1. The Abolitionists 4-6.2

2. An abolitionist is a person who wants to end slavery

3. The contributions of the abolitionists were one of many reasons the South seceeded from the Union.

4. The abolitionists never really had any effect on the government of the USA (despite all of their protests)

5. Abolitionists were especially hated by slave owners but were also VERY unpopular by most northerners, too!

6. There were VERY few abolitionists in the North ~ abolitionists WERE EXTREMELY unpopular there as well!

7. Eventually the work of the abolitionist helped to anger the Southern states enough to want to secede from the Union to start a Civil War in the USA!

8. The end of the Civil War eventually led to the abolishment of slavery in the USA

9. The following six people were important abolitionists you need to know:

10. William Lloyd Garrison-published a newspaper, The Liberator, to tell everyone slavery was wrong and should immediately be abolished. The paper was banned in the South

11. Garrison also formed a group with others known as the American Anti- Slavery Society that published books and papers speaking out against slavery. Many Northerners were against his views and harassed him everywhere he went

12. Sojourner Truth-1 st African-American speaker to gain fame as an anti-slavery speaker. She was born a slave in New York but was emancipated. She was a powerful and popular speaker. President Abraham Lincoln appointed her to help free slaves during the Civil War

13. Frederick Douglas- was a slave who taught himself to read and write. He escaped from his owners and became a popular abolitionist speaker

14. Douglas published an anti-slavery newspaper, The North Star, and wrote an autobiography telling about his life as a slave.

15. Douglas used his own home as a station on the Underground Railroad

16. When Douglas wrote his autobiography telling the conditions of slavery he had to flee from the country to England because of the fugitive slave law once his autobiography was published and his identity and whereabouts revealed.

17. Sympathetic readers “bought” his freedom so he could return to the United States without being caught and returned by slave catchers.

18. Douglas worked very closely with President Lincoln during the Civil War to emancipate slaves and recruit African Americans in the North to fight for the Union Army

19. After the Civil War ended Douglas continued to fight for the rights of African Americans and women

20. Harriet Tubman- was a runaway slave who became on the most successful “ conductors ” of the Underground Railroad.

21. Tubman is known as the Moses of her people because she led over 300 slaves out of the south (including South Carolina!!!) to their freedom!

22. Tubman also served as a spy for the Union Army during the Civil War.

23. **The Underground Railroad was NOT a real railroad and it was not under the ground.

24. It was a chain of homes, caves, farms and other hiding places where escaped slaves could ask for help, find shelter for a night or until it was safe to move and to the next stop.

25. These safe houses ran from many border states along the Mason Dixon Line all the way to Canada.

26. True freedom was found only in Canada because the fugitive slave Law required the return of slaves (as property) from anywhere in the United States.

27. Harriet Beecher Stowe-author of Uncle Tom ’ s Cabin. The book told the story of the cruel treatment of slaves in the South.

28. Stowe wrote the book after learning of the more strict Fugitive Slave Laws added to Compromise of 1850.

29. Stowe often disagreed with President Lincoln because he was interested in preserving the Union instead of freeing slaves

30. The book was banned because of its unflattering portrayal of the South. Many Northerners were moved toward the abolitionist cause but unfairly judged Southerners by the book’s stereotypes.

31. John Brown-migrated to Kansas after the Kansas-Nebraska Act declared that the territory would decided through popular sovereignty if it would be free or slave.

32. Brown and his sons were part of the violence that gave the territory the name “ Bleeding Kansas ”

33. Brown led a raid on a US arsenal at Harper ’ s Ferry in Virginia hoping to capture guns and lead a slave revolt that would spread across the country.

34. The raid was unsuccessful and he was captured with his troops by Robert E. Lee (who at that time was a General for the US Army)

35. Brown was tried, found guilty of treason and hanged. SOME northerner abolitionists thought he was a martyr— most people thought he was a murderer.

36. He succeeded in scaring many south slave owners and caused a bigger divide between the North and South

37. Brown became a source of great fear to Southerners, who mistook the actions of some Northern abolitionists as the opinion of all Northerners.

38. Some Southerners believed that all Northerners were of the same stereotypical, radial, abolitionist mindset (committing murder and revolt to end slavery) as Brown.