Unit Twelve: “A House Divided”

1. Unit Twelve: “A House Divided” Abolition Movement

2. Effects of Mexican American War • The Mexican American War not only led to the union of the nation from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean, but also to its eventual split along Northern and Southern lines. • The Mexican American War opened more territory for American settlement which worried people in the North called Abolitionists who feared that this would led to the spread of slavery into more states, thus giving southern states more representation in the Senate and House. • The want to end slavery was a major issue debated through most of early American history through the growth of the Abolitionist Movement and ultimately answered among other issues by the Civil War.

3. The Abolition Movement • The Abolition Movement (end of slavery) began in the northern colonies due to religious and moral conflicts with the idea of owning another person. • The Mennonites and Quakers were the first to call for an end of slavery in their townships and villages. • The first Abolitionist society was the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage in Pennsylvania. (Benjamin Franklin was its first president)

4. The Abolition Movement • The Founding Fathers debated the issue of slavery with some wanting abolition, some thought that it needed to end but slowly over time, and others did not want it to end. • The first copy of the Declaration of Independence included the idea of liberty for all men, but was taken out as a political move. (Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, but did not agree with it, complicated) • At the Constitutional Convention the issue ending slavery was tabled, but they agreed to stop importation of slaves in twenty years.

5. The Abolition Movement • Most of the decisions by the Founding Fathers were political and economic decisions rather than moral, due to the need to unite the states into a nation and make it economically stable. • The first major article/pamphlet advocating abolition through emancipation (immediate freedom) was Thomas Paine’s “African Slavery in America”. • The A.O.C also had set a precedent by disallowing slavery in the Northwest Ordinance, but left the option if it became a state.

6. The Abolition Movement • Another major influence on the Founding Fathers and early Abolitionists were the Enlightenment thinkers condemnation of slavery through natural rights and property rights. (A man owns himself, no one else) • After the American Revolution into the 1800s the nation started to divide across the Mason Dixon line with the Northern states either through laws or court rulings ending slavery and Sothern States further expanding the institution. • At the turn of the 1800s many different factors led to the furthering of Abolition or slavery; the invention of the cotton gin, Second Great Awakening, Industrial Revolution, and Expansionism.

7. How to End Slavery • During the early abolitionist movement three different ways developed to end slavery in America: Gradualism, Emancipation, and Resettlement. • The idea of Gradualism (to slowly end slavery over time) developed from the idea that to keep slave owners from losing money and economic turmoil, slavery had to slowly be phased out or die out naturally. • Most people agreed with the gradualist principle because it allowed for flexibility.

8. How to End Slavery • During the Revolutionary War some slaves who fought were given manumission (released from slavery) by the Confederation Congress or their owners. • Also during the entirety of slavery some owners manumitted there slaves usually upon death through their wills. • The idea of full Emancipation (immediate freedom) though was first pushed by David Walker in his pamphlet the Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829) which called for the end of slavery by any means necessary.

9. How to End Slavery • During the early 1800s Emancipation Societies developed in the North and South to discuss how best to end slavery. (most thought that slaves should be purchased by citizens or the Federal government and then set free) • The last way to end slavery was through the Resettlement system, where purchased slaves or free blacks were sent to Canada, South America, or mostly Africa.

10. How to End Slavery • Paul Cuffee a mixed race black man used his wealth as a shipper to take freedmen to Sierra Leone, starting the resettlement movement. • The African Colonization Society (1816) was founded by Henry Clay, John Randolph, and Richard Lee which purchased a small strip of land on the West Coast of Africa named Liberia, with the capital called Monrovia to resettle free black families in Africa. (only roughly 2,500 black people agreed to resettle in Africa)

11. Turn to Radical Abolitionism • The first antislavery newspaper in America was founded by Benjamin Lundy called The Genius of Universal Emancipation in 1821. (His influence was a major pressure in the growth of the Abolition Movement) • Lundy’s assistant William Lloyd Garrison was much more vocal and aggressive about the abolition movement leading the growth of Radical Abolitionism. • Garrison founded his own newspaper The Liberator (1831) and also founded a national Abolitionist organization called the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. (Garrison was so influential in the movement that the state of Georgia offered a 5,000 reward for his arrest)

12. Turn to Radical Abolitionism • The Abolitionist Movement was also headed by many influential freedmen like Frederick Douglass who wrote an autobiography of this life called the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, established his own newspaper called the North Star, and was an influential lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society. • Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm founded the Freedom’s Journalwhich was the first owned and operated black newspaper in America. (1829)

13. Division of the Abolition Movement The Abolition Movement was divided over three main issues: women’s involvement, race, and tactics. Abolitionism and the Women’s Rights movement had from the beginning worked very close together, but as it became more of a political issue and debate rather than a moral issue women were excluded from the movement. Many key women were very important to the early abolitionist movement from all regions of the nation and from both races as writers, speakers, and advocates for slave rights.

14. Division of the Abolition Movement Angelina Grimke and Sarah Grimke advocated abolitionism in the south, which Angelina questioned the morality of it with her book Appeal to Christian Women of the South (1836). Angelina with her husband Theodore Dwight Weld who wroteAmerican Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses(1839) which was a collection of stories of former slaves against slavery. Maria Weston Chapman was a leader in Northern Anti-Slavery societies, the non-Resistance Societies promoting the idea of complete racial equality, and editor of the Liberty Bell newspaper.

15. Division of the Abolition Movement Lucretia Mott was a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society and also advocated a complete boycott of southern goods made or produced by slave labor. Lydia Maria Child in 1833 wrote An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans which called for immediate emancipation without compensation to slave owners. (she also advocated Indian rights too) The major female former slave speaker was Isabella Baumfree “Sojourner Truth” who traveled around the North giving speeches against slavery. (the most convincing part of her story was the whip scares on her body)

16. To Grandmother’s House We Go • Over the river, and through the wood, • To see little John and Ann. • We will kiss them all, and play snow-ball, • And stay as long as we can. • Over the river, and through the wood • Trot fast, my dapple-gray! • Spring over the ground like a hunting-hound, • For this is Thanksgiving Day. • Over the river, and through the wood— • And straight through the barnyard gate, • We seem to go extremely slow, • It is so hard to wait! • Over the river, and through the wood, • Old Jowler hears our bells. • He shakes his pow, with a loud bow-wow, • And thus the news he tells. • Over the river, and through the wood, • When Grandmother sees us come, • She will say, "Oh, dear, the children are here, • Bring a pie for everyone." • Over the river, and through the wood— • Now Grandmother's cap I spy! • Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done? • Hurrah for the pumpkin pie! Over the river, and through the wood, To Grandfather's house we go; The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh through the white and drifted snow. Over the river, and through the wood, To Grandfather's house away! We would not stop for doll or top, For this is Thanksgiving Day. Over the river, and through the wood— Oh, how the wind does blow! It stings the toes and bites the nose As over the ground we go. Over the river, and through the wood, With a clear blue winter sky, The dogs do bark, and children hark, As we go jingling by. Over the river, and through the wood, To have a first-rate play. Hear the bells ring, "Ting-a-ling-ding", Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day! Over the river, and through the wood, No matter for winds that blow, Or if we get the sleigh upset Into a bank of snow