Chapter 9 Let Your Motto Be Resistance, 1833-1850

1. Chapter 9 Let Your Motto Be Resistance, 1833-1850

2. I. A Rising Tide: Racism & Violence • Increased racism and violence, 1830-1860 • Met with growing abolitionist militancy • Manifest Destiny • Legitimized war for territorial expansion • Defined progress in racial terms • White people are a superior race • Nativism • Scientific justification • Continued enslavement of black people • Extermination of Indians

3. Anti-black and Anti-abolitionist Riots • Urban riots pre-dated abolition • Increased as abolitionism gained strength, 1830s-1840s • Philanthropist, 1836 and 1841 • Providence, Rhode Island • New York City • See Map 9-1 and Figure 9-1

4. Texas and War with Mexico • Texas annexation divided the nation • Fear of adding another slave state • Political parties avoided the issue • Manifest Destiny and “54-40 or Fight” • James K. Polk wanted Texas and Oregon • Texas annexed in 1845 • War with Mexico, 1846-1848 • Polk provoked war

5. Texas and War with Mexico (cont.) • Mexican Cession • Wilmot Proviso • Slavery expansion • California gold • Compromise of 1850 • Stronger fugitive slave law • Personal liberty laws • Prigg v. Pennsylvania

6. II. The Response of the Antislavery Movement • Race-related violence increased • Created difficulties • Setting policies • White abolitions set policy • Abolitionist commitment to non-violence weakened • Limited options

7. The American Anti-Slavery Society • American Anti-Slavery Society • AASS, 1831 • Black men participated without formal restrictions • Rarely held positions of authority • William Lloyd Garrison • Immediate, uncompensated emancipation • Equal rights for African Americans

8. Black and Women’s Anti-slavery Societies • Fundraising • Main task • Bake sales, bazaars, and fairs • Feminism • Created an awareness of women’s rights • Challenged male culture • Essays, poems, speeches • Sojourner Truth • See PROFILE

9. The Black Convention Movement • First convention, Philadelphia, 1831 • Local, state, and national black conventions • Provided a forum for black male abolitionists • Abolition of slavery • Improve conditions for northern black people • Integrate public schools • Black suffrage • Juries • Testify against white people in court

10. III. Black Community Institutions • Free black communities • Fivefold increase, 1790-1830 • Gradual emancipation and individual manumission • Provided resources • Churches, schools, and benevolent organizations • Provided the foundations for black anti-slavery institutions

11. Black Churches • Leading black abolitionists often ministers • Used pulpits to attack slavery and racial hatred • Provided meeting places for abolitionists • Forum for speakers

12. Black Newspapers • Important voice in abolition movement • Freedom’s Journal • Samuel Cornish • North Star • Frederick Douglass • Financial difficulties

13. IV. Moral Suasion • Reform strategy • Appeal to Christian conscience • Support abolition and racial justice • Slaveholding was a sin • Sexual exploitation, unrestrained brutality • Northerners’ guilt • Government protected slaveholder interests • Cloth manufactures • Fugitive Slave Act of 1798

14. Moral Suasion (cont.) • AASS • Used moral arguments against slave owners • Ultimately failed • Great Postal Campaign • Sent anti-slavery literature to the South • Petitions to Congress • To end slavery in Washington, D.C.

15. Moral Suasion (cont.) • Reactions • Southern response • Southern postmasters censored mail • Vigilantes attacked antislavery supporters • Gag Rule, 1836 • Northern response • Mobs attacked abolitionists • Disrupted meetings, destroyed newspaper presses • Elijah P. Lovejoy

16. V. The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society • Divided by failure of moral suasion • AASS splintered in 1840 • Role of women in abolitionism • Garrison’s increasing radicalism • Members form the AFASS • Lewis Tappan • Liberty party • First antislavery political party • James G. Birney, 1840

17. VI. A More Aggressive Abolitionism • Growing northern empathy for slaves • Labor demands sent slaves to the Southwest • Radical wing of Liberty party • Constitution supported slave resistance • Encouraged northerners to help slaves escape • The Amistad and the Creole • The Underground Railroad • Harriet Tubman • See Map 9-2 • Canada West

18. VII. Black Militancy • Too much talk and not enough action • More black abolitionists consider forceful action • Weak loyalty to national organizations • Influenced by rebellious slaves • Many black abolitionists wanted to do more, 1840s-1850s • Charged white abolitionists with duplicity • Lewis Tappan • William Lloyd Garrison

19. VIII. Frederick Douglass • Born a slave, 1818 • Learned to read • Developed a trade • Escaped in 1838 • Antislavery lecturer, 1841 • Encouraged by Garrison • Breaks with Garrison in 1847 • North Star, 1847 • Endorsed the New York Liberty party, 1851

20. IX. Black Nationalism • African-American migration and black nationalism • Best means to realize black aspirations • Violence • Convinced a small few to advocate emigration • Martin R. Delany • See VOICES • Henry Highland Garnett • See PROFILE • Douglass and other black abolitionists rejected • Wanted freedom in the Unites States

21. X. Conclusion • From gradual to immediate abolition of slavery • Adjust antislavery tactics to meet rising violence • Combined approach • Moral suasion • Political involvement • Direct action • Movement to black nationalism • Promote interests, rights, and identity