Abolitionists were politicians and activists who supported outlawing enslavement across the United States. They tended to be members of the Republican Party, although not all Republicans were abolitionists.

At the outset of the US Civil War, the Republican Party was associated with anti-enslavement views, even though not all of its members were abolitionists. The politicians of the Republican Party who did support a nation-wide ban on enslavement were derisively called “Black Republicans.”

This was a term to describe “moderate secessionists,” who were open to the South seceding from the United States but argued that debates and votes must first be held at a conference hosting representatives and leaders from across the South.