Chapter 9: Working for Reform

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Chapter 9 Working for Reform
Section 3 The Crusade for Abolition
Pages 297-302
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The Crusade for Abolition

• EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY
• Many Americans who were involved in reform
  efforts such as the Second Great Awakening and
  temperance movement believed that the institution
  of slavery should be abolished in the United
  States
• During the colonial period, the Quakers were
  among the first Americans to speak out against
  slavery as a violation of religious principles
• Many abolitionists argued that slavery
  contradicted the fundamental argument of the
  Declaration of Independence that all men are
  created equal

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The Crusade for Abolition

• EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY
• Colonization (297-298)
• Most northern states had abolished slavery by the
  early 1800s.
• Some northerners supported a plan by the,
  American Colonization Society to send freed
  African Americans to Africa to found new
  settlements. In 1822 the society established
  Monrovia, the capital city of a settlement later
  called Liberia, on the west coast of Africa
• Some white southerners supported colonization as
  a way to rid the South of free African Americans,
  whom they feared would incite slave rebellions

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The Crusade for Abolition

• EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY
• Colonization (297-298)
• Most northern supporters of colonization
  genuinely wanted to end slaver. Most people in
  both groups, however, shared the prejudice that
  African Americans were inferior to whites and
  would never fit into American society

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The Crusade for Abolition

• EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY
• African American Reaction (298)
• Many northern free African Americans opposed the
  American Colonization Societys plan to banish
  them for America
• At first, only free African Americans chose to
  resettle in Liberia.
• Despite the discrimination that free African
  Americans faced, few wanted to leave the United
  States.
• By 1830 just some 1,400 African Americans had
  settled in Liberia
• Since it was clear that colonization was not
  popular, many abolitionists who had once
  supported the colonization plan began to turn
  against it

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The Crusade for Abolition

• EARLY OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY
• African American Reaction (298)
• It was clear that colonization was not popular,
  many abolitionists who had once supported
  colonization now were against it
• African Americans began organizing among
  themselves to end slavery
• By 1826 they ad formed more than 143 antislavery
  societies with the mission of freeing their
  brothers in chains.
• In 1827 Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm started
  the first African American newspaper, Freedoms
  Journal, to proclaim opposition to slavery

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The Crusade for Abolition

• ABOLITIONISTS CALL FOR ACTION (298-299)
• Over time, activists began shifting their focus
  from colonization to abolition, working to
  immediately end slavery.
• Two important publications, the Appeal and the
  Liberator, marked the start of a bold, energetic,
  and more organized attack on the institution of
  slavery
• In 1829 David Walker, a free African American
  businessman for Boston published the Appeal to
  the Colored Citizens of the World,
• He demanded immediate, universal abolition and
  called on free African Americans and slaves to
  take action violent action if necessary to
  gain freedom and equality
• William Lloyd Garrison, a white New England
  journalist to action against slavery
• William Lloyd Garrison, with financial backing
  from wealthy African Americans and white
  abolitionists, launched the Liberator, an
  abolitionist newspaper
• William Lloyd Garrison insisted that slavery was
  a sin and a crime because it contradicted both
  the Bible and the Declaration of Independence

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The Crusade for Abolition

• VOICES OF THE AMERICAN ANIT-SLAVERY SOCIETY
  (300-301)
• In 1833 prominent black and white abolitionists
  formed the American Anti-Slavery Society the
  first national antislavery organization to be
  devoted to immediate abolition and racial
  equality
• Although the society excluded women from formal
  membership, many women assumed important roles in
  the societys efforts to abolish slavery

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The Crusade for Abolition

• VOICES OF THE AMERICAN ANIT-SLAVERY SOCIETY
  (300-301)
• Frederick Douglass a fugitive slave from
  Maryland
• He became the most prominent escaped slave to
  speak out publicly against slavery.
• Douglass used his considerable skills as a writer
  to fight slavery. His auto-biography, Narrative
  of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), became
  a classic critique of the institution of slavery.
• Douglass published and anti-slavery newspaper,
  the North Star
• Douglasss wife, Anna Murray Douglass, also
  actively supported the abolitionist cause.
• The Douglasss used their home in Rochester, New
  York, as a depot for the Underground Railroad,
  she helped runaway slaves flee to Canada and
  freedom

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The Crusade for Abolition

• VOICES OF THE AMERICAN ANIT-SLAVERY SOCIETY
  (300-301)
• The Grimke Sisters
• Angelina and Sarah Grimke were two of the most
  effective antislavery activists they were from
  South Carolina
• After becoming Quakers, they decided they could
  no longer live in a society that endorsed slavery
• In her 1836 pamphlet, Appeal to the Christian
  Women of the South, Angelina Grimke, tried to
  convince other southern women to join her cause
• As a result of this essays popularity, the
  Grimkes were among the first women to speak on
  behalf of the American Antislavery Society

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The Crusade for Abolition

• PROBLEMS FOR ABOLITIONISTS (301-302)
• VIOLENT RESISTENCE
• As the antislavery movement gained strength in
  the 1830s, violence against abolitionists
  increased.
• An angry mob attacked and nearly killed William
  Lloyd Garrison in Boston in 1835
• Elijah Lovejoy, an abolitionist editor in Alton,
  Illinois, was murdered in 1837 as he tried to
  prevent a mob from destroying his printing press
• NORTHERN opposition to abolition arose from fear
  and prejudice against African Americans. Many
  Northern wage earners feared competing with free
  African Americans for jobs.
• In addition, northern merchants and mill owners
  were afraid that abolition would disrupt cotton
  production

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The Crusade for Abolition

• PROBLEMS FOR ABOLITIONISTS (301-302)
• The Movement Splinters (301-302)
• Abolitionists also faced divisions within their
  movement
• William Lloyd Garrison, who frequently attacked
  churches and the government for accepting
  slavery, drew some criticism as his condemnations
  became more fierce
• Garrisons stubborn refusal to use less-offensive
  tactics angered moderate abolitionists, who
  supported slower change through the ballot box

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THE END