LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop ... · pretending you are this...
Transcript of LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop ... · pretending you are this...
Directions: Read the biography, underline facts about their
background, and underline actions the person did in an
attempt to stop slavery. You will then write a letter
pretending you are this abolitionist.
LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop slavery
Sarah Grimke & Angelina Grimke
At a time when women were supposed to stay home and
keep their political views to themselves, Sarah and Angelina
Grimke were rebels of the times. Having strong opinions about
slavery and women's rights, these sisters shocked all who knew
them by speaking out and getting involved with making changes on
both.
The Grimke sisters of South Carolina were two early female
abolitionists (fighting against slavery) and women's rights activists, traveling throughout the North,
speaking out about their first-hand experiences with slavery on their family plantation. They were
often teased and yelled at for their abolitionist activity. They both realized that women would have to
create a safe space in the public arena if they wanted to be helpful abolitionists and reformers. They
also both became women's rights activists.
Their father, a South Carolina judge, owned slaves -- the sisters believed slavery was wrong
and cruel. Their father, a strong supporter of slavery and not a supporter of women, was a wealthy
planter with hundreds of slaves. He was the father to at least 14 children. Sarah was the sixth child
and Angelina was the youngest. When she was not allowed to go to school, Sarah begged her parents
to allow her to become Angelina's godmother and she became part mother and part sister to her much
younger sibling.
Sarah Grimke was an abolitionist from an early age: she saw a slave being whipped at age 5
and tried to board a steamer ship to live in a place where there is no slavery. Later she taught one of
her father’s slaves to read even though it was breaking the law. An early feminist, meaning a person
who fights for women’s equality, she wanted to become a lawyer.
Moving to Philadelphia, in the North, in the late 1820s, they began writing and speaking
against slavery, soon finding that women were not encouraged to speak in public or travel alone.
Although they were treated poorly for their behavior, their speeches still drew large crowds and
support. Their writings showed how African-American’s being slaves and the treatment of women
were both major problems.
In the late 1830s, they opened a boarding school, where Sarah also taught. However, they
never gave up their beliefs. In 1870, they were part of a group of women who attempted to vote in a
Massachusetts election, though unsuccessfully.
Directions: Read the biography, underline facts about their
background, and underline actions the person did in an attempt
to stop slavery. You will then write a letter pretending you are
this abolitionist.
LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop slavery
Frederick Douglass
At the age of 23 Frederick Douglass gave his first
speech of many about his life as a slave. Douglass would
continue to give speeches for the rest of his life and would
become a leading spokesperson for the abolition of slavery and
for racial equality.
He was born the son of a slave woman and an unknown
white man. While growing up he saw many horrible acts of
slavery. He saw terrible whippings and spent much time cold
and hungry. When he was eight he was sent to Baltimore,
Maryland to live with a ship carpenter named Hugh Auld.
There he learned to read and first heard the words abolition and
abolitionists. Hearing these speeches got him started on
fighting for himself and other slaves.
Douglass spent seven pretty good years in Baltimore before being sent back to the country,
where he was hired out to a farm run by an extremely mean "slavebreaker" named Edward Covey.
The treatment he received was indeed terrible. He was whipped daily and barely fed, Douglass was
"broken in body, soul, and spirit." Soon after this he escaped knowing he wanted a better life. He ran
away to New York to start a new life. Always determined to educate himself, Douglass worked hard
to learn from the abolitionists around him. He joined many organizations in New York, including a
black church. He attended Abolitionists' meetings. He read William Lloyd Garrison's weekly
magazine, the Liberator.
Despite worries that the information might endanger his freedom, Douglass published his
autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written By Himself.
The year was 1845. Three years later, after giving speeches all over England, Ireland, and Scotland,
Douglass published the first issue of the North Star, a four-page weekly newspaper, out of Rochester,
New York.
Frederick Douglass would work very hard to better the lives of African Americans. He talked
with Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and recruited northern blacks for the Union Army. After
the War he fought for the rights of both African Americans and women.
Directions: Read the biography, underline facts about their
background, and underline actions the person did in an
attempt to stop slavery. You will then write a letter
pretending you are this abolitionist.
LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop slavery
William Lloyd Garrison
For more than three decades Garrison wrote his paper
the Liberator, from 1831, until after the end of the Civil War
in 1865 when the last issue was published. Garrison spoke
out powerfully and passionately against slavery and for the
rights of America's black population.
When he was 25, Garrison joined the Abolition
movement. He became associated with the American
Colonization Society, an organization that believed free
blacks should move back to a territory on the west coast of
Africa. On January 1, 1831, he published the first issue of his
own anti-slavery newspaper, the Liberator.
In speeches and articles in the Liberator, Garrison supported the immediate freeing of all
slaves. This was an unpopular view during the 1830s, even with northerners who were against
slavery. What would become of all the freed slaves? Certainly they could not mix into American
society, people thought. Garrison believed that they could. He believed that, in time, all blacks would
be equal in every way to the country's white citizens. They, too, were Americans and entitled to "life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Although not many people read the Liberator, Garrison soon gained a reputation for being the
most extreme of abolitionists. Still, his approach to freeing the slaves stressed non-violence and calm
resistance, and he did attract a following. In 1832 he helped organize the New England Anti-Slavery
Society, and, the following year, the American Anti-Slavery Society. These were the first
organizations dedicated to the idea of the immediate freedom of the slaves.
After the end of the Civil War in 1865, Garrison published his last issue of the Liberator.
After thirty five years and 1,820 issues, Garrison did not fail to publish a single issue.
Directions: Read the biography, underline facts about their
background, and underline actions the person did in an
attempt to stop slavery. You will then write a letter
pretending you are this abolitionist.
LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop slavery
Maria Stewart
Maria Stewart, a freeborn African American woman, was
the first American-born woman of any color to give a series of
public speeches. Motivated by political and religious
discrimination, Stewart began giving speeches and writing
pamphlets in 1831. She tried hard to better the lives of her fellow
African Americans, and spoke on a whole range of topics of
importance to the black community, including abolition, equal
rights, colonization (African Americans moving back to Africa),
educational opportunities, and racial pride and unity. She
promoted black freedom and independence from whites. In this
sense she was one of the most radical spokespersons of her time.
Maria Stewart was active in Boston from 1831 until 1833, a short career in comparison to other
abolitionists of the time, yet a career that was important in leading the way for Black women activists
that followed. She looked up to David Walker and the ideas of Black independence outlined in his
famous 1829 Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. She viewed Walker as the example of
manhood to which all Black men should aim, and promised that she was willing to follow him to the
grave on behalf of the abolitionist cause.
She also had a life-long friendship with William Lloyd Garrison, the White founder of the
Liberator magazine and the New England Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison supported Stewart by
publishing her speeches and advertising her speaking dates in his magazine at a time when Stewart
was not merely controversial because of her political views but because of her race and gender as
well.
Her career as a public speaker was cut short, however. There was strong opposition to women
speaking in public, even from some members of the black community. Stewart handled the criticism
bravely for about a year, but then decided to stop giving public speeches. Instead, she started a long
and famous career as an educator. Stewart taught in New York and eventually opened two schools for
free African American children in Washington, D.C.
Directions: Read the biography, underline facts about their
background, and underline actions the person did in an
attempt to stop slavery. You will then write a letter
pretending you are this abolitionist.
LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop slavery
David Walker
The son of a slave father and a free black mother, David
Walker was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, perhaps in 1796
or 1797. According to existing laws, since his mother was a free
black, David Walker was also free. This freedom, however, did
not protect him from seeing how horrible slavery was. He
witnessed a lot of sadness in his youth, including one disturbing
experience of a son who was forced to whip his mother until she
died. Walker traveled throughout the country, eventually settling
in Boston. But even in that free northern city, he was treated
unfairly and life was less than perfect for its black citizens.
In Boston, Walker began to become friends with important
African Americans who were fighting to end slavery. He joined groups that said slavery was bad in
the South and there was unfair treatment in the North. He became involved with the nation's first
African American newspaper, the Freedom's Journal out of New York City, to which he often wrote
for. By the end of 1828, he had become Boston's leading spokesman against slavery.
In September of 1829 he published his book Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. He
tried to excite slaves of the South into rebelling against their master. The Appeal made a great
impression in the South, with both slaves and slaveholders. To the slaves the words were inspiring
and gave them a sense of pride and hope. The book though frightened whites and they then created
laws that made it illegal for blacks to learn to read and illegal to give out of antislavery books. They
offered a $3,000 reward for Walker's head, and $10,000 to anyone who could bring him to the South
alive. Friends concerned about his safety told him to flee to Canada. Walker responded that he would
not leave.
David Walker published a third edition of his book, Appeal in June of 1830. Two months later
he was found dead in his home. Although there was no evidence to support the idea, many believed
that he had been poisoned. Later research suggests he died of tuberculosis, the same disease that
killed his daughter.
Directions: Read the biography, underline facts about their
background, and underline actions the person did in an
attempt to stop slavery. You will then write a letter
pretending you are this abolitionist.
LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop slavery
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth was one of the best-known black
women of her time, next to only by Harriet Tubman. Truth.
She could not read or write and left no written records apart
from her autobiographical Narrative of Sojourner Truth,
which she told to Olive Gilbert in the late 1840s. Much of
what we know about her was reported or perhaps invented by
others.
Born around 1797 in Ulster County, New York, 80
miles north of New York City, she was the next to youngest
of 10 or 12 children, and her parents, James and Elizabeth
Baumfree, named her Isabella. Isabella belonged to a series
of slave owners, including, from 1810 to 1827, a man named
Dumont. When Isabella was about 14, she married Thomas,
an older slave owned by Dumont. Between about 1815 and 1826, they had four children, Diana,
Peter, Elizabeth, and Sophia, and perhaps a fifth who died.
When New York abolished (ended) slavery in 1827, Isabella gained her freedom and traveled
to New York City, taking Peter and leaving her daughters with their father.
In 1843, Isabella made a complete break with her past, took the name she believed that God
had given her — Sojourner Truth — and gave speeches against slavery. By December she met
Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, other abolitionists.
Truth insisted on the need to include black and working women in helping to fix problems in
the U.S. She wrote speeches about her own experience as a black woman and former slave. She was
known for giving excellent speeches.
During the Civil War, she moved to Washington, D.C., and met President Abraham Lincoln.
From 1864 to 1868, she worked with the private National Freedmen's Relief Association and the
federal Freedmen's Bureau, both of these groups helped newly freed slaves. In the 1870s, Truth
joined the American Woman Suffrage Association to help women get the right to vote. She also
suggested a proposal to give Kansas lands to poor former slaves. When thousands of southern blacks,
known as the Exodusters, actually moved to Kansas in 1879, Truth cheered for them and offered her
assistance. She returned from Kansas in 1880 and lived with her daughters in Battle Creek, New
York until her death.
Directions: Read the biography, underline facts about their
background, and underline actions the person did in an
attempt to stop slavery. You will then write a letter
pretending you are this abolitionist.
LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop slavery
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman was born in Maryland, and was
one of 11 children of Harriet Greene and Benjamin
Ross, both slaves. At a young age, Tubman worked in
her owner's house as well as in other households. As a
teenager, she worked in the fields, gaining strength. In
her teens, she protected a slave who was running from
their owner. The owner threw a 2-pound weight at the
runaway slave that missed and struck Tubman on the
head, nearly killing her. For the rest of her life, she was
prone to sudden sleeping spells, dizziness, and
headaches, and had a deep gash on her skull.
In 1844 she married John Tubman, a free black
man. When Tubman's owner died in 1849, Tubman
feared that she and members of her family would be sold to new horrible slave-owners. Determined
to escape, she tried to get her husband to join her, but he would not. She ran away without him,
traveling at night and hiding by day until she came to Pennsylvania, a free state.
Tubman went to Philadelphia, where she cleaned and cooked for a living, saving her money
for a return trip to the South to go get other members of her family. In 1850 she made her first hidden
trip to Baltimore, Maryland, where she rescued her enslaved sister and two children. Tubman soon
became friends with black leader William Still of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, white leader Thomas
Garrett of Wilmington, Delaware, and other people helping on the Underground Railroad. The
Underground Railroad was a network of abolitionists who arranged for fugitive (run away) slaves to
travel safely from South to North, and Tubman became its most successful conductor (leader). In an
estimated 19 trips to the South from 1850 to 1860, she guided more than 300 men, women, and
children to freedom, including her own entire family. In 1857 she made perhaps her most remarkable
journey, returning to the North with her aging parents.
In her work, Tubman carried a gun, not to fight off enemies, but to force runaway slaves who
grew nervous or tired and wanted to return. "Live in the North, or die here," she is said to have told
them. She also used drugs to quiet crying babies and used several disguises. It is believed that all of
the slaves in Tubman's care made it safely to the North, even though there were large rewards offered
for her capture. After Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required Northern states
to return escaped slaves, Tubman settled runaways in Canada, in what is now Ontario. She lived
occasionally in Canada, settling with her parents in Auburn, New York, in the late 1850s.
Directions: Read the biography, underline facts about their
background, and underline actions the person did in an
attempt to stop slavery. You will then write a letter
pretending you are this abolitionist.
LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop slavery
John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier, was an abolitionist who spoke
out a lot about freeing slaves. The way he spoke out against
slavery was through poetry.
His first poem, The Exile's Departure, was published by
William Lloyd Garrison in the Newburyport Free Press in
June of 1826. Thus began a lifelong friendship with the
abolitionist leader Garrison. Whittier supported himself for a
time as a teacher and a shoemaker. Eventually, his friendship
with Garrison got him involved in politics. He became the editor of several newspapers, the American
Manufacturer in Boston and then of the Haverhill Gazette and the New England Review. He also
became a co-founder of the Liberty party, which was a political group to stop slavery.
From these newspapers, Whittier joined Garrison and others in attacking the evils of slavery.
His first collection of poems dealing with ending slavery was published in 1837. Supported by
Garrison, Whitter joined the Anti-Slavery political party. Whitter was a representative to the first
meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Convention. He wrote many Abolitionist poems and published
Justice and Expediency, a powerful anti-slavery essay.
Old diseases from his boyhood had left him in poor health and eventually he had to retire from
newspaper editing, but he continued to write all the time against slavery.
Whittier died in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, in 1892, having lived to see the end of
slavery. Something he had fought for throughout his life.
Directions: Read the biography, underline facts about their
background, and underline actions the person did in an attempt
to stop slavery. You will then write a letter pretending you are
this abolitionist.
LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop slavery
Jermain Loguen
Loguen was born into slavery in Davidson County,
Tennessee, the son of a white man, David Logue, and a slave
named Cherry. At age 21, he successfully escaped slavery on
his second attempt. He stole his master's horse and followed
the Underground Railroad north, finally crossing into
Canada. Loguen added an "n" to the end of his last name,
learned to read, worked many different jobs in Canada and
New York. After receiving his religious and abolitionist
education in Whitesboro, NY, he became a Minister and
spoke to his people about the evils of slavery. Loguen settled
in Syracuse, NY where his house became a major stop on the Underground Railroad
He was the stationmaster in Syracuse, New York for the Underground Railroad. In the local
newspapers he asked for money to help the run-away slaves. He was known as the “King of the
Underground Railroad” and it is estimated that he helped 1,500 slaves escape.
While most of these people remain unidentified, a few specific examples have been recorded.
On Christmas Eve, 1855, six freedom seekers left Oak Hill plantation in Loudon County, Virginia.
Two of them were captured, but the remaining four (Barnabas and Mary Elizabeth Grigby, Frank
Wanzer, and Emily Foster) stood up to the whites who were chasing them. The escaped slaves stood
up with guns and managed to escape across the Maryland-Pennsylvania line to freedom.
Not only did help slaves escape, but he also started several black schools in New York State.
This helped newly escaped slaves get an education and helped them get jobs to become successful in
their new free life.
Directions: Read the biography, underline facts about their
background, and underline actions the person did in an
attempt to stop slavery. You will then write a letter
pretending you are this abolitionist.
LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop slavery
Thomas Garrett
Thomas Garrett, the son of a farmer, was born on
21st August, 1789, in Delaware. He worked in the iron
trade and after marrying settled in Wilmington, Delaware.
He was strongly against slavery and joined the
Pennsylvania Abolition Society.
Delaware was a slave state, but very close to other
free states. Therefore, many slaves attempted to escape
from Delaware to go to the close by free states. Garrett
turned his home in Wilmington into the last station on the
Underground Railroad before the slaves reached freedom
in Pennsylvania. It has been estimated that Garrett helped
more than 2,000 runaway slaves escape from the Southern
states. The Maryland authorities were so angry with
Garrett that they set a reward of $10,000 for his arrest.
In 1848 Garrett was brought before a Federal court. Garrett said that he had helped fugitive
slaves and would continue to do so. His was found guilty and given a large fine that forced him into
bankruptcy. However, with the help of his anti-slavery friends, Garrett was able to re-establish his
business.
During the Civil War Garrett was threatened by pro-slavery violence in Delaware and his
home had to be protected by African American volunteers.
After the passing of the 15th Amendment which gave the vote to African Americans, Garrett
was carried through the streets of Wilmington by former slaves in an open carriage with the words
"Our Moses" written on it.
Thomas Garrett died on 25th January, 1871. He left instructions that he was to be carried to
his grave by African Americans and that they should participate in the service.
Directions: Read the biography, underline facts about their
background, and underline actions the person did in an attempt
to stop slavery. You will then write a letter pretending you are
this abolitionist.
LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop slavery
William Still
William Still, one of seventeen children, was born into
slavery. His father escaped to New Jersey and was later
followed by his wife and children.
Still left New Jersey for Philadelphia in 1844. Three
years later he was made the secretary of the Pennsylvania
Abolition Society. Still was the first black man to join the
society and was able to give first-hand experience of what it
was like to be a slave.
Still, created a coal business in Philadelphia that made a
lot of money. He then used his house as one of the stations on
the Underground Railroad. Still interviewed the escaped slaves and kept careful records of each so
that family and friends might locate them. According to his records, Still helped 649 slaves receive
their freedom.
After John Brown and his raid at Harper's Ferry failed in 1859 Still sheltered some of his men
and helped them escape capture.
At this time Still started fighting to end racial discrimination on Philadelphia streetcars. He
wrote an about his fight in a book called the Struggle for the Civil Rights of the Coloured People of
Philadelphia in the City Railway Cars (1867). He followed this with The Underground Railroad
(1872) and Voting and Laboring (1874).
Still started an orphanage for the children of African-American soldiers and sailors. He also
created a Mission Sabbath School and worked with the Young Men's Christian Association. Both of
these organizations worked to help young men grow up to be better citizens. William Still died in
Philadelphia on 14th July, 1902.
Directions: Read the biography, underline facts about their
background, and underline actions the person did in an
attempt to stop slavery. You will then write a letter
pretending you are this abolitionist.
LT: I can retell what an abolitionist did to try to stop slavery
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher was born June 14, 1811, the
seventh child of a famous preacher. Harriet worked as
a teacher with her older sister Catharine. She wrote
books for kids. Her first book was about geography
for children. In 1836, Harriet married Calvin Stowe
and they had seven children. Stowe helped to earn
money for her family by writing for local and
religious newspapers. During her life, she wrote
poems, travel books, biographical books, and
children's books, as well as adult novels. She met and
wrote with people as varied as Lady Byron, Oliver
Wendell Holmes, and George Eliot. She died at the
age of 85, in Hartford Connecticut.
While she wrote at least ten adult novels, Harriet Beecher Stowe is most known for her first,
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). This book began as a series for the Washington anti-slavery newspaper,
the National Era. It talked about the problem of slavery, and was considered scandalous at the time.
In the book, Stowe wrote about her personal experience. She knew about slavery, the antislavery
movement, and the Underground Railroad because Kentucky, nearby where Stowe had lived, was a
slave state.
The novel had a large effect on the North's view of slavery. First published on March 20, 1852,
the story focuses on the tale of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave and his slave owners. The
novel shows how mean slavery was on a daily basis. It also showed that love can overcome even
something as evil as slavery.
After people ready the book, she became a celebrity, speaking against slavery both in America
and Europe. She wrote A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853) which talked more about the day to day
life of a slave. She also published a second anti-slavery novel, Dred in1856. In 1862, when she
visited President Lincoln, it is said that he greeted her as "the little lady who made this big war.”