The Abolitionist Movement

1. The Abolitionist Movement Section 4

2. Early Opposition to Slavery • By 1830s Americans began to call for an immediate end to slavery in the South • Pitted the North against the South

3. Gradualism • Many Americans opposed slavery from very early days of the Republic • Many were confused on how a nation based on principles of liberty and equality would survive if it continued enslaving human beings • Quakers and Baptists called slavery a sin • Gradualism- belief that slavery had to be ended gradually

4. Cont. • Gradualism would first stop new slaves from being brought into U.S. • Then it would phase out slavery in the North and Upper South • Finally ending slavery all together in the South • Slaveholders would be compensated for their loss • Gradualism would give the South’s economy time to adjust to the loss of labor

5. Colonization • Antislavery societies didn’t feel that ending slavery would end racism • Their solution was to send African Americans back to their ancestral homelands in Africa • American Colonization Society (ACS)- formed to move African Americans to Africa • Had support from many, including • James Madison • James Monroe • Henry Clay • Daniel Webster • John Marshall

6. Cont. • 1821 ACS acquired land in West Africa • Next year they began boarding ships with free African Americans and sending them to Africa • They established a colony which became Liberia • Capital was named Monrovia, after President Monroe • Declared its independence in 1847 and adopted a Constitution designed after U.S. Constitution

7. West Africa

8. Liberia

9. Cont. • Cost of transportation was high • ACS had to depend on donation • Moving 1.5 African Americans was nearly impossible • Most considered the U.S. their home and weren’t ready to migrate to another country/continent • Estimated 12,000 were moved between 1821-1860

10. The New Abolitionists • Read this short section • Abolition

11. Garrison Stirs a new Movement • Abolitionism gained support for several reasons • Drew most strength from Second Great Awakening • Focused on sin and repentance • Abolitionists believed slavery was a huge evil that the country needed to repent from

12. Cont. • David Walker, published Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, was first well-known advocate of abolition • Free African American from North Carolina • Believed that violence and rebellion was only way to end slavery, stated in pamphlet

13. Walker Garrison

14. Cont. • William Lloyd Garrison and a fellow abolitionist, Isaac Knapp, founded the Liberator • Boston’s antislavery newspaper • Called for an immediate end to slavery • Read quote on page 286 • Slavery was immoral and slaveholders were evil • Emancipation- freeing of all enslaved people

15. Other Abolitionists at Work • Read this section

16. African American Abolitionists • Like one would think, free African Americans took part in abolitionists movement • African Americans in the North endured much prejudice but they were free • Many African Americans joined with Garrison and his newspaper to help spread and sell the paper • Frederick Douglass was one of the most prominent African American figures in the movement

17. Cont. • Douglass had escaped slavery in Maryland • Douglass published his own antislavery newspaper, North Star, and wrote an autobiography

18. The Response to Abolitionism • Read this section

19. Reaction in the North • Southerners defend the institution of slavery • Key to region’s economy • Many Northerners disapproved of slavery, but even more with extreme abolitionism • Some even warned it would produce a war • Others said it would lead to an extreme influx of freed African Americans to the North • Overwhelming labor and housing markets • North didn’t want to see the South’s economy crumble • Northern banks might lose money that Southerners owed them in loans as well as cotton which fed Northern textile mills

20. Reaction in the South • To Southerners slavery was vital to the Southern way of life • South mainly agricultural unlike cities in the North • Thomas Dew claimed most slaves didn’t want freedom • Southerners believed papers like the Liberator sparked rebellions

21. Cont. • Nat Turner- an enslaved preacher, led an uprising killed over 50 Virginians • Southern postal workers refused to deliver abolitionist papers • Very few people believed slavery should come to an immediate end • Garrison and thousands of men and women struggled to keep the movement alive • Became a constant and powerful reminder of how much slavery was dividing the nation