1. The Crusade Against Slavery
Objectives:
Identify the motives and methods of the abolition movement
Identify key abolitionists
Understand the arguments against abolition in the North and in the South
Do Now:
Pg. 334 “Abolition of Slavery”
Homework:
Unit 4 Essay due tomorrow

2. Early Opposition to Slavery
Early 19th century opposition by genteel lot.
1817 American Colonization Society- Virginians who wanted manumission & transportation out of country but also maintain property rights by compensating slaveholder— 1830 Liberia
Failed b/c not enough private + state funding, too many slaves to be possible, opposition from 3rd/4th generation Africans far removed from society + lands
By 1830 movement losing strength- colonization not viable, cotton boom in Deep South + planter commitment to “peculiar institution” led to dead end

3. Garrison and Abolitionism
William Lloyd Garrison employed by antislavery newspaper (Genius of Universal Emancipation)
impatient w/ moderate tone + reform proposals
1831 founded his own Liberator,
should look from black perspective,
shouldn’t talk in terms of damage to white society.
Reject “gradualism”,
extend African Americans full rights of American citizens
Gained Northern following,
1832 founded New England Antislavery Society
1833 American Antislavery Society
membership grew rapidly
Growth because like other reform movements committed to unleashing individual human spirit
eliminate artificial social barriers

5. Black Abolitionists
Abolitionism appealed to Northern free blacks who were poor
had little access to education
suffered mob violence
only menial occupations
Realized own position in society tied to existence of slavery
David Walker came to be a leader w/ violent rhetoric
Most blacks less violent speech- Sojourner Truth became antislavery spokesman
Greatest abolitionist Frederick Douglass
escaped slavery
lectured in NE
His newspaper North Star
autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)
Demanded freedom, but also social + economic equality

6. Anti-Abolitionism
White southerners opposed abolition, but also many in the North
Seen as threat to social system, feared war between sections & influx of blacks to North
Escalating violence against abolitionists
1830s- abolitionist headquarters “Temple of Liberty” in Philadelphia burned by mob, Garrison seized
Yet movement grew despite,
suggesting members strong-willed + passionate, great courage and moral strength
Majority sentiment ambivalent to slavery

7. Abolitionism Divided
By 1830s abolitionists faced serious internal strains + divisions.
Prompted because anti-abolitionist violence made some favor moderation,
Radicalism of William Garrison and his attacks on slavery, opposition to slavery, call for full equality for women, extreme pacifism, call for northern disunion from South.
Moderates called for “moral suasion” of slaveholders, later political action

8. Abolitionism Divided
1839 Amistad- slaves seized ship tried to return to Africa. US navy captured ship.
Supreme Court 1841 declared the Africans free
1842 Prigg v. Pennsylvania ruled states need not enforce 1793 law requiring return of fugitive slaves, “personal liberty laws”
northern states forbade officials to assist in capture + return of runaways
Nat’t govt pressured to abolish slavery in areas of federal govt jurisdiction, prohibit interstate slave trade.
No political party ever founded, but “free-soil” movement to keep slave out of territories became popular

9. Abolitionism Divided Some abolitionists violent
American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of A Thousand Witnesses (1839) distorted images of slavery
Most powerful abolitionist propaganda Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851)
combined sentimental novel w/ political ideas of abolitionist.
Story of good, kindly blacks victimized by cruel system movement. Brought message to new audience, but also inflamed sectional tensions to new level