Antislavery Movement

1. Antislavery Movement

2. Why it matters • Reformers tried to improve life for all people in America, especially enslaved African Americans

3. Slavery in America • By 1804, all states north of Maryland banned slavery • By 1807, bringing new slaves to America was banned • In the South, slaves formed an important part of the economy • Around 2 million slaves were in America during this time

4. Resistance to Slavery • Slave Revolts • Nat Turner • Led followers through Virginia countryside • Killed around 60 people during march • Eventually captured and executed • Harsh laws were passed to control slaves • No groups • No education

5. Underground Railroad • A secret network of people helped hid runaway slaves to move them north • Harriet Tubman • Made almost two dozen trips into the South • Guided hundreds of slaves to safety • Never captured

6. Abolitionists • Growing number of Americans opposed slavery began to speak up • William Lloyd Garrison • The Liberator • Demanded emancipation, freeing of the enslaved • Also sought full political and social rights for African Americans

7. Frederick Douglass • Born into slavery and escaped • Became a valuable speaker for the abolitionist cause • Became adviser to President Lincoln • Convinced Lincoln to allow freedman to fight for the North during Civil War

8. Civil Disobedience • Henry David Thoreau • Right of individuals to refuse to obey the laws they feel are unjust

9. Defending Slavery • Slaveholders in the South tried to prevent abolitionist ideas • Keep newspapers and books from the South • Developed arguments for slavery • Felt it formed the basis for Southern economy • Some northerners felt freeing slave would lead to losing their jobs • Also, northern industrialists felt losing slaves would hurt their own pockets

10. America Divided • Slavery ultimately divide the people in America • Differences in urban/industrialized North and rural/agricultural South