The Ladies and the Abolitionists

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Chapter 14

• The Ladies and the Abolitionists

2
Section 2

• The Abolitionists

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Abolitionists

• Abolitionists are a group of reformers that
  worked to abolish, or end slavery
• In the north especially, these people who were
  against slavery started a movement that spread
  throughout the northern states.
• The constitution stated it was up to the
  individual states to decide if slavery was to be
  legal. By this time all the North had abolished
  slavery

4
Back to Africa

• The first effort was sending slaves back to
  Africa for freedom. The American Colonization
  Society formed in 1817 by a group of white
  Virginians, bought slaves from slaveholders to
  send them back to Africa.
• The society raised enough money to buy a colony
  in West Africa called Liberia.

5
Problems with Resettlement

• Some 12,000 to 15,000 moved to Liberia up to the
  Civil War
• Many Africans did not want to go back to Africa,
  because they were born in this country and had
  never lived there
• They were from families that had lived in America
  for several generations
• The number of slaves continued to increase, and
  the society could only resettle so many slaves.

6
William Lloyd Garrison

• He was a writer who started his own newspaper in
  1831. He called it The Liberator
• He was the first white abolitionist to call for
  the complete emancipation or Freeing of slaves.
• He stated, I will not retreat a single inch, and
  I will be heard.

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The Movement Grows

• The abolitionist movement grew rapidly soon after
• By 1838, it had over 1000 branches, or offices in
  thousands of towns
• Many from the South who were against slavery
  moved North to join the cause
• Even freed African Americans, still with limited
  rights in the North, saw the need to try and end
  slavery in the South

8
African American Abolitionists

• Sam Cornish and John Russwurm started the
  countrys first African American newspaper,
  Freedoms Journal.
• David Walker a free man from Boston (Born in
  N.C), published an article against slavery,
  challenging blacks to rebel and overthrow slavery
  by force.

9
Frederick Douglas

• Frederick Douglas was the most widely known
  abolitionist
• He taught himself how to read and write, then
  escaped slavery in Maryland
• He was a powerful speaker who traveled this
  country and abroad, speaking to huge anti-slavery
  crowds in London
• He demanded slaves receive not just their freedom
  but full equality as well.

10
Sojurner Truth

• She was a slave from New York, who escaped
  slavery when New York banned it in 1827. Her
  slave master insisted she stay another year, so
  she fled
• Once free, she chose her name, because from this
  day I will walk in the light of Gods truth.
• She had never been taught to read or write, but
  she spoke with wit and wisdom against slavery.

11
The Underground Railroad

• The Underground Railroad was a series of escape
  routes for slaves out of the South.
• There were no trains. The slaves traveled at
  night, on foot northward.
• Slaves would look for moss growing on the north
  side of trees, or sing songs such as follow the
  drinking gourd, which was slang for follow the
  big dipper, which points to the North Star.

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Underground Railroad ctd

• During the day, slaves, or passengers, rested at
  stations. These stations were often barns,
  attics, church basements, or other places where
  fugitives could rest, eat and hide until the next
  nights journey.
• Later on, slaves traveled in wagons, hidden in
  secret compartments
• Many moved on to Canada once they reached the
  north, still fearing capture from Americans.

13
Harriet Tubman

• She was the most famous, Conductor on the
  Underground Railroad.
• She made many trips South and guided hundreds of
  slaves north, including her parents.
• Slaveholders offered a large reward for her
  capture or death, but she was never caught.

14
Opposition to Abolitionism

• Southerners opposed abolitionism because they
  believed it threatened the Souths way of life
• Many Northerners feared freed slaves would
  destroy the nations social order.
• Some believed by doing this a destructive war
  would come between the North and South.

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Violence against Abolitionists

• In Philadelphia, the anti slavery headquarters
  were burned to the ground, and a race riot
  ensued.
• In Boston, the headquarters of William Lloyd
  Garrison were attacked the mob threatened to hang
  Garrison
• Authorities saved his life by locking him in
  jail.

16
Elijah Lovejoy

• Elijah Lovejoy edited an abolition newspaper in
  Illinois. Three times angry whites invaded his
  office and wrecked his presses.
• Each time he fixed the presses and continued his
  writing
• The fourth time the mob set fire to his building,
  and Lovejoy was shot when he ran out of the
  building

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The Southern Defense

• The South Claimed Slavery was essential to
  economic progress in the South
• Many Southerners believed that slave labor had
  allowed whites to reach a high level of culture
  and civilization.
• Many tried to argue that slave labor in the South
  was better than factory work in the North.

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Racist Defenses

• There were other racist beliefs
• Many believed that African Americans were better
  off under white care than on their own
• Providence has placed the slave in our hands
  for his own good claimed one Southern governor.

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Section 3

• The Fight for Womens Rights

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The Role of Women

• In the early 1800s, men became the guardians of
  women
• The law treated women like children that needed
  to be cared for
• Unmarried women came under authority of their
  husbands
• Widows and single women could own property and
  make wills, but the control of the land went to
  the men when they were married

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Lack of Rights

• Women abolitionists were often pushed aside by
  men
• Many men believed women should not speak in
  public or publish their writing
• When women attended an antislavery meeting in
  London in 1840, they had to sit behind a curtain
  that separated them from the all male meeting

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Feminists

• Women abolitionists quickly realized that women
  did not have the rights they deserved, let alone
  trying to free the slaves.
• They became the first American feminists, or
  people who work for womens rights
• Women reformers such as Lucretia Mott and
  Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
• Mott was a Quaker, who grew up with equal rights
  in Quaker society.

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The Seneca Falls Convention

• The very first womens rights convention was held
  in 1848 in Seneca Falls, NY. About 200 women and
  40 men attended
• The women issued a Declaration of Sentiments and
  Resolutions, which declared We hold these truths
  to be self-evident that all men and women are
  created equal.

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The Start of a Long Fight

• The most controversial issue at Seneca Falls was
  womens suffrage, or the right to vote
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton called for suffrage, but
  many at the convention thought the idea was too
  radical, so it was rejected
• The convention did agree to try and get it passed
  at a future date

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The Movement Grows

• Susan B. Anthony called for equal pay for women,
  college education, and coeducation or the
  teaching of boys and girls together
• These women set the stage for years of fighting
  for equal rights
• Suffrage did not occur nationwide until 1920.

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The Need for Progress

• In the early 1800s, the farthest education a
  women could have would be elementary schools.
• Further classes that could be taken were how to
  be good wives and mothers.
• No college would accept a women before 1830

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Examples of Greatness

• Mary Lyon founded the Mount Holyoke Female
  Seminary, which modeled its curriculum from
  nearby Amherst College
• By 1830, NY, Penn, Ind, Wis, Miss, and the new
  state of California recognised the right for
  women to own property after marriage.

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Examples of Greatness

• Elizabeth Blackwell was turned down by more than
  20 schools, but was accepted by Geneva College in
  NY. Blackwell graduated head of her class and was
  the first women to receive a medical degree in
  the U.S or Europe
• She founded the Infirmary for Women and Children
  which was staffed by all women.

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Examples of Greatness

• Maria Mitchell, a librarian taught herself
  astronomy. He discovered a comet in 1847. She
  became a professor at Vassar College, and the
  first Women elected to the American Academy of
  Arts and Sciences
• Lucy Stone was a speaker of abolitionism and
  womens rights. She made a statement by not
  accepting her husbands name after marriage

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In all, limited Progress

• Despite the accomplishments of notable women,
  women in the 1800s were not equal to men, and not
  treated equal either
• It would take over a hundred years for women to
  be seen equal members of society, although in
  some places, this still has not happened.