THE ABOLITIONISM: ANTE- BELLUM AMERICA

Introduction  Quakers stood almost alone in professing that slaveholding was incompatible with Christian piety.  The Age of Enlightenment and the American Revolution, however, led more Americans to link the slaves right to freedom with the colonists demand for independence.  Anti-slavery restrictions  Slavery banned in North by 1800  Prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory in 1787  Banned the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1808

Influence from the Second Great Awakening Impact of the Awakening  Produced slave conversions  Revivalists’ acceptance of the moral worth of individual regardless race  Slavery a ”moral sin”  Women entered into politics  The abolitionist atmosphere increased

William Lloyd Garrison  The more militant abolitionism of the 1830s  Discovered that slaveholders supported the American Colonization Society  Published The Liberator – Abolitionism was born  Insisted that slavery end at once  Established a national organization, the American Anti-Slavery Society with Lewis Tappan “I am in earnest- I will not equivocate- I will not excuse- I will not retreat a single inch- and I will be heard,” – from the first issue of the Liberator-

Gradualists vs Immediatists Name Immediatists (Radicals) Gradualists (Moderates) SimilarityBelieved that slavery was a sin PeopleMostly young evangelicals active in benevolent societies such as Garrison, Tappan Bros, Wendell Phillips, Theodore Weld. Older benevolent workers and reformers such as Frederick Douglass

Beliefs & Actions  Personal contact with free backs and sympathetic to black rights Left the ranks of the American Colonization Society to attack it as sinful  Organized the American Anti- Slavery Society in 1833  Believed that the intensity of the immediatist approach was un- Christian  Believed that slavery had to be repealed slowly  Slaves owners should be compensated for ending slavery

Frederick Douglass  Free African American who escaped from slavery in Maryland  A major leader of the abolitionism movement  Subscribed to Garrison’s journal The Liberator  Broke with Garrison, due to political differences; he started his own newspaper, “North Star”  Fought for women’s rights before Civil War

The Spread of Abolitionism  Printed word  William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper- The Liberator  Photographs  Pamphlets  Emotional, passionate testimonies  of ex-slaves  They gave firsthand accounts on the brutality of slavery and told their stories of escape.  Some speakers also advocated women’s rights (i.e. Sojourner Truth, the Grimké Sisters)

The Spread of Abolitionism  Organizations  The New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832, formed by Garrison  The American Anti-Slavery Society, also formed by Garrison but with the help Lewis Tappan and Theodore Weld  In the years before the Civil War, some 200,000 northerners belonged to an abolitionist society  The Underground Railroad  A network of anti-slavery sympathizers developed in the North to aid runaway slaves.  One of its most famous conductors was Harriet Tubman who escorted more than 200 slaves to freedom.

The Growth of Abolitionism  The Women’s Right’s Movement  This movement went hand in hand with the anti-slavery movement; their ideas and personnel were very linked dramatically.  An important component was Sojourner Truth, an escaped slave woman, who brought to mind the similarities between the two movements. Sojourner Truth

Success of the Movement  The most important result of the abolition movement was that it made the issue over slavery a political issue, versus merely a social issue  It became the center-point of the Lincoln-Douglass debate  The choice between pro- or anti-slavery was inescapable  Abolitionism was the match that lit the fire