oil mills, and cotton gins. The city contains a sanitarium, Federal court house, library, parks, etc. Pop. (1910) 9,204; (1920) 10,274.
ABINGTON, a town in Massachusetts, in Plymouth co., about 20 miles S. E. of Boston. It is on the New York, New Haven and Hartford, and the Old Colony Electric railroads. The largest industry is the manufacture of boots and shoes. The city has an excellent school system and a library. In its park is a memorial arch to veterans of the Civil War which was dedicated in 1912. Abington was founded in 1680. Pop. (1910) 5,455; (1920) 5,787.
ABKHASIA, a region between the south slope of Caucasus and the Black Sea, having an area of about 2,500 square miles. The country is mountainous and has dense forests of oaks and walnuts. Maize, figs, wines, and wheat are produced. Its chief town is Sukhum Kalé. Under the Byzantine emperors it was an independent state, called Abassia. In 1154, the Russian Grand Prince Islayif Mstislavitch married an Abkhasian princess. In the 15th century it became subject to Turkey. After the peace of Adrianople in 1829, the region was annexed to Russia, but was not fully pacified until 1864. The inhabitants differ from the Cherkess in character and appearance. Their principal occupations are agriculture, grazing, wine raising, and bee-keeping. After the Turko-Russian War, many of them emigrated to Turkey. They number about 21,000. Total pop. about 150,000.
ABNOBA, now ABENAU, a long range of mountains in Germany, extending from the Rhine to the Neckar. having different names in the different countries through which they stretch: the Oden, or Odenwald, about the river Main; the Spessart, between Hesse and Franconia; Baar, in Württemberg.
ÅBO, a city in the former Russian province of Finland, and chief town of the government of the same name. (Pop. about 525,000.) It is situated near the extremity of the promontory formed by the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, and is divided into two parts by the river Aurajoki. Previous to 1817, Abo was the capital of Finland. Pop. about 55,000.
ÅBO, ARCHIPELAGO OF, an extensive group of low. rocky islands in the Baltic Sea, spreading along the S. and W. coasts of Finland, opposite the city of Abo, rendering the navigation difficult and dangerous.
ÅBO, PEACE OF, a treaty concluded Aug. 17, 1743, between Russia and Sweden, by which Russia retained a part of Finland and restored to Sweden the remainder on condition that the latter power should elect the Prince of Holstein-Gottorp successor to the throne. On Aug. 30, 1812, the Emperor Alexander I., of Russia, and the Crown Prince Karl Johann, of Sweden, confirmed the second treaty between the two countries already signed March 24th, containing a secret article of mutual protection. It treated of Napoleon and the subjugation of Norway.
ABOLITIONISTS, in United States history, those who advocated the abolition of African slavery in the Southern States. Agitation became acute after the settlement of the war troubles of 1812–1815. In 1833, the formation of a National Anti-Slavery Society took place in Philadelphia, and in 1848 of the Free Soil Party. The abolition movement was powerfully promoted by William Lloyd Garrison, who issued a newspaper, "The Liberator," for the better dissemination of his views; and also by Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, and others. The more extreme agitators among them denied the duty of obedience to the Constitution, since it contained the clause warranting the Fugitive Slave Law, and they denounced it as "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell." In practice they violated it by systematically assisting in the escape of runaway slaves. In Boston, Garrison was mobbed, and the abolition cause in the United States counted among its martyrs Elijah Lovejoy, shot in Alton, Ill., in 1837, and John Brown, hanged in Virginia in 1859. In 1840, the abolitionists divided on the question of the formation of a political anti-slavery party, and the two wings remained active on separate lines to the end. It was largely due to the abolitionists that the Civil War, when it came, was regarded by the North chiefly as an anti-slavery conflict, and they looked upon the Emancipation Proclamation as a vindication of this view.
ABOMA, a large and formidable American snake, called also the ringed boa. It is the epicratis cenchrea. Anciently it was worshipped by the Mexicans.
ABOMEY, the former capital of Dahomey, Africa; a walled town, containing several royal palaces. It is mostly clay-built, and the walls are of mud; is of large area, much of which is under cultivation; carries on important trade with the interior in palm oil. ivory, and
