“…While support varied across states, the trend was that communities in the North needed to become more settled and urban for organizing on the issue to take place. Second, the ability of the AASS to expand into these communities created a widespread, organized base upon which the anti‐slavery movement could convert from “moral suasion,” whereby activists like Garrison sought to change hearts on the subject of slavery, to a politicized unit, interested in party politics via the Liberty Party (Chamberlain, 2018a, 2018b) and, eventually for some, the Free Soil and Republican parties (see Chamberlain, 2014). In total, the urbanizing society of the North was a boon to abolitionist and anti‐slavery organizing, providing a framework for future political engagement with the issue and shaping the course of American politics in the process.…”