Slavery and Abolitionists

Slavery.mp4

13 Slavery - Crash Course US History #13.mp4

Harriet Tubman & Courage.mp4

Underground Railroad.mp4

Harriet Tubman.mp4

The questions that follow will deal with one of the darkest topics in the history of the United States: the enslavement of millions of people, mostly of African origin. In North America, between the 1600s and the 1800s, European Americans established a system of slavery with rules such as these:

- Some people were allowed to own other people.
- The owner of an enslaved person also owned any work done by that person.
- Slaveowners could tell enslaved people what to do and punish anyone who did not obey.
- Enslaved people could be bought, sold, and inherited.
- When an enslaved woman had children, those children were also enslaved.

For more than 300 years, people were enslaved in Africa and then brought to North and South America, where they were sold. In 1808, the United States banned importing more enslaved people, but slavery continued to exist within the United States.

By 1820, it had been illegal to bring enslaved people from Africa to the United States for 12 years. So, by the 1840s, most enslaved people had been born in the United States. These enslaved people had an African heritage, but they were also American. Even though enslaved people were given little control over their own lives, they successfully developed their own new, African American culture.

The end of the slave trade?

Despite laws against the Atlantic slave trade, between 1808 and 1860, tens of thousands of enslaved Africans were smuggled into the United States, or brought in illegally.

The slave trade also continued in the South Atlantic Ocean, led by the European country of Portugal. Even after 1808, over 2,000,000 enslaved people were taken to South America and the Caribbean islands.

In the early 1800s, certain parts of the United States had especially high numbers of enslaved people.

In 1800, most enslaved people lived in the South, in states bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The state with the most enslaved people was Virginia, in an area called the Upper South.

Why did most enslaved people live near the Atlantic Ocean in 1800?

Most enslaved people worked on plantations. The first plantations in the present-day United States had been created along the Atlantic coast, by European settlers and the people they enslaved. Those plantations grew crops such as tobacco. The tobacco was then shipped to Europe to be sold. To make that shipping possible, plantations needed to be near Atlantic seaports.

At the beginning of the 1800s, most enslaved people lived on large farms called plantations, growing crops such as rice, corn, and tobacco. But soon, a new crop became more important than any of those. At that time, businessmen in the northeastern United States and in Europe were building cloth factories. They needed large amounts of cotton to make their cloth, so cotton became more and more valuable. Cotton plants grow best in warm climates with a long growing season, or a long period of time without frost. They also need high levels of summer rainfall. The map below climate information about four regions of the United States.

Who lived in the Lower South?

In 1800, most people living in the Lower South were members of Native American tribes, including the Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Muscogee. The painting below shows Native American people walking in Louisiana.

The climate of the Lower South was perfect for growing cotton. Some people—mostly white, Southern men—realized they could make money by creating cotton plantations in that region. However, some conditions in that region made it difficult to create cotton plantations. So, the U.S. government and individual people had to choose how to respond.

Were Native Americans ever enslaved?

Yes. Some settlers enslaved Native Americans. Often, these enslaved Native Americans were captured in wars or in raids.

In the 1800s, some other Native Americans owned enslaved African American people. In some cases, they were trying to be more like white Southerners, so the white Southerners would let them keep their land. The Native Americans' system of slavery was similar to the one in the rest of the United States: cruel and unjust.

s plantations expanded in the Lower South, more enslaved people were needed to grow cotton. So, slave traders bought enslaved people in Upper South cities such as Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia. Then, they took the enslaved people south and sold them for higher prices at slave markets in Lower South cities such as New Orleans. One morning in 1843, a man from England saw slave traders and a large group of enslaved people traveling through Virginia. Read his description of the scene.

They had about three hundred slaves with them who had [slept] the previous night in chains in the woods. . . . The female slaves were, some of them, sitting on logs of wood, [while] others were standing . . . . Many little black children were warming themselves at the fires . . . . In front of them all, and prepared for the march, stood, in double files, about two hundred male slaves, . . . chained to each other.

double files: two lines

After marching for weeks, the traders and enslaved people would approach a city with a slave market. There, they could meet buyers. The traders' goal was to sell these enslaved people for as much money as possible, so that the traders could make a profit.

eople, treated like products

When being sold, enslaved people were treated as if they were not human beings. They were kept in pens like the one shown in the image.

Enslaved people were given "grades" to indicate how valuable they would be on plantations. The best were called number 1. The next best were called second-rate. Others were called extras.

So, slaveholders could ask to purchase a certain number of "number 1 slaves" without thinking of them as people, just like they would order fabric or farm equipment.

Did enslaved people have any control over being sold?

Not much. But if they wanted to be sold to a particular buyer, enslaved people could try to look healthy and agreeable. They might do this if they knew a family member had been sold to a slaveholder in that area. To avoid being sold to other plantations, they could be uncooperative or say they had a history of running away.

After being purchased at slave markets, many enslaved men, women, and children worked on plantations to produce cotton. Below are descriptions of the first three steps of this process.

The life of a cotton picker was hard!

Cotton pickers worked in hot, humid summer weather, bending down all day to reach the cotton. They often cut themselves on the sharp points that surrounded the cotton fibers.

How much cotton did enslaved people pick each day?

In the 1850s, someone around 16 to 18 years old could pick about 100 to 130 pounds of cotton each day.

Who picked cotton after slavery ended?

Some freed people continued to pick cotton, since there were few other jobs available. There were also many poor white people in the South, and some of them picked cotton, too.

This photograph was taken after slavery had ended, but the work of cotton picking looked similar in both time periods.

After the cotton was picked, there was still much work to be done to get it ready to sell. Below are descriptions of the last three steps of the cotton production process.

How did new inventions change the South?

During the late 1700s and early 1800s, new inventions helped to make cotton a more valuable industry. In particular, two inventions played an important role in producing cotton.

The cotton gin

Working by hand, it took a long time to remove the seeds and dirt from cotton. But in 1793, a man named Eli Whitney invented a machine called the cotton gin. The cotton gin quickly cleaned the cotton using rotating combs and brushes. Whitney's invention spread, and by the 1800s, plantations were using it to produce more and more cotton.

Cotton gins are still used today, but they are much larger and more complicated. Notice the cleaned cotton being produced at the left side of the image.

The steamboat

Another invention, the steamboat, helped businessmen ship cotton to markets. Created in the late 1700s and improved in the early 1800s, steamboats were used for trade up and down the Mississippi River. By 1860, more than 3,500 riverboats arrived in New Orleans each year, carrying 2,000,000 tons of cargo.

Today, steamboats often look like this. They are meant to seem old-fashioned and are mainly used for entertainment.

The diagram shows how the system of slavery operated on many large plantations.

Did people other than wealthy slaveowners profit from slavery?

Yes. Wealthy slaveholders profited from the work of enslaved people, but they were not the only ones:

- Steamboat and ship owners made money by transporting Southern cotton.
- Factory owners in the Northern United States and Great Britain made cloth using Southern cotton. They sold that cloth to make money.
- Bankers in New York gave loans to slaveholders who wanted to buy more enslaved people. Then, the bankers made money by charging interest on the loans.
- Employees of all of those companies also earned money that came from the cotton industry.
- People across the United States and Europe wore clothes made from Southern cotton. Because the cotton was picked by enslaved workers, the clothes were less expensive.

Most cotton was grown on large plantations owned by planters. Planters were wealthy people, usually white men, who often owned more than 20 enslaved people. Plantations were different from one place to another, but they often had some of the same features. Read the passage to learn about one plantation.

The planter's family lived in the Big House, the largest building on the plantation. The Big House was meant to look impressive from the main entrance. Some enslaved people worked in the kitchen building behind the Big House, cooking meals for the planter's family. Other enslaved people were craftsmen such as blacksmiths and carpenters. They worked in craft shops that were blocked by trees from the Big House and the main entrance. The largest group of enslaved people worked in the fields, planting and then picking cotton.

Planters often hired overseers to manage the work of enslaved people. Most overseers were white men with less money or education than the planters. Read the passage below to learn how the overseer system often worked.

A typical planter pressured his overseer to produce increasing amounts of cotton. So, the overseer pushed enslaved people to work as hard as possible, often using whippings and other violent punishments. Because overseers were the ones doing the actual whippings, many planters could say that the planters were not responsible for hurting enslaved people.

Planters benefited from the overseer system in many ways.

Looking for someone to blame

Planters often used overseers and slave traders as scapegoats for the worst abuses of slavery. This means that planters placed the blame on other people, rather than taking responsibility themselves. A Louisiana planter named Bennet Barrow said the following about overseers:

I hope the time will come when every overseer in the country will be compelled to adopt some other [way] of making a living—they are a perfect nuisance [and] cause dissatisfaction among the negroes.

compelled: forced

perfect nuisance: major problem

negroes: an old term for African American people

In other words, Barrow said that overseers caused many problems through their cruelty toward enslaved people. Barrow decided to fire his overseer and to do the job himself. But soon he discovered that he couldn't force people to work unless he used harsh punishments. In time, Barrow became famous for his own brutal use of violence. Unlike Barrow, most planters simply kept their overseers—and continued to blame them.

Enslaved people experienced brutal working conditions in the cotton fields. One description of these conditions comes from a man named Solomon Northup. Northup was a free African American man from New York. But he was kidnapped, enslaved, and sent to work on plantations in Louisiana. After 12 years in slavery, he became free again and wrote a book about his experiences. In the passage below, Northup describes a typical first day when an enslaved person arrived at a new plantation.

When a new hand . . . is sent for the first time into the field, he is whipped . . . .[He is] made for that day to pick as fast as he can possibly. At night [the cotton] is weighed, so that his capability in cotton picking is known. He must bring in the same weight each night following. If he falls short, it is considered evidence that he has been [lazy]. . . . A greater or less number of lashes is the penalty.

hand: enslaved worker

capability: ability

lashes: whippings

Different forms of enslaved labor

Most enslaved people lived on plantations and worked in fields, but some enslaved people had different sorts of lives.

Some enslaved people worked as craftspeople, such as carpenters and weavers.

Enslaved African American workers and free Irish American workers dug this railroad tunnel through a mountain in Virginia. When completed in 1858, it was the longest tunnel in the United States.

Hundreds of enslaved people helped to make railroad tracks, locomotives, and cannons.

Most enslaved people worked in the fields, but a small number worked in plantation houses, serving the planters' families. Field work and house work were both difficult, but in different ways. In the fields, people had to work hard in the hot sun to pick and plant crops. But at night, they had a little time to themselves. In the Big House, enslaved people had to work during the day and night to serve the planter's family. Women did jobs like cooking, cleaning, and caring for white children. Men cooked, served meals, and worked as personal servants to the white men of the households. Both men and women were closely watched, so they had very little freedom.

Abuse of enslaved women

Working in the Big House, enslaved women were often the victims of sexual harassment and abuse. Typically, this abuse was committed by planters and other men in the planters' families. Many enslaved women unwillingly bore children that were fathered by these men. And so, many enslaved children eventually learned that their owner was also their father.

The heroic story of Harriet Jacobs

In the 1820s, an enslaved teenager named Harriet Jacobs was severely harassed by her master, Dr. James Norcom. She had two children with a different white man, who protected her from Norcom for awhile.

But Harriet Jacobs eventually had to escape from Norcom. She hid for seven years in a tiny space behind a wall in her grandmother's house. She could only watch her children play through a tiny hole in the wall. The children did not know that their mother was alive, watching them.

Eventually, Jacobs escaped to the North, where she and her children were reunited. She became an anti-slavery activist and wrote a book about her experiences called Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

In a plantation house, enslaved people's day-to-day duties were usually controlled by the planter's wife. Planters' wives were privileged in some ways. This means that they had certain advantages in the world because they were white and wealthy. However, their lives were also restricted in some ways. In other words, they faced disadvantages because they were women.

Women of the plantation household

Planters' wives wanted to have lives of leisure, but this kind of life had its downsides. Sometimes, they became dependent on their enslaved servants. This rhyme became popular among planters' wives:

Oh, that I had a million slaves or more,

To catch the raindrops as they pour.

In other words, planters' wives wanted enslaved people to meet their every need.

Planters' wives were in charge of overseeing work inside the house. However, some enslaved women made the important decisions about household chores. These enslaved women were not free, but they had some influence over how the house was run.

Enslaved people lived in small houses on the plantation grounds. One common type of house is shown below.

Making a house into a home

Slaveowners provided enslaved people with a house to live in, but they were not built to be sturdy or comfortable. Most slaveowners did not even provide furniture! So, when enslaved people had a little free time on Sundays, some of them made tables and chairs. To make their houses feel more like homes, they also planted flowering vines near their doors.

What did enslaved people's houses really look like?

The first image below is an 1863 sketch of a cabin for enslaved people. Notice how unstable it looks. Many cabins looked like this, but photography was not widespread in the early 1860s, and the cabins fell down before they were photographed. The other images show photographs of nicer-than-average homes for enslaved people. The ones in the bottom row were photographed in the 20th century, meaning that they stood for decades after slavery ended.

Despite harsh working and living conditions, enslaved people hoped to build better lives for themselves. For example, many of them got married and formed families. State laws did not allow enslaved people to become legally married, so they created their own marriage traditions.

Family relationships were important for enslaved people, since these connections helped them handle their daily struggles. But enslaved people's families were constantly in danger. At any time, a husband or wife could be sold away and never be seen again. Children could also be separated from their parents.In spite of all this, enslaved people continued to form families, often maintaining long marriages. Many couples saw themselves as partners for all eternity. So, even if they were separated in life, they believed they would meet again after death.

Jumping the broom

According to United States law, enslaved people could not be officially married. So, enslaved people adopted wedding traditions using items easily found in their homes. This practice allowed people to be married in the eyes of their communities. The most famous tradition was jumping back and forth over a broomstick.

Some African American people continue this tradition today, as a connection to the past. This photo shows a modern couple "jumping the broom."

African American families after slavery

When slavery ended, many African American people hurried to make their marriages officially legal.

Other people posted advertisements in newspapers, trying to find family members they had been separated from during slavery. In this 1866 advertisement, a man named Isaac Jackson is searching for his wife, children, and minister.

Many slaveholders brought white ministers to preach Christianity to enslaved people. These ministers supported the practice of slavery and used the Bible to defend it. Enslaved people developed their own understanding of Christianity—one that gave them hope for a better life. The two groups used different parts of the Bible to support their very different understandings of Christianity.

Hush harbors

Enslaved people could use religious services to promote anti-slavery messages. At these services, they could also plan escapes, revolts, and other actions. Slaveholders tried to prevent these meetings. So, enslaved people often worshipped in secret.

At night, they would meet in places they called hush harbors, such as forest clearings and dry creek beds. They hung wet rags and quilts around their meeting places to block sound from reaching the Big House. So, they could talk and sing without being caught.

Songs called spirituals were an important part of enslaved people's Christian worship. The anti-slavery leader Frederick Douglass remembered singing spirituals when he was enslaved as a child. One of his favorite songs referred to a story from the Bible—the story of Daniel in the lions' den. The first passage below shows some of the words from that spiritual. In the second passage, Douglass explains the meaning of the song.

"Steal Away"

I thought I heard them say,

There were lions in the way,

I don't expect to stay

Much longer here.

Douglass's explanation

[That song] had a double meaning. In the lips of some, it meant the expectation of a speedy summons to a world of spirits; but in the lips of our [group], it simply meant a speedy pilgrimage toward a free state.

summons: calling

pilgrimage: journey

Songs of freedom

In the early to mid-1800s, African American spirituals inspired people to resist slavery. Then, after slavery ended, these spirituals inspired people to fight for civil rights.

During the mid-1900s, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson was famous for singing spirituals including "Steal Away." She also sang protest songs such as "We Shall Overcome" as part of the Civil Rights Movement, promoting equal rights for all Americans.

Between the 1500s and the 1800s, traders brought enslaved people from Africa to Europe and the Americas. This buying, selling, and transporting of enslaved people is known as the Atlantic slave trade.The diagram below shows one deck of a British slave ship called the Brookes. The small human figures in the image show how living people would have been arranged on the ship during the voyage.

What was the journey like for enslaved Africans?

The ship was crowded and uncomfortable. Most people had just enough room to lie down, with no space on either side. The ship was often overloaded, and enslaved people had to lay on their sides and squeeze together.

Enslaved people were chained in place for most of the journey. Often, they were on the ship for several months. Enslaved people were brought up to the main deck for meals, but they spent most of their days lying in darkness.

One of the most vivid descriptions of life aboard a slave ship comes from a book written by Olaudah Equiano (oh-lah-OO-dah eh-kwee-AH-no). Equiano wrote that he was born free in Africa but was captured and enslaved as a child. In the following passage, he describes his first experiences on a ship bound for the Americas.

I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life. . . . I became so sick and so low that I was not able to eat. . . . But soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me [food]; and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hand . . . and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. . . . I would have jumped over the side, but I could not; and, besides, the crew used to watch us very closely . . . lest we should leap into the water.

salutation in my nostrils: very bad smell

fast: tightly

flogged: beat with a stick

lest we should: in case we would

Equiano published the book in 1789 in Great Britain. Most of his readers were white Europeans.

Did Equiano really travel on a slave ship?

Scholars disagree about whether Equiano actually experienced all the things he described in his book. Some researchers believe Equiano was born in America and never traveled on a slave ship. They believe that Equiano's book describes the experiences of other enslaved people Equiano knew.

Other researchers believe Equiano was born in Africa and experienced the slave trade himself. They think he came from a region called Igboland, in present-day Nigeria.

To abolish something means to end it. People who worked to end slavery, like Olaudah Equiano, were known as abolitionists.

How did abolitionists fight slavery?

Abolitionists worked to end slavery in many different ways. Some, like Equiano, wrote books and gave speeches.

Others tried to persuade people using images. Abolitionists created a poster with the diagram of the slave ship Brookes. Posters like this one showed people the truth about the slave trade.

Abolitionists also worked through government action. A man named William Wilberforce was a member of Great Britain's legislature, called Parliament. Wilberforce worked for 20 years to pass a law abolishing the slave trade. He proposed his bill many times before finally succeeding.

The abolitionist movement first gained strength in Great Britain in the late 1780s, when a group of activists founded the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. One member of this organization designed a symbol for the movement.

The Society wanted the symbol to show enslaved people in a positive light. They used it to convince people that slavery was wrong. But parts of the symbol also show some negative views of enslaved people.

How did abolitionists use the symbol?

Some abolitionists wore this symbol on their clothing, as jewelry. They also printed it on posters and used it in artwork. It helped persuade many people that slavery was unjust.

Why does the symbol show negative stereotypes about Africans?

A stereotype is a false or unfair belief about a group of people. People often hold stereotypes without realizing it, and even good people can hold harmful stereotypes. Abolitionists realized that enslaved people were human beings, but many abolitionists still held stereotypes about them.

The abolitionists' symbol shows some of these stereotypes. It portrays an enslaved person in a weak position, kneeling and begging. Look at these images:

The symbol was copied and imitated many times. As the symbol was copied over and over, it spread the idea that enslaved people were weak. When white people saw enslaved people as weak, it was easier to treat them badly. Even after slavery was abolished, many stereotypes remained.

The founders of the United States held conflicting opinions about slavery. When they declared independence against Great Britain, the founders argued that the new nation would be based on values such as liberty and equality. However, at that time, almost 700,000 Americans were enslaved. Thomas Jefferson's views on slavery were especially complicated.

Jefferson and the slave trade

As president, Jefferson banned the international slave trade in the U.S. In other words, he made it illegal to bring new enslaved people into the country. However, it remained legal to buy and sell enslaved people within the United States, and slaveholders like Jefferson continued to own enslaved people.

Jefferson thought of the ban as a step toward ending slavery completely. But it also benefited anyone who already owned enslaved people. Because no more enslaved people could be brought into the country, supply was limited. People like Jefferson could sell their enslaved people for a higher price.

Great Britain leads the way

The abolitionist movement developed much faster in Great Britain than in the United States. In Britain, abolitionists put pressure on the British government to end the slave trade and then slavery itself. But when the U.S. was founded, white Northerners and Southerners compromised on a Constitution that kept slavery legal. Then, they focused on building the new nation, partly using enslaved labor.

The American Anti-Slavery Society

Around 1830, abolitionism began to gain steam in the United States. In 1833, abolitionists created an organization called the American Anti-Slavery Society. This organization published an antislavery newspaper and promoted public speeches across the country. Its members also sent petitions to members of Congress.

The organization even published a magazine for children called The Slave's Friend. This image shows the cover of one of the magazines from 1837.

Abolitionists disagreed about how to end slavery. Some abolitionists wanted to send African American people to a colony in Africa where they could live in freedom.The following passage comes from an 1829 pamphlet by David Walker, an African American man who rejected this colonization proposal.

Do they [plan] to drive us from our country and homes, after having enriched it with our blood and tears? . . .

[T]ell us now no more about colonization, for America is as much our country, as it is yours.—Treat us like men, and there is no danger but we will all live in peace and happiness together. For we are not like you, hard hearted, unmerciful, and unforgiving.

enriched it: made it more valuable

unmerciful: cruel

Why did people support colonization?

Some abolitionists thought slavery was wrong, but they did not think white and African American people should live together as equals. They wanted African American people to live somewhere else.

Abolitionists were not the only people to support colonization. Some slaveholders also donated money to start a colony in Africa. They wanted to send free African American people away so they would not speak out against slavery.

Today, Liberia is an independent country on the west coast of Africa.

Did colonization succeed?

Supporters of colonization established a colony in Africa called Liberia. Why do you think they chose that name?

Although a small colony was established, the colonization movement did not succeed in the long run. Most African American people opposed colonization, including abolitionists such as David Walker. Only a small percentage of African American people moved to Liberia.

Boston was a major hub of anti-slavery activity. There, in 1831, a white journalist named William Lloyd Garrison founded an abolitionist newspaper called The Liberator. Read the following passage from the newspaper's first issue.

[I agree] to the "self-evident truth" maintained in the American Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights—among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; . . . tell the mother to gradually [rescue] her babe from the fire into which it has fallen;—but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. . . . I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—AND I WILL BE HEARD.

endowed: given

inalienable: something that cannot be taken away

moderation: calmness or self-control

equivocate: mislead by being vague or unclear

In this article, Garrison responded to people who wanted slavery to end gradually. Garrison opposed gradual abolition because he believed slavery should end immediately.

Garrison and the Constitution

William Lloyd Garrison loved the Declaration of Independence because it says that all people are equal. But he hated the U.S. Constitution because it allowed slavery to remain legal.

Once, at a Fourth of July celebration, Garrison called the Constitution "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell." Then, he burned a copy of the Constitution in front of the crowd. Acts like this made Garrison very controversial.

While free abolitionists tried to change American laws, some enslaved people fought back against their enslavers. In 1831, an enslaved Virginian named Nat Turner led a rebellion. Between 40 and 60 African American people went from house to house through the Virginia countryside, killing approximately 60 white people. After two days, white citizens assembled, attacked, and put down the rebellion. Many African American people were killed during and after the rebellion.

How many enslaved people were killed in Nat Turner's Rebellion?

During and after Nat Turner's rebellion, slaveholders tortured and killed many enslaved people. About 55 enslaved people were put on trial and then executed. It is harder to know how many people died without trials. Historians estimate that between 30 and 120 enslaved people were killed during the fighting and shortly afterwards. Many more were beaten or punished in other ways—even people who had nothing to do with the rebellion.

One of the most detailed records of Nat Turner's rebellion is a book called the Confessions of Nat Turner. The book was published by a white lawyer named Thomas Gray, who claimed that he had written down Turner's exact words. Historians disagree about whether or not the book really presents Turner's side of the story.

Was Thomas Gray telling the truth?

Historians disagree about whether the Confessions of Nat Turner represents Turner's true perspective. Recently, historian Patrick Breen has argued that the book is mostly trustworthy. Here are a couple of his reasons:

Where Gray disagreed with Turner, he made notes in parentheses or at the end of the book. He could have just deleted Turner's words, but he did not.
The main section of the book doesn't sound like it was written by Gray. It uses different vocabulary than Gray usually used, so it's likely that the words were Turner's.

If historians decide that the book does represent Nat Turner's perspective, they face another question: was Turner trustworthy? He had just been captured and was about to go on trial. Did he have any reason to lie, exaggerate, or leave out important information?

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland around 1818. When he was about eight years old, Douglass was sent to work for the Auld family. At first, Mrs. Auld was kind and began to teach him the alphabet. But Mr. Auld refused to let Douglass learn to read. According to Douglass, Mr. Auld said the following:

It would forever [make him unfit] to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to [Frederick] himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy.

unmanageable: difficult to control

Gradually, Mrs. Auld also tried to prevent Douglass from reading:

Nothing seemed to make her more angry than to see me with a newspaper. . . . I have had her rush at me with a face made all up of fury, and snatch from me a newspaper. . . . From this time I was most narrowly watched. If I was in a separate room any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a book.

narrowly: closely

Which of the following statem

After escaping from slavery, Frederick Douglass settled in Massachusetts. He began to speak at anti-slavery meetings. With practice and with help from William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass became one of the nation's leading abolitionists and greatest public speakers. In 1852, Frederick Douglass was invited to speak at an abolitionist Fourth of July celebration. He agreed to speak on the fifth of July instead, to an audience mostly of free white people. The following passage comes from Douglass's speech.

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; . . . your shouts of liberty and equality [are] hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns . . . are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, [sinfulness], and hypocrisy.

gross: great

sham: fake

bombast: meaningless, overly fancy words

hypocrisy: saying one thing and doing another

"What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?"

What kind of speech would you expect to hear at a Fourth of July celebration? Most Independence Day speeches have a positive, patriotic message that celebrates American liberty. Douglass's speech is especially powerful because its message is so different. He reminded white Americans that, for people in slavery, America was not a land of liberty at all.

Garrison and Douglass

William Lloyd Garrison was a mentor to Frederick Douglass. Garrison first heard Douglas speaking at an anti-slavery meeting and recognized his talent. He helped to promote Douglass's speeches and publish his writings. The two men often gave speeches together as a team.

But the two men did not always agree. For example, Garrison disliked the Constitution because it supported slavery. Douglass came to believe that the Constitution could be used to help more people become free.

Some abolitionists helped people escape slavery. Members of the Underground Railroad assisted escapees as they traveled northward to freedom. The Underground Railroad was not really a railroad. It was a network of people who helped escapees hide from slave-catchers and guided them along secret routes leading north. There were a few common routes. For example, one route took escapees from the Upper South through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York to Canada. Historians don't know exactly how many people worked for the Underground Railroad.

Helping enslaved people escape was illegal, so members wanted to hide their involvement. People could be fined or jailed for helping enslaved people escape. Some members of the Underground Railroad burned any evidence of their participation.
There weren't many lists of members, since lists could help slave-catchers find escapees. Plantation owners often sent slave-catchers north to search for people who had escaped slavery. If slave-catchers knew who was working for the Underground Railroad, they could search those people's homes to find escapees.

Among the most famous members of the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman. Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland in 1849 and made about 13 journeys back into Maryland, freeing about 70 people. She encountered and solved many problems along the way.

What songs did Harriet Tubman sing?

Harriet Tubman sang religious songs called spirituals. One of these was called "Bound for the Promised Land." Here are a few of the lyrics:

I'm sorry I'm going to leave you,

Farewell, oh farewell;

But I'll meet you in the morning,

Farewell, oh farewell.

I'll meet you in the morning,

I'm bound for the promised land,

On the other side of Jordan,

Bound for the promised land.

Why do you think Harriet Tubman chose to sing this song?

What was "the Promised Land?"

According to the Old Testament of the Bible, a group of people called the Israelites were once enslaved in Egypt. God told an Israelite named Moses to lead his people out of slavery and into a new country, which Israelites called "the Promised Land." This story inspired many enslaved Americans to seek freedom in their own promised land, such as Canada or the Northern United States.

In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law, which required Northerners to help return escaped enslaved people. Northern police officers had to arrest anyone suspected of being a runaway. Any citizens caught helping a runaway could be fined and put in jail.

How did other Northerners respond?

Around 1850, most Northerners were not abolitionists or members of the Underground Railroad. Many Northerners thought slavery was wrong but did not work to end it. They were happy as long as slavery stayed in the South and was not a part of their everyday lives.

The Fugitive Slave Law changed all of that. It required everyone to return escaped enslaved people to the South. Northerners did not want to help enforce slavery, and they did not want to be told what to do. More and more Northerners became outraged.

This poster from 1851 warned African American people in Boston to stay away from police officers. The warning probably made many white people in Boston angry, too. They did not want their police officers to be "kidnappers and slave catchers."

A Northerner named Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of many people outraged by the Fugitive Slave Law. To protest slavery and the new law, she wrote a novel about slavery called Uncle Tom's Cabin. Many newspapers and magazines published reviews of Stowe's novel. The table below shows summaries of reviews printed in three different publications during 1852 and 1853.

Who was Uncle Tom?

The character "Uncle Tom" was an enslaved person and servant to his white owner. He was respectful and loyal, even to the people who enslaved him. At the time, he was seen as the hero of the book, and many readers admired him. But over time, people started to think he was too respectful toward his enslavers, who did not deserve his respect. Today, his name reminds people of a negative stereotype—an overly loyal enslaved person.

When Kansas was created in 1854, people disagreed about whether slavery should be legal in the new territory. Congress declared that the people living in Kansas would decide whether or not slavery would be allowed. Many settlers moved to Kansas so that they could help decide about slavery. Some of these settlers supported slavery, and some of them did not.

The pro- and anti-slavery settlers did not get along with each other. Eventually, pro-slavery settlers attacked an anti-slavery town, killing one person. An abolitionist named John Brown struck back, leading an attack that killed five pro-slavery settlers.

The violence in Kansas continued, and Brown participated in more attacks. But soon, John Brown left Kansas to plan his next action. Brown was convinced that only violence could end slavery. He wanted to plan an even bigger attack that could end slavery in the entire countr

Read the passage.

After he left Kansas, John Brown began to plan his next attack against slavery. He visited abolitionists across the country, seeking guns, money, and people to help in his effort.

Brown intended to attack the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown planned to give out rifles from the armory to local enslaved people. He planned to march through the South, freeing more people and bringing them into his growing army.

On October 16th, 1859, Brown and his supporters captured the armory, but they did not contact nearby enslaved people quickly enough to form an army. A group of Marines re-captured the arsenal and took Brown prisoner. Brown was executed by hanging on December 2.

armor: a place where weapons are kept

"John Brown's Body"

After his raid on Harpers Ferry, John Brown was put on trial, convicted, and then executed. Some Northerners began to see him as a hero and a martyr, or a person who was killed for what he believed in. People began to sing a song called "John Brown's Body." Some of the lyrics are shown below. You may even recognize the "Glory, Hallelujah" tune from a similar song called "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave, (repeat 3 times)

His soul is marching on

Glory, glory hallelujah! (repeat 3 times)

His soul is marching on.

He's gone to be a soldier in the army of our Lord, (repeat 3 times)

His soul is marching on.

Glory, glory hallelujah! (repeat 3 times)

His soul is marching on. . . .

Now it's three rousing cheers for the Union! (repeat 3 times)

As we are marching on.

mouldering: rotting

the Union: the states fighting for the federal government during the Civil War

Northern soldiers sang this song as they marched during the Civil War. They were saying that even though John Brown's body had died, his soul was still alive. The soldiers could carry on his mission by fighting for the Union.

Abolitionists came from many different backgrounds and used different methods to oppose slavery.

Women and the abolitionist movement

How many men and how many women were mentioned in this question? How many abolitionist women have you learned about? In the 1800s, many people didn't believe women and men should have the same rights. So, women were often not allowed to be leaders in the abolitionist movement. They had to help in other ways, such as raising money, writing magazine articles, and working on the Underground Railroad.

The women's rights movement

After they were excluded from the abolitionist convention shown above, two women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, decided to organize their own convention. At that meeting, in Seneca Falls, New York, they began a new movement for women's rights.

The Civil War began in 1861, after 11 slave states seceded, or withdrew, from the United States. Historians agree that slavery was the most important issue leading to the Civil War. But they disagree about how large a role abolitionists themselves played in bringing about the war.

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