garnet's call to use 'every means' to overthrow slavery is the most direct example the CED gives you.
Multiple-choice questions typically give you an excerpt from the Address (often the line about voluntary submission being 'sinful in the extreme') and ask you to identify the resistance strategy it represents or the ideological framework behind it. The answers they're fishing for are radical resistance and Black religious nationalism. You should be ready to do three things: identify Garnet as the author and 1843 as the date, explain how the speech rejected moral suasion, and connect its religious language to its call for direct action. On a short-answer or document-based question, the Address works as strong evidence for nineteenth-century debates within Black political thought, especially if you contrast it with moral suasion advocates of the same era.
Both are radical resistance texts using religious arguments, so they blur together easily. The key differences are format, date, and author. Walker's Appeal is an 1829 written pamphlet by David Walker, distributed (often secretly) into the South. Garnet's Address is an 1843 speech delivered at a Black convention. Walker came first and inspired Garnet. On an MCQ, check the date and whether the source is a pamphlet or a speech before you answer.
The Address to the Slaves of the United States of America was an 1843 speech by Henry Highland Garnet calling enslaved African Americans to resist slavery by every means, including violence.
Garnet argued that voluntary submission to slavery was sinful, fusing religious conviction with a call for direct action, which is why the speech represents early Black religious nationalism.
The speech exemplifies radical resistance, the strategy in Topic 2.19 that rejected moral suasion in the 1830s and 1840s in favor of overthrowing slavery through direct action.
Garnet built on David Walker's 1829 Appeal, and together the two texts anchor the CED's coverage of nineteenth-century radical resistance.
Unlike moral suasionists who appealed to white Americans' ethics, Garnet addressed enslaved people directly and treated them as the agents of their own liberation.
It's an 1843 speech by Henry Highland Garnet urging enslaved African Americans to resist slavery through direct action, using 'every means' necessary, including violence. In AP African American Studies it's the signature example of radical resistance in Topic 2.19.
Not exactly, but close. Garnet said violence was justified if necessary and that voluntarily submitting to slavery was sinful, which was radical enough that even many abolitionists at the 1843 convention considered the speech too extreme. The CED frames it as embracing direct action 'including revolts and, if necessary, violence.'
Walker's Appeal is an 1829 written pamphlet by David Walker; Garnet's Address is an 1843 speech. Both used religious arguments to justify resistance, and Garnet drew directly on Walker, but they're separate sources from different decades. Check the date and format on exam questions.
Moral suasion tried to end slavery by appealing to white Americans' sense of morality, and by the 1830s and 1840s radical activists like Garnet saw it as too slow for the daily urgency of living and dying under slavery. The Address bypassed white audiences entirely and told enslaved people to act for themselves.
Yes. It falls under Topic 2.19 and learning objective 2.19.A, and exam questions often quote the speech (like the line calling voluntary submission 'sinful in the extreme') and ask you to identify radical resistance or Black religious nationalism.
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