Freq #53052
Meanings
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1
noun
historical: a person who campaigned to end slavery, especially in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Atlantic world
The abolitionist published speeches demanding the immediate end of slavery.
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2
The prison abolitionist argued for replacing incarceration with community-based systems.
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Thesaurus
Synonyms
1
noun
· historical: a person who...
emancipationistantislavery campaigner
Opposites
proslavery advocate
Word family
Etymology
Formed from abolition + -ist and first recorded in the late eighteenth century. It became especially associated with movements to abolish the slave trade and slavery, then broadened to advocates seeking the complete removal of other institutions or practices.