Who were key figures in the opposition to slavery?

Key figures in the opposition to slavery included William Wilberforce, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and John Brown.

William Wilberforce, a British politician and philanthropist, was instrumental in the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. He led the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty-six years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Wilberforce continued to campaign for the complete abolition of slavery, which was eventually achieved just after his death in 1833 with the Slavery Abolition Act.

Harriet Tubman, an African-American abolitionist and political activist, was born into slavery in the United States. She escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Tubman also served as an armed scout and spy for the United States Army during the American Civil War.

Frederick Douglass was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York. Douglass was noted for his compelling speeches and antislavery writings. He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens.

John Brown was a white American abolitionist who believed in and advocated armed insurrection as the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States. Brown led the unsuccessful raid on the federal armoury at Harpers Ferry in 1859. This event was one of the major incidents that led to the American Civil War.

These individuals, among others, played significant roles in the opposition to slavery. Their actions, whether through political influence, direct action, or the power of their words, contributed to the eventual abolition of slavery. Their legacies continue to inspire and inform contemporary discussions on racial equality and social justice.