Social Studies Chapter 12 Lesson 2: The Struggle for Freedom

The Antislavery Movement People could not agree about the issue of slavery. Some felt that slavery was needed to grow cash crops such as cotton and tobacco. Other people felt it was wrong to enslave people Some slaves had to wear tags that told where they lived and what they did.

someone who joined the movement to abolish, or end, slavery. Many of these people became abolitionists. An abolitionist is Most abolitionists believed slavery went against the ideas of Christianity. Abolitionists included people in the North and South, whites and free blacks, men and women. Abolitionists wrote pamphlets and traveled across the country, speaking against slavery. The abolitionist movement grew quickly in the 1830’s and 1840’s. someone who joined the movement to abolish, or end, slavery.

Leading Abolitionists In 1831, William Lloyd Garrison began printing an antislavery newspaper called The Liberator. In this newspaper, he demanded that all enslaved people be free.

Leading Abolitionists Fredrick Douglas, an escaped slave, was a well-known abolitionist. He was a writer and often spoke to white audiences about slavery He once told one audience, “I can tell you what I have seen with my own eyes, felt on my own person, and know to have occurred in my own neighborhood”.

Leading Abolitionists Sojourner Truth was another abolitionists that had also been a slave. She spoke in favor of abolition and women’s rights Sisters, Sarah Grimké and Angelina Grimké were daughters of a slaveowner in South Carolina. As adults, the sisters moved north and spoke out against slavery.

Free Blacks the unfair treatment of particular groups of people. By1860, about 500,000 free blacks lived in the United States. About half lived in the North and half lived in the South. Free blacks in the South often faced discrimination. Discrimination is Examples of how state laws limited the rights of free blacks: They could not travel without permission They could not meet in groups without a white person present the unfair treatment of particular groups of people.

Free Blacks Although free blacks living in the North also faced some discrimination; They could travel freely Organize groups Publish newspapers These rights made it possible for free blacks in the North to work openly against slavery. Free blacks and whites worked together and created the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. They called for the immediate end of slavery. The newspaper, The Liberator, received most of its money from free blacks.

The Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a Some abolitionists worked in secret to help slaves escape to freedom using the Underground Railroad. Runaways, the people who fled slavery, could head for the North and Canada, or could go south to Florida or the Caribbean. Escaping took great courage; if the runaways where caught, they would be punished and returned to slavery. series of escape routes and hiding places to bring slaves out of the South.

Stations and Conductors Free blacks gave most of the money and did most of the work to support the Underground Railroad. Members of the Railroad gave food, clothing, and medical aid to the runaways. They hid them until it was safe to move on. Hiding places were known as ‘stations’. ‘Conductors’ were people who guided runaways on to the next station.

The most famous conductor was Harriet Tubman who escaped from slavery in Maryland. She returned 19 times to lead others to freedom. She helped about 300 people to freedom. She became a symbol of the abolitionist movement.