1. 1. The Abolition Movement Enslaved people were denied basic human rights Food & shelter was inadequate No medical care By law, enslaved people were considered property Slave auctions separated families Was considered normal by many but not all! Many people spoke out against the institution of slavery

2. 2. Antislavery Efforts in the South Some African-Americans were free Still, they faced discrimination Many of them lead the fight for abolition Between 1776 and 1860, there were about 200 slave uprisings Most famous was led by Nat Turner -killed dozens of whites in the South

3. Many enslaved people tried to escape to the north or into Canada Many of them used the Underground Railroad -a secret network of escape routes -not an actual railroad -leaders of the U.R. were called conductors, the most famous of whom was Harriet Tubman -she helped over 3,000 enslaved people to escape

4. 3. Abolition in the North In 1830s, the # of escaping slaves increased Probably caused by the Abolition Movement -wanted to end slavery Famous abolitionist was William Lloyd Garrison -edited his own Anti-slavery newspaper & created the Anti-Slavery Society Frederick Douglas, an escaped slave, was another famous abolitionist

5. 4. Opposition to Abolition Southern slave owners were outraged by abolitionists It was an attack on their way of life Many southerners tried to justify slavery w/ the Bible They argued that slavery was essential to cotton production Even most northerners did not want slaves to be freed -it would mean more competition for jobs

6. I saw one poor woman who had her ear nailed to a post, for attempting to run away, but the agony she endured was so great, that she tore away, and left her ear behind. This is the law of America after her Declaration of Independence—the land in which are millions of professed Christians, and which supports their religion at a cost of 20 million dollars annually, and yet she has three millions of human beings the subjects of the hellish laws I have read. We would not ask you to interfere with the politics of America, or invoke your military aid to put down American slavery. No, we only demand your moral and religious influence on the slave (holder) in question, and believe me the effects of that influence will be overwhelming. -Frederick Douglass “I Am Here to Spread Light on American Slavery”

7. Under the Gospel, it has brought within the range of Gospel influence, millions of Ham's descendants among ourselves, who, but for this institution, would have sunk down to eternal ruin; knowing not God, and strangers to the Gospel. In their bondage here on earth, they have been much better provided for, and great multitudes of them have been made the freemen of the Lord Jesus Christ, and left this world rejoicing in hope of the glory of God… An officious meddling with the institution, from feelings and sentiments unknown to the Bible, may lead to the extermination of the slave race among us, who, taken as a whole, are utterly unprepared for a higher civil state; but benefit them, it cannot. Their condition, as a class, is now better than that of any other equal number of laborers on earth, and is daily improving.... -Thornton Stringfellow "A Brief Examination of Scripture Testimony on the Institution of Slavery"