1. Abolitionists
Objective 2.06

2. Objective 2.06
Evaluate the role of religion in the debate over slavery and other social movements and issues.

3. What is abolition?
The movement to end slavery

4. Abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison Sarah and Angelina Grimke
David Walker
Frederick Douglas
Charles Grandison Finney

5. William Lloyd Garrison
Radical white abolitionist
Religious reformer
Started The Liberator in 1831 – antislavery newspaper – demanded immediate emancipation

6. W. Garrison (continued)
Founded New England Antislavery Society in 1832
Next year, American Antislavery Society
Hated by many whites

8. Emancipation
Freeing of slaves without payment to slaveholders

9. David Walker Free black man
Wrote Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World
Advised blacks to fight for freedom rather than wait for slave owners to end slavery.

11. Frederick Douglass Former slave (b. 1817) Escaped to New York
Read The Liberator
Hired by Garrison to speak for American Anti-Slavery Society

12. Frederick Douglass (continued)
Hoped that abolition could be achieved through political actions
Broke w/ Garrison in 1847
Published his own abolitionist paper – The North Star

13. “Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color – God is the father of us all, and we are all Brethren”

14. Sarah and Angelina Grimke
Spoke out against slavery and gender inequality
Daughters of a SC planter
Exiled for their work

15. Charles G. Finney 2nd Great Awakening
Spoke against slavery as morally wrong

16. Life Under Slavery
Roughly 2 million slaves in America by 1830

17. Slavery South’s “Peculiar Institution”
Slaves supplied about a 10 percent return on their cost
Heyday of British textiles gone by 1860, but South locked into Cotton

18. Slavery
Middle class whites feared that freed slaves would compete with them for land
Pregnant slaves given less work and more food. Some new slave mothers rewarded with dresses and silver dollars.
Women expected to do “man’s work”
Celia’s Story

19. Rural Slavery
By 1850, most slaves worked on large plantations

20. Urban Slavery In cities, some slaves worked in specialized industries
Douglass – city slave “almost a freeman” compared to a slave on the plantation

21. Nat Turner’s Rebellion
Virginia slave – believed that he had been chosen to lead his people out of slavery (eclipse)
1831 – his band attacked 4 plantations
Killed almost 60 whites
As many as 200 blacks killed in retaliation

23. Reaction to Nat Turner’s Rebellion?
Virginia legislature debates emancipation
1832 – loses by 73 – 58 vote
Fear of future slave revolts led to lack of education and privilege for slaves

24. Slavery Defenses
Some proslavery advocates used the Bible to defend slavery
Passages counseling servants to “obey masters”
“Positive Good” – theory that blacks benefited from slavery
Better than life was in Africa?

25. Slavery Defenses (continued)
Myth of the happy slave on a plantation compared to a northern wage slave

26. Debate?
1836 – gag rule – limited or prevented debate on an issue (slavery)
Repealed in 1844