�

03: Abolitionist Movement

What Factors Contributed to the Rise of the Abolitionist Movement?

� 1.  Sectionalization of Slavery 2.  American Colonization Society 3.  Black Abolitionism 4.  White Abolitionism 5.  Abolitionist Propaganda 6.  Anti-Abolitionist Opposition 7.  Conclusion 8.  Bibliography

Abolitionist Movement

� Meeting on the Formation of the American Colonization Society (1816) ²  Why did members of the American Colonization

Society (ACS) consider colonization necessary for the free black population?

²  In what ways might the ACS have weakened the institution of slavery? In what ways might the ACS have strengthened the institution? To what extent was the ACS an antislavery organization?

American Colonization Society

� ²  “The expediency of colonizing the free people of

colour in the United States, may be considered in reference to its influence on our civil institutions, on the morals and habits of the people.... [T]his class of people ... remain[s] a monument of reproach to those sacred principles of civil liberty, which constitute the foundation of all our constitutions.... This state of society, unquestionably tends ... to injure the morals and destroy the habits of industry among our people.”—Elias B. Caldwell, DC (1816)

American Colonization Society

� ²  “[I]t appeared to him that it had not been sufficiently

insisted on, with a view to obtain the co-operation of all the citizens of the United States, not only that this meeting does not in any wise affect the question of negro slavery, but as far as it goes, must materially tend to secure the property of every master in the United States over his slaves.... [T]he existence of this mixed and intermediate population of free negroes was viewed by every slave holder as one of the greatest sources of the insecurity, and also unprofitableness, of slave property; that they served to excite in their fellow beings a feeling of discontent, of repining at their situation...”—John Randolph, Roanoke

American Colonization Society

� David Walker, “Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World” (1829) ²  What were Walker’s criticisms of “Americans”? ²  What did Walker think about colonization? ²  What was the tone of the “Appeal”?

Black Abolitionists

� Timothy Patrick McCarthy, “‘To Plead Our Own Cause’” (2006) ²  Why was Freedom’s Journal important? ²  What message did Freedom’s Journal and David

Walker’s Appeal preach? ²  Why was print culture important in the black

abolitionist movement? ²  Why was it important for African Americans to

“plead” their “own cause”?

Black Abolitionists

� White Abolitionists

²  “Urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard.”—William Lloyd Garrison (1831)

� Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” (1845) ²  What were Douglass’s criticisms of the institution of

slavery? ²  How did Douglass depict slaveholders? Slaves? The

slaveholder-slave relationship? ²  According to Douglass, how was a man made into a

slave? How was a slave made into a man? ²  To what extent do you think Douglass’s experiences of

slavery can be generalized to other slaves? In what ways did Douglass’s experiences not apply to other slaves?

Abolitionist Propaganda

� Harriet Jacobs, “Incidences in the Life of a Slave Girl” (1861) ²  What were Jacobs’s criticisms of the institution of

slavery? ²  How did Jacobs depict slaveholders? Slaves? The

slaveholder-slave relationship? ²  How did Jacobs attempt to appeal to her audience? ²  To what extent do you think Jacobs’s experiences of

slavery can be generalized to other slaves? In what ways did Jacobs’s experiences not apply to other slaves?

Abolitionist Propaganda

� Anti-Abolitionist Opposition

� Conclusion

� Levine, Bruce C. Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of

Civil War. Rev. ed. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005. Pease, Jane H., and William H. Pease. “Ends, Means,

and Attitudes: Black-White Conflict in the Antislavery Movement.” Civil War History 18, no. 2 (1972): 117–28.

Bibliography