One of the reform movements in Antebellum U.S.

Different perspectives

• Colonization Movement

  • Those who could not envision a biracial society and advocated sending Black people to Africa or the Caribbean.

  • In 1816, the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America (ACS) was founded because of this movement.

    • Thomas Jefferson was a leading statesmen of this idea.

    • Stands as an example of how White reformers, especially men of property and standing, addressed the issue of slavery.

  • Played a major role in the creation of the colony of Libera on the west coast of Africa.

• Others who promoted the use of violence as the best method to bring American slavery to an end.

  • Nat Turner’s Rebellion of 1831

    • One of the largest slave uprisings in American history in Southampton County, Virginia.

    • Turner and as many as 70 other enslaved people killed their enslavers and their families (around 65 people).

    • Nat Turner was inspired by the evangelical Protestant fervor sweeping the republic.

      • Gained a reputation among the enslaved people he preached to as a prophet because he said he would wait for a sign from his Christian god, which would then be confirmed by an eclipse in August.

      • He was tried, hanged, and then beheaded and quartered in late October.

    • 56 others were put to death, believing they took part in the rebellion.

    • The panic of the rebellion swept through Virginia and the rest of the South, leading to white vigilantes and organized militias that kill 200 more people.

    • Provoked a heated discussion in Virginia over slavery.

      • Some delegates advocated for an easier manumission process, but the rebellion changed their minds and that reform became impossible.

      • Virginia and other slave states recommitted themselves to the institution of slavery, and defenders of slavery in the South increasingly blamed northerners for provoking the enslaved to rebel.

  • David Walker, a literate, educated free Black man favored rebellion.

    • Lectured on slavery.

    • Promoted the first African American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal.

    • Called for Black people to actively resist slavery and to use violence if needed.

    • Published “An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World” in 1829, denouncing the scheme of colonization and urging Black people to take action against racism.

    • Became a symbol of hope to free people in the North.

    • Became a symbol of the terrors of literate, educated Black people to the slaveholders of the South.

• Abolitionists

  • William Lloyd Garrison of Massachusetts distinguished himself as the leader of the abolitionist movement.

    • Former supporter of colonization, but came to believe that such a scheme only deepened racism and perpetuated the sinful practices of his fellow Americans.

    • In 1831, he founded the abolitionist newspaper “The Liberator.”

    • West Virginians blamed Garrison for stirring up enslaved people and instigating slave rebellions like Nat Turner’s.

    • Founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831.

    • Founded the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) in 1833.

      • Rejected colonization as a racist scheme and opposed the use of violence to end slavery.

      • Sometimes called “Garrisonians.”

      • Believed in moral suasion:

        • A technique of appealing to the conscience of the public, especially slaveholders.

        • Relied on dramatic narratives about the horrors of slavery, arguing that slavery destroyed families.

        • Moral suasion resonated with many women, who condemned the sexual violence against enslaved women and the victimization of southern White women by adulterous husbands.

        • The abolition press helped to circulate moral suasion.

          • Since most newspapers published congressional proceedings, the abolition petitions reached readers throughout the nation.

      • Believed in immediatism:

        • The moral demand to take immediate action to end slavery.

      • Used the power of petitions to Congress to demand an end to slavery.

Worked to end slavery and to create a multiracial society of equals using moral arguments.

• Publicized the atrocities committed under slavery.

They took advantage of the intense religious fervor of the 2nd Great Awakening to bring a mass awakening in the U.S. of the sin of slavery.

Helped create the Liberty Party in 1840.

• Its first candidate was James G. Birney.

  • Epitomized the ideal and goals of the abolitionist movement.

• Did not generate much support and remained a fringe third party.

• Many of its supporters turned to the Free-Soil Party in the aftermath of the Mexican Cession.

The vast majority of northerners rejected abolition entirely.

• In the Age of Jackson, racism saturated American culture, therefore abolition generated a fierce backpack in the United States.

• Anti-Abolitionists in the North saw Garrison and other abolitionists as the worst of the worst, a threat to the republic that would break the status quo.

  • Believed that if slavery ended, the North would be flooded with Black people who would take jobs from White people.

  • A mob of anti-Abolitionists killed an abolitionist named Elijah Lovejoy in 1837.

  • Destroyed abolitionists’ newly built Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia by burning it to the ground.

Frederick Douglass was an escaped enslaved man who joined the abolitionist movement.

• Escaped to New York in 1818 and later moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts with his wife.

• He provided powerful and electrifying public lectures on slavery.

• Garrison and others encouraged him to publish his story, giving rise to “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave Written by Himself,” in 1845.

  • Told about his life of slavery in Maryland.

  • Identified by name the White people who had brutalized him.

    • Because of this, and also because he published his story, Douglass had to flee the United States to avoid being murdered.

• British abolitionist friends bought his freedom from his Maryland owner and returned to the U.S.

• Began to publish his own newspaper, North Star, in Rochester, New York.

• Labored to bring about the end of slavery by telling the story of his life and highlighting how slavery destroyed families, both Black and White.

Sarah and Angelina Grimke, also known as The Grimke Sisters, played major roles in combining the fight to end slavery with the struggle to achieve female equality.

• Born into a prosperous slaveholding family in South Carolina.

• Influenced by the religious fervor of the 2nd Great Awakening, and moved to the North and converted to Quakerism.

• Angelina Grimke was among the first women to join the American-Anti-Slavery Society.

  • Black and White northern women wrote tracts, gave speeches, and raised funds to support the movement’s advocation for the end of slavery.

• Joined the abolitionist movement in the mid-1830s.

• In 1837, they embarked on a public lecture tour, speaking about immediate abolition to promiscuous assemblies.

  • (To audiences of women and men).

  • William Lloyd Garrison endorsed the Grimke sisters’ public lectures, but other abolitionists did not.

  • Their lecture tour served a s a turning point; the reaction against them propelled the question of women’s proper sphere in society to the forefront of public debate.