Alexander Stewart of the Anti-Slavery Society.
The Anti-Slavery Society was founded in Norfolk, Virginia, Southern Confederation in 1821 with the ultimate goal of abolishing Negro slavery in the S.C. Its founders, Alexander Stewart and Theodore Bailey, recognized that the S.C. was transforming itself into a police state in order to maintain slavery, and believed that the only way to arrest the descent into tyranny was to abolish slavery.
At first, the Society attracted little interest, but in the wake of the Levering Conspiracy in Georgia that year, more Southerners joined. By 1825, the Society was able to join with other abolitionist groups in the S.C. to create the Southern Union, an abolitionist political party. As more slave uprisings occurred in the S.C., the Society and the Southern Union grew in power until the Conservative Party under Willie Lloyd took up the cause of abolition. Lloyd and the Conservatives were ultimately able to enact a compensated manumission plan in 1840.