Abolitionist Movement

Who were the Gradualists?

People who stopped slaves from being brought into the U.S and compensated slave-owners for their losses

American Colonization Society (1816)

Believed freed Black Americans should be sent to Africa; helped found Liberia (1821).

Abolitionists

Saw slavery as a moral evil that must end immediately with no compensation to enslavers.

William Lloyd Garrison

Published The Liberator; demanded immediate emancipation; founded the American Anti-Slavery Society (1832).

Sarah & Angelina Grimk

Southern women who became abolitionists; linked abolition with women’s rights.

Lucretia Mott

Quaker; co-founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.

David Walker

Pamphlet: Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World—encouraged violent resistance.

Elijah Lovejoy

Abolitionist newspaper editor; killed defending his press from a mob.

Frederick Douglass

Former enslaved man; powerful speaker; demanded freedom + equality; spread message in the U.S. & England.

Sojourner Truth

Former enslaved; speaker for both abolition and women’s rights.

Northern reaction to the Abolition Movement

• Many disliked slavery but feared abolition would:
  

  • Damage relations with the South

  • Lead to job competition with free Black Americans

• Abolitionists often seen as “troublemakers”

Southern Reaction to the Abolition Movement

• Even non-slaveholders supported slavery (hope to own slaves one day).

• Argued slavery was protected by the Constitution.

• Claimed enslaved people were “better off” than Northern wage workers—food, shelter, care for life.

• Promoted racist belief that enslaved people couldn’t care for themselves.

Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831)

Enslaved preacher led rebellion in VA; 59 whites killed; approx. 200 Black people killed in retaliation; Slave Codes strengthened.

Gag Rule (1836)

Congress refused to discuss antislavery petitions for 8 years.

Women’s proper role (pre-industrial & early industrial U.S.):

• Piety – religious virtue & moral influence

• Purity – sexual innocence until marriage

• Submissiveness – dependent on men; obedient

• Domesticity – stay in the home; raise children

What led to the Women’s Movement?

• Industrialization gave women more free time after child-rearing years.

• Many joined reform movements, especially:
  

  • Education

  • Health

  • Temperance

  • Abolition (though often given secondary roles)

What did the Women’s Movement request?

• Equal education

• Fair wages

• Job opportunities

• Suffrage (right to vote) – became the main focus

Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

• First women’s rights convention in NY.

• Led by abolitionist women such as Mott & Stanton.

• Issued the Declaration of Sentiments demanding equality, especially suffrage.

Cult of Domesticity

Belief that women’s proper role was in the home, demonstrating piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity.