As this figure shows, in the vast majority of northern states, the free black population rose significantly during the period from Despite this increase, free black representation in the general population decreased during this period because of the influx of European immigrants to the U.S.

Black Racial Discrimination By 1830, slavery existed almost exclusively in the South. Although it was non existent in the North, the end of slavery brought an increase, not a decrease, in anti-black prejudice, discrimination, and even violence Dr. Samuel G. Morton’s Crania Americana (1839) By law and by custom, whites severely restricted blacks’ access to jobs, public institutions and accommodations, and white neighborhoods The legal system, too, discriminated against blacks

Black Self-Help Blacks looked to one another for emotional and spiritual support as well as material and instructional resources Self-help – the belief that they themselves must take responsibility for their destinies, regardless of external forces Mutual aid societies, independent black churches, and black schools knit black communities together New York’s Colored Orphan Asylum Philadelphia’s Mother Bethel AME Church American Moral Reform Society

Black Communities The First National Negro Convention (1830) was the first in a series of gatherings that constituted the black convention movement the first African American newspaper Freedom’s Journal (1827) The North Star launched by Fredrick Douglass

Black Activists & Activism Slave Narratives – by revealing the details of what it meant to be a slave, they affirmed the humanity of enslaved African Americans Frederick Douglass was certainly the most well- known African American speaker on the abolitionist lecture circuit, but Sojourner Truth may have been the most compelling Sarah Parker Remond – anti-slavery lecturer Elizabeth Jennings discrimination case In Roberts v. City of Boston (1849), the Massachusetts Supreme Court upheld Boston’s public school stature requiring racially segregated schools

As a social reformer, public speaker, and writer, hew was dedicated to a wide range of issues, including woman suffrage, Douglass helped bring people together across barriers of race, gender, and class Frederick Douglass ( )

One of the most famous and influential black women of the 19 th century, Sojourner Truth both embodied and spoke powerfully to the intersection of the struggles of blacks, women, and the dispossessed The caption underneath it, “I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance,” illustrates her willingness to help support herself however she could Sojourner Truth ( )

The Abolitionist Movement Compared to earlier abolitionists who were for gradual emancipation, the new abolitionist movement sought to end slavery immediately American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 Liberator, the most famous antislavery newspaper of the era Two anti-slavery parties – the Liberty Party, founded in 1839, and the Free-Soil Party, founded in 1848 Women’s participation in the abolitionist movement contributed significantly to the emergence of the women’s rights movement

According to those opposed to abolitionism, it upset the racial status quo, it promoted free black labor dominance in the guise of racial equality, and it subordinated the interests of whites, especially white workers, to the interests of blacks In this engraving, a white capitalist supervises black workers and the black workers then supervise the white workers