This paper covers the road to freedom and how the abolitionist movement helped the African-American slaves achieve their freedom and, later on, their rights. The abolition of slavery in America had to come at a gradual rate in order to slowly and methodically gain popular support. This was done through the actions of varied, significant individuals and organizations. It took almost 100 years and a revolution before people started to take a closer look at slavery. This paper will review the reasons behind why the process took so long.
Quakers were among the most prominent slave traders during the early days of the country, but they were also the first religious denomination to fight for the slaves’ freedom.
The earliest Abolitionist movements conducted by the Quakers were in Britain. When the Quaker movement began in 1652 they knew very little about slavery because it was not practiced in Britain. The only time that it was seen was in the British colonies of America and the British Caribbean Islands. It was not until George Fox and William Edmondson traveled to Barbados in 1671 that they saw the hardships of the African slaves and decided action needed to be taken. Fox and Edmondson started to condemn slavery and rallied the Quakers in Philadelphia, telling them slavery was immoral. In America they started to persuade the Quakers who held slaves themselves to give it up or they would have to leave the “Society of Friends,” the name given to the Quaker movement in the late 1700s. If it had not been for Quakers such as George Keith and Samuel Sewall criticizing the practice of buying slaves the abolitionist movement might have never come to be. George Keith once said, “What greater oppression can there be inflicted upon our fellow creatures, then is inflicted on the poor Negros... cruel whippings and other cruel punishments and by short allowances of food.”[1] His words and endurance turned the Quakers from a slave tolerant people to the people who started the Abolitionist movement. It took about 100 years and a revolution to start the American fight to free the slaves in the newly formed United States.
After the Declaration of Independence helped declare the American Colonies free from British tyrants, the northern states started to abolish slavery after the American Revolution. Vermont was the first state to abolish slavery in 1777. When Vermont became a state they used their State Constitution to make sure that there was no slavery permitted. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 helped the rest of the northern states to abolish slavery. The Northwest Ordinance was the nation’s first attempt to abolish slavery. It stated that “The land north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi should be without slaves and established that the proceeds from the sale of any of this land be given to help support local schools.”[2] Even with the Northwest Ordinance enacted it was still a slow process to eliminate slavery in the Northern parts of America. In 1780 Pennsylvania passed an act called “Gradual Abolition of Slavery” which held blacks in slavery until their 28th birthday. There were still slaves in Pennsylvania as late as the 1850s. All the Northern States had voted to abolish slavery by 1804, but it took strong men and women to help achieve this goal in other parts of America.
The actions of specific individuals from a variety of backgrounds were crucial to ending slavery in America. It was not until the early 1800’s when the Abolitionist Movement truly started to work for the African Slaves. Many critics of slavery toughened their stands and threw out their previous ideas that a slow and steady, gradual freeing of slaves over time was the best option. One of the major critics that took on the fight to abolish slavery was William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison was working for a newspaper called the “National Philanthropist” when he met Benjamin Lundy, who was the editor of an anti-slavery newspaper called, “Genius of Emancipation”. He offered Garrison a position at that paper in Vermont. Taking this job inspired Garrison’s beginning into the abolitionist movement. While he was editor of this newspaper Garrison joined the “American Colonization Society.” Garrison thought that this society would help fight for the slaves’ freedom and well-being. Garrison soon found out that this society only wanted to minimize the amount of freedom that the slaves had in the United States. Garrison left the society and started his own abolitionist newspaper, “The Liberator.” This newspaper and Garrison’s writings started to build his reputation as an abolitionist. Garrison had strong views on the abolition of slavery, but he needed to work on organizing and getting more people involved. He formed the “New England Anti-Slavery Society.” This society’s sole mission was to stop slavery in America. Some of Garrison’s supporters wanted to change from being pacifists to being activists for the cause. These supporters formed their own organization called the “American Foreign and Anti-Slavery Society.” This society dedicated its mission to forcibly remove slavery from the United States. One of the more radical people to follow these ideals of Garrison and like the idea of moving from pacifists to activists was a man by the name of John Brown.
John Brown was born in Connecticut, but he grew up in Ohio. While living in Ohio Brown saw his first glimpse of what the anti-slavery movement was about. During his life in Ohio he helped several slaves escape from the bondage of slavery. In 1855 he and his family moved to Kansas after there was a possibility for the expansion of slavery due to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. After moving to Kansas, Brown joined the struggle between anti-slavery protesters and the proslavery advocates. When the proslavery forces attacked the town of Lawrence, John Brown felt that it was his responsibility to retaliate. John Brown and his four sons retaliated against proslavery settlers along the Pottawatomie Creek. John Brown thought his actions were justified by God. Brown became an extreme abolitionist in the eyes of the Northern extremists. John Brown thought that if he could provoke a slave uprising in the south he would free the slaves by force. During the winter of 1858 he gathered together his small army and got financial supporters for his mission. John Brown’s plan for his slave rebellion was to capture weapons that were held in an arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. With these weapons he could arm the slaves on the Southern Plantations, and the slaves could take over and free themselves. As John Brown orchestrated his raid on the arsenal he gathered his army and the supplies he needed to complete his mission. Brown’s backing for his plan came from a group of Northerners known as the “Secret Six.”.These six men were abolitionists from the North; and their names were Franklin Sanborn, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, George Luther Stearns, Gerrit Smith, Samuel Gridley Howe, and Theodore Parker.[3] These men were well known abolitionists in the northern part of the country. William Lloyd Garrison knew of these men and at an Anti-Slavery meeting in New York he introduced Theodore Parker by saying, “The fanaticism and infidelity and treason which are hateful to traffickers and slaves and the souls of men must be well pleasing to God and are indications of true loyalty to the cause of liberty. I have the pleasure of introducing to you a very excellent fanatic a very good infidel and a first rate traitor in the person of Theodore Parker of Boston”.[4] With Garrison making these kinds of remarks about people backing John Brown’s mission there is no doubt that William Lloyd Garrison had a hand in what John Brown was going to do in Harpers Ferry. John Brown was successful in occupying the arsenal, but the local militia commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee surrounded the arsenal. Ten of Brown’s 21 followers were killed and Brown was captured. John Brown was convicted of treason for his raid on the arsenal and was hanged. Many anti-slavery opponents saw Brown as a hero, and his fame grew with his death.
Women also got into the Abolitionist Movement because they were in a fight of their own. They were fighting for their own rights all over the country. The fight for Women’s rights was put on hold at the time because slavery took center stage. Three feminist movement leaders turned abolitionists were Lucretia Mott, who helped form the “Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, who all fought for the rights of the slaves.
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Stanton were both highly educated women in a society where only men were educated. These two women fought for the right of women to leave their homes and establish new careers. One profession that was around for women at this time was writing. Women were able to write for magazines and newspapers, and they wanted to know why they could not be paid the same as men. With the educational limits expanding for women, they could move into the fields of work that were prominently for men; these were doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Stanton and Mott set up a convention to launch the women’s rights movement in 1848. These two women wrote a “Declaration of Sentiments” that was modeled after the Declaration of Independence. In this Declaration these two women proclaimed that, “All men and women are created equal and deserve their inalienable rights including their collective franchise.”[5] These two women used their knowledge and their will to start a feminist movement. When the abolitionist movement to free the slaves started to build force, these two women had to put their fight on hold. They took their skills and motivation and developed a Woman’s Anti-Slavery Movement. With the “Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Group” started these two women worked on freeing the slaves before returning their attentions to women's rights.
Susan B. Anthony was another feminist who turned to the abolition of slavery. Anthony was raised in a Quaker home. She was raised with the ideals of the Quakers on the ideas that slavery was wrong. The Anthony family moved to Rochester New York in 1845 and by 1865 she joined the “American Anti-Slavery Society.”[6] Anthony was one of the society’s biggest supporters. Her courage and strength helped her get through to some harsh times as a member of the “American anti-slavery society.” When she gave her dramatic speeches she encountered hostile mobs, armed threats, and had things thrown at her. In 1863 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton joined forces and organized the “Women’s National Loyal League.”[7] They supported and petitioned for the 13th amendment. After the Civil War they helped get full citizenship and the right to vote for women and people of any race by helping get the 14th and 15th amendments passed.
Harriet Beecher Stow wrote the novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which helped to expose the truth to the world on the horridness of American slavery. Harriet Beecher Stowe was not a lifelong feminist like Anthony, Stanton, and Mott, but she was born, raised, and married into very religious families. She was a writer who used her skill to show the world what slavery was like. She wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” as a way to show the hardship and the atrocities that fell on the slaves. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was one of the world’s most appreciated literary masterpieces. This work was translated into 60 different languages. When she was asked why she wrote the book all she could say was, “I wrote what I did because as a woman, as the mother, I was oppressed and brokenhearted with the sorrows and injustice I saw, because as a Christian I felt dishonored to Christianity – because as a lover of my country, I trembled at the coming day of wrath.”.[8] Harriet Beecher Stowe met with Abraham Lincoln, and one of the things he said about her was, “So this is the little woman who made this Great War.”[9] Stowe’s writing made her a strong woman and a strong abolitionist fighting for the cause of justice.
It was not only whites in the Abolitionist Movement. There were also escaped African-American slaves in the movement as well. These were men and women who risked their lives for the Abolitionist Movement and to help other African-American slaves escape to freedom.
Frederick Douglass was one of the most outspoken African-American abolitionists of the time. After he escaped from slavery at the age of 20 he became the leader of the Abolitionist movement even with the “Fugitive Slave Laws” in effect. The “Fugitive Slave Laws” were laws stating that when captured, the escaped slave was returned to their owner in the South. Douglass changed his views on abolitionism when he separated his thinking from the moralist brand of abolitionist, which was led by William Lloyd Garrison. He changed his views to believing slavery could be abolished with violence. He gave his assistance to the John Brown conspiracy, which led to the raid on Harpers Ferry. During his speeches Douglass always spoke of the plight of the slaves and that American laws of freedom did not extend to the slaves. During a July 4th speech in 1852 Brown said, “This fourth of July is yours not mine you may rejoice, I must mourn.”[10] This statement meant that the celebration of the independence of the country was for white Americans, not the African slaves. Douglass was always out in the public eye, giving speeches, writing books, and fighting for the freedoms of the slaves. This put him in constant harm with the threat of being returned to slavery, but this did not stop him from being one of the greatest abolitionists of the time.
Another great escaped slave turned abolitionists was a woman by the name of Sojourner Truth. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in New York and at great risk became a preacher. She was very out spoken about slavery and women’s rights. There is not much information on Sojourner Truth in her younger days. We know that she was born into a slave family and that her real name is Isabella. She escaped slavery in 1827 by running to a Quaker family. It was not until 1843 that she adopted the name “Sojourner Truth.” Sojourner embraced religion and started her preaching career. During the Civil War Sojourner traveled the roads collecting food and clothing for the black regiments of the Union Army. She took it upon herself to help the cause in that way. Even though Sojourner Truth was a successful abolitionist she is best known for a speech she gave to a women’s convention in Ohio in 1851. This speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” tells the true meaning of how Sojourner Truth not only fought for the rights of slaves, but how she fought for the rights of women as well. She was truly dedicated to giving help and support to anything that she felt was un-right or unjust.
Another great and daring ex-slave was Harriet Tubman. She was a conductor on the “Underground Railroad” and a Union spy during the Civil War. After Tubman escaped from slavery she dedicated her life to help free the slaves. Even at great risk to her, she made 19 trips back and forth into the South to help lead hundreds of slaves to freedom. Harriet Tubman was known as “Moses” to a lot of the escaped slaves because she helped lead them to freedom. Using her intelligence and drawing on her courage Tubman was able to elude bounty hunters seeking their reward for her capture; this reward grew as high as $40,000.[11] Harriet Tubman was another abolitionist that collaborated with John Brown in planning his raid. When the two met she told Brown that she could help by getting escaped slaves to join his army. Brown admired Tubman and wanted her to accompany him on the raid. Harriet risked her freedom time after time during her service in the Civil War. Not only did she help the slaves escape to freedom she also served as a nurse, a scout, and a spy for the Union Army. She helped take care of the sick and wounded in Florida and the Carolinas, all the while fearing that she would be captured and returned to slavery. The information she supplied to the Union Army was invaluable. With her movements throughout the South she knew where the location of cotton warehouses and ammunition dumps were and gave this information to the Union Army. After the Civil War, Harriet Tubman financed her home and family by selling her bibliography and giving speeches. Her dedication and support of the abolitionist movement and the freedom of slaves made her the legend that is still known today.
By the mid-1800’s abolitionism had taken a stronger hold in politics. The turmoil of slavery would haunt all men in politics from Senators like Henry Clay to Presidential candidates and to Presidents themselves. President Abraham Lincoln was the one President to carry most of the burden to free the slaves. During his time in office he helped win a war, emancipated the slaves, and added the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
When Lincoln became president he was faced by a divided country with seven states secceeded from the union and on the brink of Civil War. The nation was divided because the Southern States felt that it was illegal for the federal government to tell the Southerners how they should live. Lincoln was not an abolitionist, but he did believe slavery was wrong, and one of the biggest problems he faced was that it was allowed the by the Constitution. After the start of the Civil War Lincoln tried anything he could to end war. One of the first steps he took was in placing an act called “The Confiscation Act of 1861” granting freedom to slaves who served in the Confederate Army. Congress did not think this was enough, so in 1862 they passed the “Second Confiscation Act.” This act declared freedom to all slaves who were owned by Confederate officials both civilian and military. It was not until 1863 when the “Emancipation Proclamation” was released that the slaves truly thought they would be free. This proclamation did not exactly free all the slaves. The “Emancipation Proclamation” did not affect slavery in the border states, and it only helped those slaves where the Union Army held land. Even though this proclamation really did not free any slaves it was a political turning point for Lincoln and his views of slavery and a turning point in the Civil War. The “Emancipation Proclamation” gave hope to the slaves for their freedom. It was not until the Constitution was amended that slaves actually got their freedom. With all the hardships and political turmoil, President Lincoln, with the support of Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. With the words, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime wherefore the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction,” slavery was finally eradicated in the United States. [12]
Even though slavery was eradicated in the United States by the 13th Amendment it still exists in our world today. Human trafficking is still one of the major problems facing people today. Slaves are being used as workers in sweatshops in the fashion industry. They are used in sex trades. Even though laws forbid any “sale into involuntary servitude,” slavery still exists.
[1] Cross June (Editor), “Quakers: From Slave Traders to Early Abolitionist,” This Far by faith, accessed December 10, 2014, http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/journey_1/p_7.html.
[2] William Lee Miller, Arguing About Slavery: the Great Battle in the United States Congress (New York: Knopf, 1996), 17.
[3] Edward Renehan, The Secret Six: The True Tale of the Men Who Conspired with John Brown, pbk. ed. (Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1997), 1-63.
[4] Renehan, 55
[5] James M. McPherson, The Oxford History of the United States, vol. 6, Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 36.
[6] "Susan Brownell Anthony," The Biography.com website, accessed Dec 10 2014, http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905.
[7] Anthony, Website
[8] “Harriet Beecher Stowe's Life,” Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, accessed December 10, 2014,https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/hbs/.
[9] Miller, 334
[10] David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass' Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee, louisiana pbk. ed. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 75.
[11] History.com Staff, “Harriet Tubman,” History.com, 2009, hppt://www.history.com/topics/black-history/harriet-tubman.
[12] Feross Aboukhadijeh, "Abolition of Slavery" StudyNotes.org. StudyNotes, Inc., 17 Nov. 201210 Dec. 2014. www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/abolition-of-slavery
Quakers were among the most prominent slave traders during the early days of the country, but they were also the first religious denomination to fight for the slaves’ freedom.
The earliest Abolitionist movements conducted by the Quakers were in Britain. When the Quaker movement began in 1652 they knew very little about slavery because it was not practiced in Britain. The only time that it was seen was in the British colonies of America and the British Caribbean Islands. It was not until George Fox and William Edmondson traveled to Barbados in 1671 that they saw the hardships of the African slaves and decided action needed to be taken. Fox and Edmondson started to condemn slavery and rallied the Quakers in Philadelphia, telling them slavery was immoral. In America they started to persuade the Quakers who held slaves themselves to give it up or they would have to leave the “Society of Friends,” the name given to the Quaker movement in the late 1700s. If it had not been for Quakers such as George Keith and Samuel Sewall criticizing the practice of buying slaves the abolitionist movement might have never come to be. George Keith once said, “What greater oppression can there be inflicted upon our fellow creatures, then is inflicted on the poor Negros... cruel whippings and other cruel punishments and by short allowances of food.”[1] His words and endurance turned the Quakers from a slave tolerant people to the people who started the Abolitionist movement. It took about 100 years and a revolution to start the American fight to free the slaves in the newly formed United States.
After the Declaration of Independence helped declare the American Colonies free from British tyrants, the northern states started to abolish slavery after the American Revolution. Vermont was the first state to abolish slavery in 1777. When Vermont became a state they used their State Constitution to make sure that there was no slavery permitted. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 helped the rest of the northern states to abolish slavery. The Northwest Ordinance was the nation’s first attempt to abolish slavery. It stated that “The land north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi should be without slaves and established that the proceeds from the sale of any of this land be given to help support local schools.”[2] Even with the Northwest Ordinance enacted it was still a slow process to eliminate slavery in the Northern parts of America. In 1780 Pennsylvania passed an act called “Gradual Abolition of Slavery” which held blacks in slavery until their 28th birthday. There were still slaves in Pennsylvania as late as the 1850s. All the Northern States had voted to abolish slavery by 1804, but it took strong men and women to help achieve this goal in other parts of America.
The actions of specific individuals from a variety of backgrounds were crucial to ending slavery in America. It was not until the early 1800’s when the Abolitionist Movement truly started to work for the African Slaves. Many critics of slavery toughened their stands and threw out their previous ideas that a slow and steady, gradual freeing of slaves over time was the best option. One of the major critics that took on the fight to abolish slavery was William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison was working for a newspaper called the “National Philanthropist” when he met Benjamin Lundy, who was the editor of an anti-slavery newspaper called, “Genius of Emancipation”. He offered Garrison a position at that paper in Vermont. Taking this job inspired Garrison’s beginning into the abolitionist movement. While he was editor of this newspaper Garrison joined the “American Colonization Society.” Garrison thought that this society would help fight for the slaves’ freedom and well-being. Garrison soon found out that this society only wanted to minimize the amount of freedom that the slaves had in the United States. Garrison left the society and started his own abolitionist newspaper, “The Liberator.” This newspaper and Garrison’s writings started to build his reputation as an abolitionist. Garrison had strong views on the abolition of slavery, but he needed to work on organizing and getting more people involved. He formed the “New England Anti-Slavery Society.” This society’s sole mission was to stop slavery in America. Some of Garrison’s supporters wanted to change from being pacifists to being activists for the cause. These supporters formed their own organization called the “American Foreign and Anti-Slavery Society.” This society dedicated its mission to forcibly remove slavery from the United States. One of the more radical people to follow these ideals of Garrison and like the idea of moving from pacifists to activists was a man by the name of John Brown.
John Brown was born in Connecticut, but he grew up in Ohio. While living in Ohio Brown saw his first glimpse of what the anti-slavery movement was about. During his life in Ohio he helped several slaves escape from the bondage of slavery. In 1855 he and his family moved to Kansas after there was a possibility for the expansion of slavery due to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. After moving to Kansas, Brown joined the struggle between anti-slavery protesters and the proslavery advocates. When the proslavery forces attacked the town of Lawrence, John Brown felt that it was his responsibility to retaliate. John Brown and his four sons retaliated against proslavery settlers along the Pottawatomie Creek. John Brown thought his actions were justified by God. Brown became an extreme abolitionist in the eyes of the Northern extremists. John Brown thought that if he could provoke a slave uprising in the south he would free the slaves by force. During the winter of 1858 he gathered together his small army and got financial supporters for his mission. John Brown’s plan for his slave rebellion was to capture weapons that were held in an arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. With these weapons he could arm the slaves on the Southern Plantations, and the slaves could take over and free themselves. As John Brown orchestrated his raid on the arsenal he gathered his army and the supplies he needed to complete his mission. Brown’s backing for his plan came from a group of Northerners known as the “Secret Six.”.These six men were abolitionists from the North; and their names were Franklin Sanborn, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, George Luther Stearns, Gerrit Smith, Samuel Gridley Howe, and Theodore Parker.[3] These men were well known abolitionists in the northern part of the country. William Lloyd Garrison knew of these men and at an Anti-Slavery meeting in New York he introduced Theodore Parker by saying, “The fanaticism and infidelity and treason which are hateful to traffickers and slaves and the souls of men must be well pleasing to God and are indications of true loyalty to the cause of liberty. I have the pleasure of introducing to you a very excellent fanatic a very good infidel and a first rate traitor in the person of Theodore Parker of Boston”.[4] With Garrison making these kinds of remarks about people backing John Brown’s mission there is no doubt that William Lloyd Garrison had a hand in what John Brown was going to do in Harpers Ferry. John Brown was successful in occupying the arsenal, but the local militia commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee surrounded the arsenal. Ten of Brown’s 21 followers were killed and Brown was captured. John Brown was convicted of treason for his raid on the arsenal and was hanged. Many anti-slavery opponents saw Brown as a hero, and his fame grew with his death.
Women also got into the Abolitionist Movement because they were in a fight of their own. They were fighting for their own rights all over the country. The fight for Women’s rights was put on hold at the time because slavery took center stage. Three feminist movement leaders turned abolitionists were Lucretia Mott, who helped form the “Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, who all fought for the rights of the slaves.
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Stanton were both highly educated women in a society where only men were educated. These two women fought for the right of women to leave their homes and establish new careers. One profession that was around for women at this time was writing. Women were able to write for magazines and newspapers, and they wanted to know why they could not be paid the same as men. With the educational limits expanding for women, they could move into the fields of work that were prominently for men; these were doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Stanton and Mott set up a convention to launch the women’s rights movement in 1848. These two women wrote a “Declaration of Sentiments” that was modeled after the Declaration of Independence. In this Declaration these two women proclaimed that, “All men and women are created equal and deserve their inalienable rights including their collective franchise.”[5] These two women used their knowledge and their will to start a feminist movement. When the abolitionist movement to free the slaves started to build force, these two women had to put their fight on hold. They took their skills and motivation and developed a Woman’s Anti-Slavery Movement. With the “Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Group” started these two women worked on freeing the slaves before returning their attentions to women's rights.
Susan B. Anthony was another feminist who turned to the abolition of slavery. Anthony was raised in a Quaker home. She was raised with the ideals of the Quakers on the ideas that slavery was wrong. The Anthony family moved to Rochester New York in 1845 and by 1865 she joined the “American Anti-Slavery Society.”[6] Anthony was one of the society’s biggest supporters. Her courage and strength helped her get through to some harsh times as a member of the “American anti-slavery society.” When she gave her dramatic speeches she encountered hostile mobs, armed threats, and had things thrown at her. In 1863 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton joined forces and organized the “Women’s National Loyal League.”[7] They supported and petitioned for the 13th amendment. After the Civil War they helped get full citizenship and the right to vote for women and people of any race by helping get the 14th and 15th amendments passed.
Harriet Beecher Stow wrote the novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which helped to expose the truth to the world on the horridness of American slavery. Harriet Beecher Stowe was not a lifelong feminist like Anthony, Stanton, and Mott, but she was born, raised, and married into very religious families. She was a writer who used her skill to show the world what slavery was like. She wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” as a way to show the hardship and the atrocities that fell on the slaves. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was one of the world’s most appreciated literary masterpieces. This work was translated into 60 different languages. When she was asked why she wrote the book all she could say was, “I wrote what I did because as a woman, as the mother, I was oppressed and brokenhearted with the sorrows and injustice I saw, because as a Christian I felt dishonored to Christianity – because as a lover of my country, I trembled at the coming day of wrath.”.[8] Harriet Beecher Stowe met with Abraham Lincoln, and one of the things he said about her was, “So this is the little woman who made this Great War.”[9] Stowe’s writing made her a strong woman and a strong abolitionist fighting for the cause of justice.
It was not only whites in the Abolitionist Movement. There were also escaped African-American slaves in the movement as well. These were men and women who risked their lives for the Abolitionist Movement and to help other African-American slaves escape to freedom.
Frederick Douglass was one of the most outspoken African-American abolitionists of the time. After he escaped from slavery at the age of 20 he became the leader of the Abolitionist movement even with the “Fugitive Slave Laws” in effect. The “Fugitive Slave Laws” were laws stating that when captured, the escaped slave was returned to their owner in the South. Douglass changed his views on abolitionism when he separated his thinking from the moralist brand of abolitionist, which was led by William Lloyd Garrison. He changed his views to believing slavery could be abolished with violence. He gave his assistance to the John Brown conspiracy, which led to the raid on Harpers Ferry. During his speeches Douglass always spoke of the plight of the slaves and that American laws of freedom did not extend to the slaves. During a July 4th speech in 1852 Brown said, “This fourth of July is yours not mine you may rejoice, I must mourn.”[10] This statement meant that the celebration of the independence of the country was for white Americans, not the African slaves. Douglass was always out in the public eye, giving speeches, writing books, and fighting for the freedoms of the slaves. This put him in constant harm with the threat of being returned to slavery, but this did not stop him from being one of the greatest abolitionists of the time.
Another great escaped slave turned abolitionists was a woman by the name of Sojourner Truth. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in New York and at great risk became a preacher. She was very out spoken about slavery and women’s rights. There is not much information on Sojourner Truth in her younger days. We know that she was born into a slave family and that her real name is Isabella. She escaped slavery in 1827 by running to a Quaker family. It was not until 1843 that she adopted the name “Sojourner Truth.” Sojourner embraced religion and started her preaching career. During the Civil War Sojourner traveled the roads collecting food and clothing for the black regiments of the Union Army. She took it upon herself to help the cause in that way. Even though Sojourner Truth was a successful abolitionist she is best known for a speech she gave to a women’s convention in Ohio in 1851. This speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” tells the true meaning of how Sojourner Truth not only fought for the rights of slaves, but how she fought for the rights of women as well. She was truly dedicated to giving help and support to anything that she felt was un-right or unjust.
Another great and daring ex-slave was Harriet Tubman. She was a conductor on the “Underground Railroad” and a Union spy during the Civil War. After Tubman escaped from slavery she dedicated her life to help free the slaves. Even at great risk to her, she made 19 trips back and forth into the South to help lead hundreds of slaves to freedom. Harriet Tubman was known as “Moses” to a lot of the escaped slaves because she helped lead them to freedom. Using her intelligence and drawing on her courage Tubman was able to elude bounty hunters seeking their reward for her capture; this reward grew as high as $40,000.[11] Harriet Tubman was another abolitionist that collaborated with John Brown in planning his raid. When the two met she told Brown that she could help by getting escaped slaves to join his army. Brown admired Tubman and wanted her to accompany him on the raid. Harriet risked her freedom time after time during her service in the Civil War. Not only did she help the slaves escape to freedom she also served as a nurse, a scout, and a spy for the Union Army. She helped take care of the sick and wounded in Florida and the Carolinas, all the while fearing that she would be captured and returned to slavery. The information she supplied to the Union Army was invaluable. With her movements throughout the South she knew where the location of cotton warehouses and ammunition dumps were and gave this information to the Union Army. After the Civil War, Harriet Tubman financed her home and family by selling her bibliography and giving speeches. Her dedication and support of the abolitionist movement and the freedom of slaves made her the legend that is still known today.
By the mid-1800’s abolitionism had taken a stronger hold in politics. The turmoil of slavery would haunt all men in politics from Senators like Henry Clay to Presidential candidates and to Presidents themselves. President Abraham Lincoln was the one President to carry most of the burden to free the slaves. During his time in office he helped win a war, emancipated the slaves, and added the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
When Lincoln became president he was faced by a divided country with seven states secceeded from the union and on the brink of Civil War. The nation was divided because the Southern States felt that it was illegal for the federal government to tell the Southerners how they should live. Lincoln was not an abolitionist, but he did believe slavery was wrong, and one of the biggest problems he faced was that it was allowed the by the Constitution. After the start of the Civil War Lincoln tried anything he could to end war. One of the first steps he took was in placing an act called “The Confiscation Act of 1861” granting freedom to slaves who served in the Confederate Army. Congress did not think this was enough, so in 1862 they passed the “Second Confiscation Act.” This act declared freedom to all slaves who were owned by Confederate officials both civilian and military. It was not until 1863 when the “Emancipation Proclamation” was released that the slaves truly thought they would be free. This proclamation did not exactly free all the slaves. The “Emancipation Proclamation” did not affect slavery in the border states, and it only helped those slaves where the Union Army held land. Even though this proclamation really did not free any slaves it was a political turning point for Lincoln and his views of slavery and a turning point in the Civil War. The “Emancipation Proclamation” gave hope to the slaves for their freedom. It was not until the Constitution was amended that slaves actually got their freedom. With all the hardships and political turmoil, President Lincoln, with the support of Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. With the words, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime wherefore the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction,” slavery was finally eradicated in the United States. [12]
Even though slavery was eradicated in the United States by the 13th Amendment it still exists in our world today. Human trafficking is still one of the major problems facing people today. Slaves are being used as workers in sweatshops in the fashion industry. They are used in sex trades. Even though laws forbid any “sale into involuntary servitude,” slavery still exists.
[1] Cross June (Editor), “Quakers: From Slave Traders to Early Abolitionist,” This Far by faith, accessed December 10, 2014, http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/journey_1/p_7.html.
[2] William Lee Miller, Arguing About Slavery: the Great Battle in the United States Congress (New York: Knopf, 1996), 17.
[3] Edward Renehan, The Secret Six: The True Tale of the Men Who Conspired with John Brown, pbk. ed. (Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1997), 1-63.
[4] Renehan, 55
[5] James M. McPherson, The Oxford History of the United States, vol. 6, Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 36.
[6] "Susan Brownell Anthony," The Biography.com website, accessed Dec 10 2014, http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905.
[7] Anthony, Website
[8] “Harriet Beecher Stowe's Life,” Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, accessed December 10, 2014,https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/hbs/.
[9] Miller, 334
[10] David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass' Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee, louisiana pbk. ed. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 75.
[11] History.com Staff, “Harriet Tubman,” History.com, 2009, hppt://www.history.com/topics/black-history/harriet-tubman.
[12] Feross Aboukhadijeh, "Abolition of Slavery" StudyNotes.org. StudyNotes, Inc., 17 Nov. 201210 Dec. 2014. www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/abolition-of-slavery