African-Americans and The Abolitionist Movement

Slave Family  Parents not legally married  Children did not work the fields until the age of 8  Families gathered to listen to folk songs and traditional African stories

African American Religion  Praise meetings – religious service praising God, usually done by singing  Spiritual – scared song or hymn created by Southern African Americans

Slave Rebellions  Slaves would gather, march in the street, and refuse to do work  Nat Turner’s Rebellion – Kill every white person they could see in Virginia  “Slave codes” – Not allow slaves to meet in big groups and severe punishment for talk of rebellion

Free Blacks  335,000 in 1830  Half lived in the South  Register with authorities  White guardians

White Abolitionist Movements  Believed in emancipation – freeing of slaves  William Lloyd Garrison publisher of the Liberator  Held protests

Frederick Douglass  Former slave turned abolitionist  Publisher of the North Star – Spoke out against slavery  Later helped raise African American regiments during the Civil War

Underground Railroad  Network of passages from slave states to free states/Canada for runaway slaves  “Conductors” led people to safety  Harriet Tubman  “Black Moses”  19 journeys and led over 300 slaves to freedom

Response to Abolition  Growth of racism  Blacks are inferior  Blacks would take white jobs  Gag Rule – banning the discussion of abolition in the House of Representatives  Split between North and South