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Abolitionism

Gathering together what was going on in the Abolition Movement of the 1850s.

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William Lloyd Garrison

  • "I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population.... On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation.... I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch AND I WILL BE HEARD."

- the Liberator

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The "Underground Railroad"

  • In Ohio alone, it is estimated that from 1830 to 1860 no fewer than 40,000 fugitive slaves were helped to freedom.
  • The number of local antislavery societies increased at such a rate that by 1840 there were about 2,000 with a membership of perhaps 200,000.

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How important were abolitionists

  • In 1837, for example, a mob attacked and killed the antislavery editor Elijah P. Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois.
  • The majority of people in the north were not interested in the abolition movement.
  • Most people in the north were also, to a certain extent, racist.

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William H Seward

  • Governor of NY and later, Secretary of State
  • "I early came to the conclusion that something was wrong…and [that] determined me…to be an abolitionist."
  • Seward’s wife Frances was deeply committed to the abolitionist movement

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Harriet Beecher Stowe

  • "So you're the little lady who started this great war!“ Abraham Lincoln
  • A daughter of an outspoken religious leader.
  • “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” sparked a national debate.

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Frederick Douglass

  • An escaped slave.
  • Became an eloquent speaker and writer.
  • A leading abolitionist- influential in the north, eventually on Lincoln himself.

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Dredd Scott

  • The Dredd Scott case was influential in moving many northerners towards sympathy with the abolitionists.
  • More detail in your Student Guide