The political belief and movement advocating the complete abolition of something unjust, especially slavery.
From abolition (Latin abolitionem) plus the ideology suffix -ism (from Greek -ismos, meaning belief, practice, or characteristic), creating an abstract noun describing a political movement.
Abolitionism was revolutionary because it didn't just criticize slavery—it demanded its complete, immediate elimination, making it more radical than earlier movements that hoped to gradually 'improve' slavery, which is why the terminology mattered so much.
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