Proslavery arguments were not prevalent in the United States until an organized movement against slavery emerged in the late 18th century. Commonly referred to as the antislavery movement, abolitionism was a loose confederation of religious and political organizations that arose in defiance of the international system of slavery. The movement did not gain national credibility and acclaim until the late 1830s.

Often associated with the antislavery movement, abolitionism differed in both the degree and methods of its antislavery activities. While antislavery advocates pushed for the gradual eradication of slavery, abolitionists called for its immediate and unconditional end. Organizations such as the American Anti-Slavery Society and newspapers such as the The Liberator were prominent features of the American abolitionist movement. Emerging at the beginning of the 19th century, antiabolitionism was a hostile and often violent response to the abolitionist movement. As abolitionism grew, so too did antiabolitionism.

Several features of abolitionist rhetoric angered and disturbed proslavery whites. Among them were persistent fears that free blacks would be allowed to associate with and assimilate into white society. Miscegenation was also a major concern for whites, and abolitionist appeals for the manumission of slaves and their incorporation into American society created terror in the Southern imagination (see Manumission Societies). In addition, the failure of the American Colonization Society (ACS) to convince significant numbers of free blacks to emigrate to Africa added to antiabolitionist sentiment.

Antiabolitionists feared that the speeches, newspapers, and organizations of the abolitionist movement would cripple and eventually lead to the demise of slavery in the United States. In response, abolitionist organizations were threatened and attacked, and in some cases, abolitionist activists were murdered. The period from 1834 to 1836 witnessed some of the most brutal displays of antiabolitionist fervor. By 1835 the United States Postal Service was prohibited from delivering abolitionist literature in the South.

On July 29 and July 30, 1835, an antiabolitionist mob seized and burned a collection of abolitionist publications at a Charleston, South Carolina, post office. On December 3, 1860, a gathering of free blacks and white abolitionists at Tremont Temple in Boston, Massachusetts, was attacked. In a similar event five years later, New England abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison was beaten and dragged through the streets of Boston by an antiabolitionist mob.

When President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing American slaves, antiabolitionists turned their attention toward former slaves and Northern whites who moved south to participate in Reconstruction (see Carpetbaggers). Many antiabolitionist groups grew into white hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, which committed horrific crimes against both African Americans and whites who sympathized with black demands for justice and equality. Despite threats of violence, abolitionist and civil rights activists persisted throughout the 19th century.