Alexander II, Tsar and Emancipator

            Alexander II, as the Tsar-Emancipator, provided ideological abolitionists with a new face of Russia that could dispel the previous notions of Russian autocracy and despotism. As noted in the exhibit, Alexander II signed a declaration of emancipation on March 3, 1861. The emancipation of the serfs played a great role in boosting esteem of him among abolitionist Americans as a fellow reformer against forces supporting the regressive Confederacy. Thus, Edward Everett, a Massachusetts politician (and president of Harvard University),[1] wrote in glowing terms of the “enlightened Prince” who gave his support to the Union against a Confederacy openly avowing its foundation on “the cornerstone of Slavery.”[2] Cassius Clay would echo such praise after his own personal encounters with the Tsar. He told one American audience in 1862 that “not only Alexander, but his whole family are with you, men, women, and children.”[3] Even if much of the Russo-American alignment had been built on resisting Britain and France, American abolitionists saw Alexander II as a personal friend and one of the few world leaders advocating a process of reform similar to that of American emancipation.