Lesson 14.4a : The Abolition Movement

Lesson 14.4a: The Abolition Movement Today we will identify major leaders of the abolition movement and their viewpoints.

Today’s Vocabulary • identify – point out or describe • major – big or important • abolition movement – organized effort to end slavery • viewpoint – how someone sees or thinks about something

Check for Understanding • What does it mean to identify? • What was the abolition movement? • What is a viewpoint?

Before the early 1830s, slavery was discussed calmly. Since slavery was banned in the North, most of the early abolitionists were southerners.

The first abolitionists were Quakers, who believed that all people had the same `spark of divinity,' making slavery immoral. Quakers were among the first to free their slaves. Some Quakers traveled the countryside urging slave-owners to free their slaves.

In the 1820s, Benjamin Lundy also urged southerners to free their slaves, and for the nation to help free blacks move to Haiti, Canada or Texas (which was still part of Mexico). Lundy tried to use persuasion on slave-owners rather than attacks and condemnation.

Get your whiteboards and markers ready!

How did Benjamin Lundy work to end slavery? • Published an antislavery newspaper • Introduced an Constitutional amendment to abolish slavery • Supported the colonization movement • Published a collection of newspaper articles detailing the horrors of slavery • Tried to persuade slave-owners to free their slaves voluntarily

What did the abolitionist efforts of Quakers and Benjamin Lundy have in common? • Both published antislavery newspapers. • Both helped runaway slaves escape to the North. • Both tried to persuade slave owners rather than use violence or insults. • Both spoke out publicly in speeches against slavery.

Benjamin Banneker was a free black born in Maryland. • A mathematician and astronomer, he published an almanac that rivaled Franklin's for accuracy. • John Adams cited Banneker's achievements as proof that intelligence is not a factor of skin color.

Later in life, Banneker surveyed the District of Colombia and contributed to the design of the capital city. He corresponded with Washington, Jefferson and others about the evils of slavery.

But because of the increasing profitability of cotton production, Banneker and the Quakers were not able to influence many slave-owners.

How did Benjamin Banneker work to end slavery? • Published an antislavery newspaper • Introduced an Constitutional amendment to abolish slavery • His accomplishments proved that blacks were not inferior to whites • Published a collection of newspaper articles detailing the horrors of slavery • Wrote Washington and Jefferson about the evils of slavery Write down the letter of everytrue response to this question!

In the 1820s, a large anti-slavery movement emerged, supported by southerners and represented by organizations such as the American Colonization Society.

While those who believed in colonization opposed slavery, they also believed that blacks and whites could not live together in harmony. Therefore, while they urged slave-owners to free their slaves, they also raised money to pay for the transportation of free blacks to West Africa.

President James Monroe, Chief Justice John Marshall and House Speaker Henry Clay were supporters of the colonization movement.

For a time, even Southern slave-owners who rejected abolition often supported colonization of free blacks.

By 1860, nearly 11,000 blacks had gone to Liberia in West Africa, and helped found and build that country. But most blacks refused colonization, insisting that the U. S. was their home.

How did those who supported colonization work against slavery? • Helped runaway slaves escape to freedom. • Tried to demonstrate how blacks and whites could live side by side • Tried to find highly intelligent African Americans to show that blacks were not inferior to whites • Raised money to send freed slaves back to Africa

William Lloyd Garrison was one of the mostuncompromising abolitionists of his day. • He said slave-owners were evil and should not receive reimburse-ment for slaves freed by legislation. • Abolition must be complete, immediate, and without compensation.

Garrison didn't care what other social or economic problems might be caused by immediate emancipation. • His words were so extreme and so harsh that he alienated many people who might otherwise have supported his cause.

In the South, Garrison was despised as one who encouraged slaves to revolt. Copies of his antislavery newspaper “The Liberator” were banned, and a $5,000 reward was offered to anyone who would capture Garrison and bring him to Georgia to stand trial.

“I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. . . I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – and I WILL BE HEARD!” -- William Lloyd Garrison

14. How did William Lloyd Garrison work to end slavery? • Published an antislavery newspaper • Introduced an Constitutional amendment to abolish slavery • Supported the colonization movement • Published a collection of newspaper articles detailing the horrors of slavery • Wrote Washington and Jefferson to urge their support for abolition

Elijah P. Lovejoy was a Presbyterian minister and editor of the Observer, and his editorials criticized slavery in very hostile words.

An angry mob broke into his printing office in 1837. • They dumped his printing press into the Mississippi River, burned his office, and murdered him.

How did Elijah P. Lovejoy work to end slavery? • Published an antislavery newspaper • Introduced an Constitutional amendment to abolish slavery • Supported the colonization movement • Published a collection of newspaper articles detailing the horrors of slavery • Tried to persuade slave-owners to free their slaves voluntarily

A moresuccessful abolitionist was Theodore Dwight Weld. He tried to build a large antislavery movement by appealing to the consciences of Midwestern farmers and church groups.

Weld published a collection of newspaper articles detailing the horrors of slavery under the title, “American Slavery As It Is.” Weld especially focused on southern accounts, in order to counter southern claims that slave abuse almost never occurred.

Weld’s wife Angelina Grimke and her sister Sarah were from a slaveholding family in South Carolina, but had been converted to abolition by Quakers. Sarah Grimke Angelina Grimke

Many conventional Americans were shocked by the idea of two women speaking out publicly on any subject.

How did the Grimke sisters work to end slavery? • Published an antislavery newspaper • Supported the ‘gag rule’ • Opposed the colonization movement • Published a collection of newspaper articles detailing the horrors of slavery • Made many public speeches against slavery

Former President John Quincy Adams fought the ‘gag rule’ and supported Weld’s work. • As a member of the House of Representatives, he read Weld’s antislavery petitions in Congress. • He introduced a consti-tutional amendment to ban slavery throughout the United States.

Adams also took part in the Amistad case. • African prisoners aboard the slave ship Amistad had rebelled, and seized the ship. • Adams successfully argued their case in the U.S. Supreme Court. • The Africans were granted their freedom and were allowed to return to Africa.

15. How did John Quincy Adams work against slavery in Congress? • Introduced the ‘gag rule’ • Introduced an amendment to abolish slavery • Defended the Amistad defendants • Published a collection of newspaper articles detailing the horrors of slavery • Read antislavery petitions in Congress Write down the letter of everytrue response to this question!

In the North, free blacks could become involved in the abolition movement. Some black abolitionists had once been slaves themselves, and could tell of slavery's horrors based on personal experience.

Henry Highland Garnett andFrederick Douglass were rivals for black abolitionist leadership, and they demonstrated the divisions within the movement.

Henry Highland Garnett was the more militant of the two, and as early as 1843 was calling for slaves to rise up against their owners and make themselves free.

Garnett believed that any violence done by slaves in the act of freeing themselves was justified on the grounds of self defense. His stated belief was that it was better to die free than live as slaves.

Frederick Douglass was the best orator, black or white, in the movement. He had escaped slavery as a youth, taught himself to read and write, and published his Autobiography in 1845.

Like William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglasspublished an antislavery newspaper, The North Star. • He disagreed with Garnett on the role of violence in abolition, but not on the degrad-ations of slavery.

He worked tirelessly with white politicians and social leaders throughout the 1840s and `50s, and beyond the Civil War. Until his death in 1895, Douglass spoke out on behalf of black equality, the rights of working people, and for the right of women to vote.

16. What were Frederick Douglass’ contributions to the abolitionist movement? • Published an autobiography about his life as a slave • Encouraged slaves to rise up violently against their masters • Made many public speeches against slavery • Sponsored an antislavery amendment in Congress • Published an antislavery newspaper Write down the letter of everytrue response to this question!

Lesson 14.4a : The Abolition Movement