A major social problem of the progressive era was slavery and the cause of abolition. This became a growing concern the 19th century and reformers like Henry Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass tried to fix the problem. Read the following passages as well as the other resources regarding this topic. Here is a brief description of the movement:

Abolitionism

The abolitionist movement sought to eradicate slavery in the United States. Prominent leaders in the movement included Theodore Weld, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Elijah P. Lovejoy, and William Lloyd Garrison, among others.

Garrison, a radical abolitionist who called for immediate emancipation, became infamous when he started an antislavery newspaper, The Liberator, in 1831. His articles were so vitriolic that warrants for his arrest were issued in the South. Garrison and Weld also founded the American Anti-slavery Society in 1833.

Abolitionist Propaganda and Politics

Because William Lloyd Garrison published the first edition of The Liberator the same year as Turner’s uprising, many southerners jumped to the conclusion that Garrison had incited the rebellions with his anti slavery rhetoric. Furthermore, former slave Frederick Douglass became a celebrity in the North when he published his experiences in A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845.

As the abolitionist movement grew, it became more of an organized political force. The movement grew to be so noisome that the House of Representatives actually passed a gag resolution in 1836 to squelch all further discussion of slavery. Several years later, in 1840, the abolitionists organized into a party, the Liberty Party.

Now read the Frederick Douglass document below and think about the following questions:

1. Why do you think Frederick Douglass was a convincing spokesperson for the cause of abolition?

2. What do you think he meant in his quote, ―I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs,‖?

3. What strategies does Douglass use to convince people of the need for change?

4. Frederick Douglass wrote, ―Without a struggle, there can be no progress.‖ Do you think this is true? Explain your answer.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was born as Frederick Baily in 1818 in Maryland. He was born a slave. His mother worked long hours and he rarely saw her. She died shortly after he turned seven years old.

One of his owners read aloud to him. Although he was a slave, he learned that reading and writing were a way for him to be free. He taught himself to read and write. Young Frederick grew up with many masters, some kind and some cruel. He dreamed constantly of freedom. In his early twenties, he ran away from Maryland to New York, where he finally lived as a free man. Because he was afraid of being caught and sent back to Maryland, he changed his name to Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass became an abolitionist, a person who fights against slavery. He was an inspirational public speaker – funny and dramatic. He traveled around the United States and even to England, telling stories of his own experience as a slave and the goals of the abolitionists. Thousands of people came to hear him when he spoke.

As he traveled, Douglass became interested in other causes as well, especially women’s rights, prison reform, and temperance (not drinking alcohol). Some of his interests were controversial, but his passion and skill as a speaker and writer persuaded many people. He once wrote, "I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."

Douglass was thrilled to see the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery, pass into law in 1865. Unfortunately, the end of slavery did not mean the end of the battle for equal rights for blacks. Douglass continued to write. He wrote three autobiographies and countless articles. He also continued to travel and lecture about the need for equal treatment for black people. When he died at the age of 77, Frederick Douglass had lived a lifetime of tireless fighting. The legacy of his battle for fairness for all people lives on in his words and his memory.

Frederick Douglass on the disenfranchisement of Black voters, 1888

Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells

NEGRO COMMUNICANTS REFUSED SEATS

It seems incredible to them that the Christian churches of the South refuse to admit Negro communicants into their houses of worship save in the galleries or in the back seats. When I told of a young mulatto named James Cotton who was dragged out of one of the leading churches in Memphis, Tennessee, by a policeman and shut up in the station house all day Sunday, for taking a seat in the church, one lady remarked that it was easy to believe anything after that.

I was asked if Northern churches knew of this discrimination and continued fellowship with the churches which practiced it. Truth compelled me to reply in the affirmative, and to give instances which showed that in every case the Northern churches, which do not practice these things themselves, tacitly agreed to them by the southern churches; and that so far as I knew principle has always yielded to prejudice in the hope of gaining the good will of the South.

I had especially in mind the National Baptist Convention which met in Philadelphia in June 1892. An effort was made to have a resolution passed by that convention condemning lynching, as the Methodist Episcopal Conference had done at Omaha in May. The committee on resolutions decided that it could not be done as they had too many southern delegates present and did not wish to offend them.