VOCABULARY

opponent of slavery: somebody who campaigned against slavery during the 18th and 19th centuries

Abolitionist

Early Abolitionist Movements

• Banned throughout North by 1800

• African Colonization Society (ACS)– Founded in 1817 in D.C. & Virginia– Goal was to relocate free blacks “home” to Africa– Set up a colony in Liberia

• Sent some 13,000 by 1867

– In general, more concerned with white welfare than black welfare

Moderate Abolitionist Goals

• End fugitive slave laws

• End internal slave trade and slavery in D.C.

• “Free Soil” Party (1848)– Born out of the Liberty Party (1840) and

formed to stop the spread of slavery– Often mostly concerned with preserving the

opportunities of poor whites– Develops into the Republican Party in 1854

Opposition to Abolitionism

• Necessary Evil– Would kill the economies of North AND South– Fear of millions of free blacks

• Positive Good– The “Benevolent Institution”– Slavery “civilized” blacks– Slaves better treated than free industrial workers

• Actually some calls to extend slavery to white workers

• Abolitionism might lead to a War• Widespread racism

– “natural” position for “inferior” blacks

Radical Abolitionist Goals

• David Walker, black man, published “Walker’s Appeal” in 1829

• Called for the end of slavery by all means necessary, openly called for violence against slave owners

– Garrison disagreed

• Found mysteriously dead in 1830

• Lane Rebels• Students of Lane College and Seminary, products of the 2nd

Great Awakening, who wrote and spoke against racism and inequality.– Weld & Tappan bros. (inspired H. B. Stowe)

William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879

• Most concerned with effect on blacks• Believed in inherent total and complete equality of all races• Immediate and total freeing of all slaves and full citizenship

• Would not compromise • Published The Liberator• American Anti-Slavery Society

• 250,000 members by 1832• His radicalism divided abolitionists

• Total pacifist• Saw any force as violent; “The Constitution is a pact with the Devil”• Total equality for women• Northern disunion from South

Frederick Douglass, 1818-1895

Frederick Douglass

• Born a slave; white father, black mother

• Self-taught to read and write

• Escaped in 1838 (age 20)

• Abolitionist speaker in US & England

• Wrote a very influential autobiography

• Insisted on complete social & economic equality, not just end of slavery

• Also an advocate for women’s equality

The Dispute over Slavery

• Social/Moral Issues

• Economic Issues

• Political Issues

The Social/Moral Issue of Slavery

• Some were abolitionists– But only a small minority

were active abolitionists– Most just wanted to stop

the spread

• Northerners often felt superior– But many made money

off of the slave trade and products of slavery

• Saw slaves as property, not citizens

• Argued that slavery was good for the slaves

• Fighting for the “Southern way of life”

• Fearful of blacks if they were freed

North South

The Economic Issue of Slavery

• More industrial• Labor provided by

growing immigrants• Slavery was not really

useful, so generally illegal– Though northern

factories depended upon southern cotton

• Cotton was “King”• Large plantations

needed enormous amounts of labor

• Southern economy dependent upon slave labor

North South

Political Issues of Slavery

• Tradition of a strong central government

• Worried about losing control of the Senate

• Tradition of “states rights”– Federal government

should be weak

• Worried about losing control of the Senate

North South

Women’s Movement

• Women had been a strong part of the Abolitionist Movement– Also in temperance, anti-poverty, and prison

reforms

• Disproportionately Quaker

• Rejected the “Separate Sphere”– Established belief that women had their special

roles—in the home, raising children, etc.

Seneca Falls (NY) Meeting, 1848

• 1st national conference on women’s rights• Attended by Elizabeth Cady Stanton,

Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Dorothea Dix, Angelina & Sarah Grimke, William Lloyd Garrison, & Frederick Douglass

• Debate as to whether or not calling for suffrage was too radical

• Final resolution demanded suffrage– “The Declaration of Rights & Sentiments…”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony

• Both active in Abolition Movement• Stanton wrote “The Declaration of Sentiments and “The Woman’s Bible”

• A revision of Biblical texts relating to women

• Neither lived to see the 19th Amendment

Excerpt from the Woman’s Bible

Genesis I:27-- So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

“Verse 27 declares the image of God male and female. How then is it possible to make woman an afterthought?…The above texts plainly show the simultaneous creation of man and woman, and their equal importance in the development of the race. All those theories based on the assumption that man was prior in the creation, have no foundation in Scripture.”