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[[File:aridefor liberty.jpg|thumbnail|300px|left|''A Ride for Liberty- The Fugitive Slaves,'' 1863. Artist, Eastman Johnson.]]

==== Utilitarian Justice ====

No person is ever entirely independent from fellow human beings, thus it can be concluded that the actions of one man potentially affect the actions of many. As mankind is interdependent, the oppressed African-American, either directly or indirectly, changes the course of his society’s history. While the slave suffers, so too does the free man who does nothing, as he unwittingly alters his circumstances by his own inaction. For, it is true that the “grand sources…of human suffering are in a great degree, many of them almost entirely, conquerable by human care and effort”<ref>Mill, ''Utilitarianism,'' 13.</ref>

White children became owners of their half-siblings. White farmers who were not as financially well-off as the large planters had no means by which to purchase slaves therefore were unable to compete with those who did not pay for labor. Economic downturns arose as little employment was available to southern whites. The tensions that grew in an expanding nation eventually led to the death of 628,000 men, countless others who were permanently wounded, and the assassination of the President the United States. Slavery——harm——led to all of those things.

The utilitarian knows that in order for society to thrive, the individuals who compose that society must do the same. Thrive, in this case, is not defined by monetary gain but rather by group cohesion, individual happiness, and collective justice. Sadly, this was not the case in Antebellum America as “so much less do the generality of mankind value liberty than power.”<ref>Mill, ''On Liberty,'' 89.</ref>

==== Harriet Tubman ====

Harriet Tubman worked tirelessly to emancipate as many chattel slaves as possible. Born as a slave in Maryland circa 1820, she escaped bondage via her own physical strength and her wits. After securing her own freedom in New York State, she made 19 further trips to the upper South to liberate her family and as many other slaves as possible. She lived as a slave, as a fugitive, and as a free woman. She was the ablest of judges. It was she who had the ability to decide which was more pleasurable as a way of life; slavery or liberty.

If we return to the beginning, we must do so from the end; from the opposite. That being the case, if a “just person is just because of his knowledge…the unjust person [is] unjust for the opposite reason.”<ref>Plato, ''On Justice,'' 375 c.</ref> If that is factored in with experience, then knowledge becomes wisdom, therefore making it true that “the just person is just because of his wisdom…the unjust person is unjust, then, because of his ignorance.”<ref> Plato, ''On Justice, '' 375c.</ref> We have, it seems, been endowed with justice in the form of wisdom and injustice in the form of ignorance. Further, if people are ''unwillingly ignorant,'' they must therefore be unwillingly unjust. It can therefore be concluded that the just abolitionist acted with wisdom. Finally, it can be deduced that injustice stems from a lack of wisdom and those who continually commit unjust acts are those who are content with, albeit unaware of, their ignorance.

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