The Abolitionists By: Ms. Astle Picture from: American History Picture Packs Collection D: Expansion, Development, Sectionalism, and Division, 1820-1860 CD-Rom By: Ms. Astle

The Early Movement Some Americans worked hard to abolish, or end slavery during this age of reform. The religious revival and reform movement spurred the antislavery movement. Many of these people were Quakers. Benjamin Lundy, a Quaker, founded a newspaper in 1821 to spread the antislavery message. Formed in 1816, the American Colonization Society worked toward resettling African Americans in African and the Caribbean. It was founded by white Virginians who worked to free enslaved workers by buying them from their slaveholders and sending them out of the country. The society bought land on the west coast of Africa. The first African Americans settled there and called the area Liberia. The society could not end slavery but could only resettle a small number of African Americans. Besides, most African Americans did not want to resettle in Africa. They wanted their freedom in America.

Making Case Against Slavery Beginning about 1830, reformers began to crusade strongly against slavery. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison founded his own newspaper, The Liberator, in 1831. He called for the “immediate and complete emancipation” of enslaved people. People began to listen. Garrison stared the New England Antislavery Society in 1832 and the American Antislavery Society in 1833. By 1838 there were more than 1,000 chapters around the country of the societies that Garrison began. The Grimke’ sisters, Sara and Angelina, were among the first women who spoke publicly against slavery. In 1839 Angelina and her husband, Theodore Weld, wrote American Slavery As It Is, a firsthand account of life under slavery.

Making Case Against Slavery Harriet Beecher Stowe was a writer who had a major impact on public opinion. She wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin which became a best-seller. The book portrayed slavery as a cruel and brutal system. Some strongly opposed the book and its message. Sale of the book was banned in the South.

African American Abolitionists African Americans played a major role in the abolitionist movement The African Americans of the North especially wanted to help the enslaved people of the South. They subscribed to The Liberator, took part in organizing and directing the American Antislavery Society, and began their own newspapers. The first African American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, was founded in 1827 by Samuel Cornish and John Russworm.

African American Abolitionists In 1830 free African American leaders held a convention in Philadelphia. Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery in Maryland and settled first in Massachusetts and then New York. He became a powerful speaker and writer, editing the antislavery newspaper, the North Star. He traveled abroad but returned to the United Sates, feeling that abolitionists must fight slavery in America. In 1847 he was able to purchase his freedom from the slaveholder from whom he had fled in Maryland. Sojourner Truth was born in slavery and later escaped slavery. She changed her name from Belle to Sojourner Truth in 1843 and worked for abolitionism and women’s rights.

The Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of escape routes to the North and then to Canada. Abolitionists helped enslaved African Americans escape to freedom and risked prison and even death if caught. The Underground Railroad helped as many as 100,000 enslaved people escape. It gave many others hope. The passengers traveled at night and rested during the day. Early on, many peopled traveled on foot. Later, they traveled in wagons, some equipped with secret compartments. Even in the North, however, the runaways still feared capture.

The Underground Railroad Harriet Tubman was the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad after escaping slavery herself. She was an escaped slave who returned to the South 19 times and led more than 300 enslaved people, including her parents, to freedom. Slaveholders offered a reward of $40,000 for her, dead or alive. She always avoided capture. The Underground Railroad helped only a small number of the enslaved people, and most who used it as an escape route come from the states located between the northern states and the Deep South.

Reaction to Abolitionists Opposition to abolitionism developed in the South both by people who owned enslaved African Americans and those who did not. These people felt that abolitionism threatened the South’s way of life. Opposition to the North resulted because some Northerners saw the antislavery movement as a threat to the nation’s social order. Some felt that if freed, African Americans could not blend into American society, and some feared that the abolitionists could bring a war between the North and the South

Reaction to Abolitionists Economic fears also contributed to the opposition because Northern workers feared that freed African Americans would take away their jobs since they would work for less pay. Violence erupted from the opposition to abolitionists. In the 1830s a Philadelphia mob burned the city’s antislavery headquarters and set of a race riot. In Boston a mob attacked William Lloyd Garrison and threatened to hang him. He was jailed instead to save his life.

Reaction to Abolitionists Elijah Lovejoy was an abolitionist newspaper editor. His printing presses were destroyed three times, and the fourth time, a mob set fire to the building. He was shot and killed when he came out. The conflict between proslavery and antislavery groups grew. The South reacted to abolitionism by claiming that slavery was essential to economic progress and prosperity. Southerners also said that hey treated enslaved people well an that slavery was preferable to factory work in the North. Many whites also believed that African Americans were better off under white care than on their own.

Resources American History Picture Packs Collection D: Expansion, Development, Sectionalism, and Division, 1820-1860 CD-Rom (2002) History Pictures at URL: www.historypictures.com Slavery in America (2007). New York Life at URL:http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/scripts/sia/gallery.cgi About Women’s History: Sojourner Truth (2007) About, Inc. at URL:http://womenshistory.about.com/od/sojournertruth/ig/Sojourner-Truth/Sojourner-Truth.--Np.htm Dover Publications (2007) Dover Publications, Inc. at URL: http://www.doverpublications.com African American Newspapers: Freedom’s Journal (2007) at URL: http://www.fatherryan.org/BlackPress/html/freed.htm Wikipedia: Grimke` Sisters (2009) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimke_sisters NYPL Digital Gallery: Underground Railroad (2009) New York Public Library at URL: http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?keyword=underground+railroad

Resources Wikipedia: Harriet Tubman (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman Wikipedia: Fredrick Douglass (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredrick_Douglass Wikipedia: William Lloyd Garrison (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lloyd_Garrison Freedom A History of US Episode 5 A Fatal Contradiction (2008) Utah Education Network--eMedia