The Fight Against Slavery

1
Objectives

• Describe efforts in the North to end slavery.
• Discuss the contributions of William Lloyd
  Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and other
  abolitionists.
• Describe the purpose and risks of the Underground
  Railroad.
• Explain why many people in the North and South
  defended slavery.

2
Terms and People

• abolitionists reformers who wanted to abolish,
  or end, slavery
• William Lloyd Garrison a Quaker who launched an
  abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, and
  cofounded the New England Anti-Slavery Society
• Frederick Douglass a former slave who spoke out
  against slavery and published an antislavery
  newspaper, North Star
• Harriet Tubman a former slave who helped many
  slaves escape via the Underground Railroad

3

• Set Questions Think back to Section 1 Page
  414
• List three social reform movements during this
  time period.
• What was the movement to stop alcohol abuse?
• What was the religious movement we discussed in
  section 1?
• What is a Utopian Community?
• Who was an early champion (someone who pushed
  for) of public education?

4
How did abolitionists try to end slavery?
Since colonial times, some Americans had opposed
slavery on religious and moral grounds.
Abolitionists tried to end slavery through the
political system, the press, and non-governmental
antislavery organizations.
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Early Opposition
A number of prominent leaders of the early
republic, such as Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin
Franklin, opposed slavery.
In 1790, Pennsylvania became the first state to
pass a law that gradually eliminated slavery.
By 1804, every northern state had ended or
pledged to end slavery, and Congress had banned
slavery in the Northwest Territory.
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Liberia
The American Colonization Society, an early
antislavery organization, wanted to free slaves
gradually and transport them to Liberia, a colony
founded in 1822 on the west coast of Africa.
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The colonization movement did not work because
most enslaved people had grown up in the U.S. and
did not want to leave.
By 1830, only about 1,400 African Americans had
migrated to Liberia.
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Abolitionism
By the mid-1800s, a small but growing number of
people were abolitionists who called for an
immediate end to slavery.
The Second Great Awakening inspired further
opposition to slavery.
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David Walker, a northern African American,
published a pamphlet called Appeal to the
Coloured Citizens of the World.
He urged enslaved people to rebel, if necessary,
to gain their freedom.
10
William Lloyd Garrison opposed the use of
violence to end slavery because he was a Quaker.
Yet, he was more radical than most, because he
thought all African Americans should have full
political rights.
In 1831, Garrison launched an abolitionist
newspaper, The Liberator, which folded only after
slavery had ended.
11
Garrison cofounded the New England Anti-Slavery
Societywhich later became the American
Anti-Slavery Societywhose members included

• Minister Theodore Weld, a pupil of Charles Finney
• Sarah and Angelina Grimke, daughters of a South
  Carolina slaveholder

12
Former president John Quincy Adams, now a
congressman, also supported the abolitionists.

• In 1839, he proposed a constitutional amendment
  that would ban slavery in any new state joining
  the Union, but the amendment was not passed.

• In 1841, Adams defended captive Africans who had
  seized the slave ship Amistad and helped them
  regain their freedom.

13
Frederick Douglass
One of the most powerful speakers for
abolitionism was Frederick Douglass.
A former slave, Douglass escaped to the North and
risked recapture by speaking at antislavery
rallies.
Douglass also published his own antislavery
newspaper, the North Star.
14
Underground Railroad
Some abolitionists helped people escape from
slavery via the Underground Railroad.
The Underground Railroad was a network of people
who secretly helped slaves reach freedom.
15
Working for the Underground Railroad was illegal
and dangerous, and people risked their lives to
help runaway slaves.
As many as 50,000 African Americans escaped from
slavery to freedom in the North or in Canada via
the Underground Railroad.
16
The fugitive slaves were led by conductors.
They stopped at stations, which were often
abolitionists houses, or churches or caves.
Supporters donated clothing, food, and money.
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Harriet Tubman was the most famous conductor on
the Underground Railroad.
She personally helped more than 300 slaves escape
to freedom.
Slave owners tried to stop her, offering a
40,000 reward for her capture, but she was never
caught.
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Abolitionists faced powerful obstacles in the
North as well as in the South.
Many northerners relied on cotton produced in the
south by slave labor.
Northerners also feared that freed slaves would
take their jobs.
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Defenders of slavery began to act with greater
force.

• Northern supporters of slavery sometimes attacked
  people at antislavery meetings.

• The state of Georgia offered a 5,000 reward for
  the arrest and conviction of William Lloyd
  Garrison for libel.

Southerners in Congress won passage of a gag
rule that blocked discussion of antislavery
petitions.
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• Closing Questions
• What founding fathers disagreed with slavery?
• Who published an anti-slavery newspaper in the
  North?
• Why were this mans views more radical than most?
• Who was the most famous conductor of the
  Underground Railroad?
• What is a station in terms of the Underground
  Railroad?

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