Ranking Abolitionists Assignment

1. Ranking Abolitionists Assignment • Step 1: Explain in great detail the individuals’ contribution to the abolition movement • Step 2: Rank the abolitionists from most important/effective (1) to the least important/effective (8). • Step 3: Write an explanation on why you ranked them that way. Your rankings (opinion) can’t be wrong but your explanation can be wrong if you don’t discuss their specific contributions and instead speak in broad generalizations. Examples of what NOT to do: “Harriet Tubman was the best because she loved slaves more.” “William Lloyd Garrison was better than Harriet Beecher Stowe because he wanted freedom more.”

2. Abolition Defined • Abolition- the putting to an end of something by law. In this sense it means the abolition (doing away with) the institution of slavery in America. • Abolition did not necessarily mean promoting equality for African Americans in terms of equal civil rights Non-violent Abolition Movement Violent Abolition Movement VS

3. Sectionalism • Where you support your section of the country over national interests • North= factories, South=Agriculture • Sectional tension led to the Civil War, specifically tension over the issue of slavery and states’ rights.

4. Early Efforts to End Slavery • 1775- Quakers in Pennsylvania organized the first anti-slavery society in U.S. • 1787- Slavery was prohibited in the Northwest Territory • 1807- Importation of slaves was prohibited, according to provision from Constitutional Convention. • Throughout the 1800s, slavery is banned in all Northern States.

5. Sojourner Truth • She was born a slave name Isabella Baumfreewho was freed in 1827 when New York abolished slavery. • She changed her name to reflect a new mission: traveling about telling the truth about slavery and women. • While illiterate, she wrote her autobiography through dictation and became a powerful orator in the abolitionist and feminist movements.

6. Fredrick Douglas • Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave from Maryland who became an abolitionist and the most important black leader of the 19th century. • Douglass was a powerful speaker and writer • He published an antislavery newspaper in Rochester, New York called The North Star • Was a major supporter of women’s rights, delegate at the Seneca Falls Convention, and saved the resolution regarding women's suffrage • He became an advisor to Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

7. William Lloyd Garrison • The first main abolitionist was William Lloyd Garrison who started an abolitionist newspaper in Boston in 1831 called The Liberator. The Liberator demanded the immediate end to slavery. • Garrison also started the New England Antislavery Society in 1832 and the American Antislavery Society in 1833. • Garrison’s abolition societies quickly expanded throughout the North, numbering 2,000 chapters by 1840. • The government of Georgia even put out a reward of $5,000 for his arrest

8. Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad • The Underground Railroad was a secret network of routes leading fugitive slaves to freedom through Northern States and the into British Canada (where slavery was illegal) • Abolitionist who helped the slaves were called conductors and they risked prison and death to free the enslaved. • Most of the routes extended only to border states and not to the deep south. • Harriet Tubman called “Black Moses”, was the most famous “conductor” of the railroad. • Tubman experienced the firsthand savagery of slavery where she suffered beatings, lashings, and was afflicted for life with sever headaches, seizures, narcoleptic episodes, and intense dream sequences from a head injury inflicted by her slave master. • Tubman was an escaped slave from Maryland who made 19 trips into the south to lead over 300 slaves to freedom. • She also was a Union spy and scout during the Civil War where she was the first woman to lead an expedition of men against enemy forces.

9. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin • In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, a Northern abolitionist, published Uncle Tom’s Cabin. • It was a novel that dramatized the cruelties and evils of slavery, spoke to readers emotionally, and created widespread antislavery support among northerners. • It was the most influential piece of propaganda for the abolitionist movement by selling over 300,000 copies the first year. • It persuaded many northerners to join the abolitionists and oppose the Fugitive Slave Act. • It was banned in the South and refuted as a book of lies and falsehoods to sway public opinion against the institution of slavery in America. • When President Lincoln met Harriett Beecher Stowe, he told her “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war”

10. The Grimke Sisters • Born in South Carolina, the Grimke sisters became Quakers and were against slavery. Their family owned slaves and they traveled around the country talking about firsthand account of the evils/cruelties of slavery. They later became Women’s Rights activists.

11. John Brown and Harper’s Ferry • John Brown was an abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the violent system of slavery in the United States. • In 1859 he led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. During the raid, he seized the armory; seven people were killed, and over ten more were injured. • He intended to arm slaves with weapons from the arsenal, but the attack failed. • Within 36 hours, Brown's men had fled or been killed or captured • Brown became a “hero” to some Northern abolitionists and a symbol of a real threat to the Southerners. • He was tried for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, the murder of five pro-slavery Southerners and inciting a slave insurrection. He was found guilty on all counts and was hanged. • John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry became one of the immediate causes of the civil war.

12. Nat Turner and Violent Abolitionism • In 1831 Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Virginia the same year that the Liberator was created. Southerners blamed abolitionists for the rebellion. • Turner led over 40 slaves in killing their white masters and their families. • This rebellion resulted in 60 white deaths, 100 black deaths including 56 state executions of blacks accused of being part of Turner's slave rebellion. Two hundred slaves were also beaten and killed by white militias and mobs reacting with violence to news of the rebellion.

13. Abolition Movement Victories • The Abolition movement ended with the passage of the 13th amendment which abolished slavery in the U.S. • The 14th amendment made all African-Americans citizens of the U.S. and allowed them due process of law and all the rights of citizens. • The 15th amendment guaranteed all black males the right to vote. 13th Amendment = Free 14th Amendment = Citizenship 15th Amendment = Vote

14. Northern Opinion of Abolition • Abolitionists thought that slavery need to end because it was: -immoral, wrong for one human to own another -contrary to Christianity and teachings of Jesus -slavery made America look bad on the world stage -bad for American business and foreign affairs • Opposition to abolition in the north was based on the beliefs that -antislavery movement was a threat to the nation’s social order -blacks would not be able to blend into American society -feared war between north and south over abolitionism -afraid that freed blacks would take the factory jobs in the north because they would work for less pay

15. Southern Opinion of Abolition • Opposition to abolition in the south was based on the beliefs that -slavery was essential to economic stability/progress -southerners treated their slaves better than the north treated their workers in the factories -blacks could not take care of themselves on their own and they were better off under the care of white people • Southerners also said they care for their slaves when they are sick, house them, and feed them. But the North puts their workers in dangerous positions and if they get sick they fire them and do not provide them with food, shelter, sick care, etc.

16. Women’s Rights and Abolition • Women became involved in the Abolition movement initially then formed their own movement to fight for their rights within society. • The abolition movement sparked the women’s rights movement by allowing women to make public speeches, enter the public arena, and reflect upon the injustices of American society in 19th century.