American Anti-Slavery Society

The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) (1833–1870) was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, was a key leader of this society who often spoke at its meetings. William Wells Brown was a freed slave who often spoke at meetings. By 1838, the society had 1,350 local chapters with around 250,000 members.

Noted members included Theodore Dwight Weld, Lewis Tappan, James G. Birney, Lydia Maria Child, Maria Weston Chapman, Abby Kelley Foster, Stephen Symonds Foster, Henry Highland Garnet, Samuel Cornish, James Forten, Charles Lenox Remond, Sarah Parker Remond, Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Robert Purvis, Augustine Clarke, and Wendell Phillips, John Greenleaf Whittier, among others. Headquartered in New York City, from 1840 to 1870 the society published a weekly newspaper, the National Anti-Slavery Standard.