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No Compromise with Sin: The Radicalization of American Anti-Slavery

In what ways did the early nineteenth –century reform movements for abolition and women’s rights illustrate both the strengths and weaknesses of democracy in the early American republic?

Mia_John
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No Compromise with Sin: The Radicalization of American Anti-Slavery

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  1. In what ways did the early nineteenth –century reform movements for abolition and women’s rights illustrate both the strengths and weaknesses of democracy in the early American republic? • In the period 1815 to 1860, improvements in transportation and increased inter-regional trade should have united Americans, but instead produced sectional division and finally disunion. Discuss with reference to the impact of improved transportation and increased inter-regional trade on the Northeast (New England and Middle Atlantic states), the South, and the West. • Discuss the impact of territorial expansion on national unity between 1800 and 1850 • Analyze the ways in which supporters of slavery in the nineteenth century used legal, religious, and economic arguments to defend the institution of slavery. • Assess the moral arguments and political actions of those opposed to the spread of slavery in the context of TWO of the following: Missouri Compromise Mexican War • Compromise of 1850 Kansas – Nebraska Act

  2. No Compromise with Sin: The Radicalization of American Anti-Slavery

  3. I. Brief History American Anti-Slavery • No prob. majority history • 18th: 1) Enlightenment (although also legitimated) • 2) 1st GA (equality before God) • Benjamin Lay vs. Anthony Benezet • 3) American Revolution • By 1810: Dying out N • Gradual abolition, PA: 1780 - 1847 • 1810-1830:  Colonization • South: examples • North: “democracy”

  4. II. William Lloyd Garrison • 1805: Newbury, MA • Come-outer Baptist mother; father alcoholic • Printer’s apprentice journalist • 1820s: Demon Rum • 1828: Ben Lundy (“The Genius of Universal Emancipation”) colonization • Millennialism purer Ch’y • John Noyes (founder Oneida commune): perfectionism sinfulness = slavery “universal emancipation”: • Christian anarchism

  5. III. Radical Abolition: A House on Fire A. Immediatism • 1 Jan. 1831: Liberator :“I am in earnest…I will not retreat an inch—and I will be heard.” • Slavery: • 1) Sin: lie of racial inequality • 2) Crime: anti-AR • Strategy of conversion + revivalism • No compromise w/sin • Doc B and E

  6. 1833 Am Anti-Slavery Society propaganda violence + political suppression • Gag rule (1836) • 1834-8: mob violence: 1835 WLG symbolically, 1837 Lovejoy actually • Change in tactics split gradualists + immediatists

  7. B. Abolitionism and Women’s Rights • 1) Non-resistance: no compromise w/sin • 2) Women’s rights: auxiliary groups violation Victorian ideals: racial equality fears of miscegenation, political activity • Women lecturers: “promiscuous audiences” • Catalyst: Angelina + Sarah Grimké lecture tour • Division w/in movement: 1) conservatives vs. Garrisonians over women’s rights • Even more: 2) 1840s: non-resistance calls for northern secession

  8. IV. Proslavery Argument • Rage over Garrison positive good • 1) Aristotle: “mudsill” • 2) Bible: Old and New Testament (“curse of Ham”) • 3) King Cotton: economic determinism • 4) Science of racism (multiple creations?) • 5) Fiction writers: moonlight + magnolias • 6) George Fitzhugh

  9. V. Fitzhugh and the Attack on Free Society • Sociology for the South, or The Failure of Free Society (1854); Cannibals All!, or Slaves Without Masters (1857) • Slavery = servile labor of any form • Chattel slavery kinder than wage: 1st modern welfare state • Slavery survive only if capitalist world market destroyed: southern values could not survive competition + bourgeois individualism • Writing at same time as Marx in Europe, unclear if F read M

  10. Free labor class conflict + violence • Slavery solves: master class combines interest w/sentiment security for masses (paternalism) • Whole world must be all slave or all free • Compare Lincoln “House Divided” speech • Fitzhugh took argument farthest, but basic ideas common in South

  11. VI. Conclusion • Heated anti- or pro-slavery sentiment was a minority position before 1850s • Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Bleeding Kansas, John Brown would change that on both sides

  12. The Political Crisis

  13. Analyze the social, political, and economic forces of the 1840s and early 1850s that led to the emergence of the Republican Party. (09) Analyze the ways in which controversy over the extension of slavery into western territories contributed to the coming of the Civil War. Confine your answer to the period 1845–1861. (10)

  14. I. American West as American Future • Westward expansion slavery national issue • White southerners: exclusion block future • White northerners: expansion death of “equality”: even free blacks threaten whites • 1840s-1861: 4 basic arguments • 1) Total exclusion • 2) Extend Missouri • 3) Pop. sov’ty. • 4) Total expansion

  15. II. Mexican War and Wilmot Proviso • 1845 annexation Texas + 1848 Mexican-American War: opens territory south of 36’30” • Slave imperialism? “spot resolutions”: 22 Dec 1847, A. Lincoln, (Whig Rep., IL) “Spotty Lincoln” • Emerson: swallowing arsenic • David Wilmot (D., PA): no slavery ever in territories echoes NWO • No “morbid sympathy” equity free white labor • House passes 50 times, split Senate rejects

  16. III. Compromise 1850 • CA Gold Rush 80,000 w/in a year: mostly North, some free blacks + slaves hostility w/in CA • CA Const no provision slavery: want no blacks • CA request admit: Senate split + NM almost ready (free) throw it 17 to 15 hints of secession • Henry Clay (master of Missouri Comp): 1) CA free, 2) NM + UT pop. sov., 3) new fugitive slave law, 4) end slave trade D.C.

  17. Pres. Z. Taylor promised to veto Taylor dies July 4 binge (cherries + milk + heart) • Millard Fillmore favors Clay • Stephen Douglas (IL)(“Little Giant”): revives compromise urban West connected E by massive RxR (through Chicago): requires Union • SD breaks Compromise into parts passes

  18. IV. Fugitive Slave Act and Uncle Tom’s Cabin • Mostly symbolic support: only few thousand/yr, few whites afford chase • N blacks outraged: threat of false “return” associations to resist • HBS Uncle Tom’s Cabin: vision of Christ-like black beaten “God wrote it” • Focused impact w+b families; fugitive slave act implicated all Americans in slavery: required to aid chasers

  19. Appeal of UTC: slavery breaks families; Ch’n martyrdom Tom; sexual abuse slave women; educational neglect children • Sensation: 3 million copies sold by CW • Gave slavery a face in North converts thousands to antislavery (had been violently opposed) • South: damnable lie Eliza fleeing Simon Legree across the frozen Ohio River to freedom

  20. V. Bleeding Kansas and Dred Scott A. Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) • Douglas: organize territory W of Chicago (competition St. Louis) • Republican Party forms to oppose • Kick out Indians, organize gov’t pop. sov’ty • Breaks Missouri Compromise S+N begin organizing (Border Ruffians vs. Emigrant Aid Company, “Beecher’s Bibles”) • N outnumbers S illegally cross border (Missouri) 60% votes illegal

  21. Rehearsal for War • Proslavery gov’t: kick out antislavery element, crime to speak free soil arg., aiding escaped slave capital offense • Free soil gov’t: outlaws slavery, bans entrance free blacks • Attack on Free Soilers in Lawrence  John Brown’s “Northern Army”: “without bloodshed there is no remission of sin” guerilla warfare

  22. B. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) • Taney Court invalidates Missouri Compromise (Congress cannot ban slavery anywhere in nation) and possibly pop. sov’ty • Lecompton Constitution (1857): proslavery, rejected by 10,000 votes Pres. Buchannan (D) tries to push through Congress blatant Slave Power • Douglas: Freeport Doctrine (1858): territories could still ban alienates southern Democrats slavery would only be protected in separate nation

  23. VI. John Brown at Harper’s Ferry • Brown: directly appointed by God to end slavery • Trigger: Brooks beats Sumner Southerners only understand “masculine” violence • Plan: slave insurrection mountains VA free state staging ground • $4,000 to found Provisional Army of US: 20 men • Oct. 16, 1859: attacks US arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, VA for guns • Col. Robert E. Lee crush and take to jail

  24. Brown’s letter to Gov.: refusing to concede, warns slavery question would be resolved published in papers terrifies rush through trial • Dec. 2, 1859: hanged in presence 1500 nervous VA soldiers • South convinced real armies of terrorists waiting at border (“Brown’s invasion”) • VA paper labels Brown raid most terrible act disunifying nation • Despite Brown’s prophecy, war not fought to abolish slavery (at least not at start)

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