1

ABOLITION
REFORMATION
Julia Gillespie
Period 3
11/15/18
CONTEXT OF THE REFORMATION
- 19th century was rapidly changing society because of growing
populations and economic complexity
- Immigration → rapid population growth
- Building of the Erie Canal, railroads, and steamboats → industrial and economic boom
- Creations of technology → mass factory production
- Recruitment of large labor forces for factory jobs
- Creation of a new middle class (North) and the higher class planter society (South) →
created inequalities between social classes
- Changes in the structure of families and individual roles
- Rise of agricultural technologies → expanded the cotton industry
- Increased the need for slaves and their separation from the rest of society
- Some Americans were excited about this era of change, and some were
scared of the changes it would cause to traditional values and social
institutions. This created movements to “reform” the nation.
REFORMATION
Reasons for Reform:

- new optimism and faith in the human nature

with the belief that every individual had a good
side they could unleash
- Desire for a stable and controlled society that
created a want for the old traditional values,
but also created new institutions of social
control for the realities of the new age

Slavery became the issue that

overshadowed all others, with
abolitionist groups of reformers
becoming the most prominent.
2

ABOLITION REFORM
ABOLITION - the effort to immediately end slavery and racial
discrimination and emancipate all slaves to fit the ideals of the nation
(personal freedom and equal creation of all men and women)

- American abolitionists were led by Evangelical Protestants who

believed slavery was a sin and it was the moral obligation of Americans
to eradicate it
- The first abolition movements were results of William Lloyd Garrison’s
new evolution of radical emancipation of slavery
- Abolitionists saw their job as done when the Fifthteenth Amendment
was passed, extending suffrage to African Americans
- Major abolitionists included William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick
Douglass, and Harriet Beecher Stowe
 ABOLITION REFORMATION CAUSES
2

Second Great Awakening → This surge of new ideas led massive

religious revivals that created major impacts on the emergence of
abolitionism. Ideas about the potential of individuals, as well as the want
to end sinful practices because of each person’s responsibility to uphold
God in society spread throughout the nation. Many saw slavery as the
product of sin and demanded emancipation.

- Nation was striving for revivalism; the liberation of the human spirit in
all aspects of life
- Utopian Visions
- Robert Owen created a community in Indiana (1825) named
“New Harmony”, a village of cooperation where all residents
lived and worked in total equality
- The American Anti-Slavery Society (1833)
- Wanted to end slavery because it was against morals
- Charles G. Finney, Lyman Beecher were popular preachers during this
time
2

ABOLITION REFORMATION CAUSES

Slavery → awful living conditions and treatment of African American
slaves created a want for equality. These unfair conditions were a
extreme drive of many black abolitionists to fight for equality.

- Isolated blacks from whites, created a sharp racial divide

- Forbade slaves unalienable constitutional rights
- Hold property, testify in court, carry firearms, marry,
divorce,
- Blacks were discriminated against in judicial systems
- Faced death penalties for resisting of inciting revolt
- If owners killed slaves, it was no considered a crime
- Slaves commonly faced poor living conditions
- Lived in clustered slave quarters that were unsanitary and
small
- Had cheap clothing and shoes
- Little medical care
- Normally worked from morning to night doing intensive
2

ABOLITION REFORMATION CAUSES

National and Foreign Slave Trade → further increased the want to
end awful conditions of slave life, as well as introduced the beginning of
active slave resistance.

- Slaves were forced to live in inhumane conditions

- Transported over long distances in cramped, unsanitary trains or
boats
- Slaves markets were dehumanizing
- Were checked and sold like livestock with prices put on their value
- Ex. a young field man varied with price from $500-$1,700
- Separated families and children
- Federal law prohibited importation of slaves, but smuggling still occurred
- Delegates from the South voted to repeal this law in the 1858 meeting
- Cuban slaves resisted being smuggled and took control of the Amistad
in 1839. Former President John Quincy Adams argued they should be
freed because slave trade was illegal
EARLY ABOLITION RESISTANCE
- 1800 - Gabriel Prosser gathered 1000 rebellious slaves outside
Richmond
- 1831 - Nat Turner led slaves armed with guns/axes and killed 60
white men and women
- 1817 - American Colonization Society proposed freeing of slaves
and sending them out of the country to create new nations
- Most common form was running away and everyday behaviors of
defiance against masters
- Refusal to work hard
- Breaking tools
- Abolition movement was weak and about to collapse until
William Lloyd Garrison transformed the movement completely
3

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON

Born in Massachusetts in 1805, William Lloyd Garrison grew to become the catalyst
for the emergence of a new antislavery movement. Garrison focused on the radical
and impactful emancipation of slavery, and was impatient towards moderate tone
and proposals. In 1818, he was appointed with an apprenticeship as a writer at the
Newburyport Herald, starting the beginning of his calling for writing about social issues.
In 1831, his creation of The Liberator displayed his outrage towards slavery, as well as
the need to reject gradual change and only accept “immediate, unconditional,
universal abolition of slavery” (Brinkley). His true aim of abolition was to extend rights
of American citizenship to African Americans. His famous words stated in The Liberator
were, “I will not equivocate-I will not excuse-I will not retreat a single inch-AN I WILL
BE HEARD”. His work reached thousands of people across the nation, creating a new
wave of abolitionist supporters. Most of his followers were free African Americans
who remained aware of the bondage of their enslaved counterparts and white
abolitionists who believed slavery was sinful. With his new support, he found the New
England Anti Slavery Society in 1832, and the American Antislavery Society in 1833.
These groups bloomed in numbers, and soon the abolition movement had gained a
strength and assertiveness greater than it had in any other point in US history.
4

FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Frederick Douglass was known as the greatest African American abolitionist and
orator in all of his time. Born a slave in Maryland, Frederick Douglass had begun to
illegally learn to read and write, and through this, his defiance for slavery and its
limitations for African Americans grew. He escaped captivity in Massachusetts in
1838 and purchased his freedom from his Maryland owner in 1847. Throughout his
life, he had began to understand the conditions of slavery and had devoted
himself to nonviolent spreading of equality in economic and social aspects of the
nation. He had many influential writings, including The North Star, The Narrative of
the Life of Frederick Douglass, and My Bondage and My Freedom. His most influential
speech was his Independence Day speech on July 4th, 1854 in Rochester, NY. In
this speech he states, “there is not a nation on earth guilty of practices, more
shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States at this very hour”.
Throughout his time as an abolitionist, he changed the already existing black
abolitionists into a more influential force, and one that would forge with
Garrison’s white anti slavery leaders.
5

STRATEGIES
- Media
- Press → communicated ideas quickly and widespread
- Newspapers like The Liberator by William Lloyd Garrison
circulated radical ideas about the government and anti-
slavery
- Literature
- The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass captured the
horrors slaves faced from a personal perspective and raised
awareness
- Child’s literature like The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book brought the
harsh realities of slavery to young audiences and was meant
to carry on abolitionist work to future generations
- Intense Words and Images
- Radical abolitionists used these to shock people into action
against slavery
- Some realized words were inadequate and spoke through
images
THE NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS
RADICAL MEDIA
5

STRATEGIES CONTINUED
- Organizing like-minded action groups
- American Anti-Slavery Society, Female Anti-
Slavery Society
- Used lecturing and moral persuasion to
change the minds of individuals
- Underground Railroad
- A network of safe houses for slaves that stretched
from Southern states to Canada and provided
shelter, safety and guidance for runaway slaves
resisting inequality
- Violence
- Was very rare but some resorted to extreme and
deadly tactics that aroused fear in slaveholder
5

OUTCOMES
- The most effective abolition tactic was slave narratives
- Illuminated slavery’s horrors in America
- Tales of the black struggle
- Challenged white readers to embrace abolitionism
- By 1840’s American society was full of slave narratives and made
abolitionism a hot top in social and political circles

The success of the abolition movement is symbolized by Jan. 31, 1865,

when Congress passed the 13th Amendment to officially banned slavery.
 TIMELINE
6 1849
1845 Harriet Tubman Escaped
Narrative of the Life of from Slavery
Frederick Douglass Harriet Tubman had
1831 1835 This focused on the helped thousands of
The Liberator Female Anti-Slavery Foundation personal horrors slaves escape the terrible
Written by William Illustrated the behind the scenes Douglass and many other condition. This defied
Garrison urging the role women played in abolition slaves faced. It created their masters and created
immediate freeing of and created unity behind all who awareness and a want for small, but strong effects
slaves. were discriminated against in US further abolition for the abolition
society. movements. movement

1848
1831 1833 Free Soil Party
Nat Turner Rebellion American Anti-Slavery 1839 This party voted for
Slave rebellion in Foundation Liberty Party Martin Van Buren,
Virginia where 55 The joining of many Anti-Slavery and is a platform
people were killed. influential abolition members who that created a call for
Caused state leaders to create one wanted to work abolition of slavery in
legislatures to further signified plan of action within the electoral the territories. Soon
restrict rights of blacks. and goal. politics to influence merged into the
people’s goals about Republican Party.
slavery
7
North Star by Frederick Douglass (1847)
“Remember that we are one, that our cause is one, and that we must help each other, if we would succeed. We have
drank to the dregs the bitter cup of slavery; we have worn the heavy yoke; we have sighed beneath our bonds, and
writhed beneath the bloody lash;-cruel mementoes of our oneness are indelibly marked on our living flesh. We are
one with you under the ban of prejudice and proscription--one with you under the slander of inferiority--one with you
in social and political disfranchisement. What you suffer, we suffer; what you endure, we endure. We are indissolubly
united, and must fall or flourish together…”

Douglass, Frederick. “The North Star.” Frederick Douglass’ Paper, [Rochester, New York] December 3rd, 1847.
Center of History and New Media, George Mason University, 14th November, 2018.
http://chnm.gmu.edu/loudountah/resources_files/byrne_douglass.pdf

Frederick Douglass played an extensive role in the abolition movement, priding himself in nonviolent oration to create
movement towards emancipation of slavery. The North Star, published in Rochester, New York in 1847, was a reference
of directions to runaway slaves who were trying to reach the Northern states. This writing was a way to nonviolently
create opportunity to become free from the horrible terrors the slaves experienced in the South. The main goals of the
abolition movement were to unite people of the nation to immediately eradicate slavery in any way they could. The
North Star gave slaves an opportunity to partake in the social movement of abolitionism, and helped create small, but
sturdy efforts to defy the acts of slavery. This newspapers slogan was “Right is of no Sex - Truth is of no Color - God is
the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren”. This aligned with the common reform ideas that circulated during the
19th century, including abolition and women’s suffrage.
8
The Liberator by William Garrison (1831-1865)
“I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth,
and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no!
Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the
ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but 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. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to
hasten the resurrection of the dead”

Garrison, William. “The First Issue of the LiberatorI”, The Liberator [Boston, Massachusetts] January 1st, 1831. Bartleby
Great Books Online. 14th of November,2018. https://www.bartleby.com/71/0507.html

A man who believed in radical and immediate emancipation, William Garrison was one of the most influential reforming
leaders of the abolition movement. His newspaper, The Liberator, appealed to the moral conscience of its readers and
expressed the need for the immediate freeing of the slaves, as well as the need for women’s rights. The 19th century was a
time booming with new religious and moral beliefs centered around the idea that individuals had potential and required
equality in their society. Slavery was seen as a national sin by many religious reformers in new belief systems such as
Transcendentalism. Garrison attempted to use moral persuasion in ways to attempt his readers to change their morality
questioning ways of slavery. He understood that many would not like his radical and severe progressiveness of the
movement, however, Garrison believed the only way to create the change he wanted to see was to declare the immediate
emancipation of slaves without faltering. Because slavery (and other inequalities common in the nation) were intense and
horrific, he believed this issue called for an intense response. His newspaper can be seen as one of the first abolition
movements and set the stage for the intense work for emancipation of slavery in the future.
9
Declaration of Sentiments from Anti-Slavery Society (1833)
“… The cornerstone upon which they founded the TEMPLE OF FREEDOM was broadly this- “ that all men are
created equal; and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life,
LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness.” … But those whose emancipation we are striving - constituting, at the
present time, at least one-sixth part of our countrymen - are recognized by law, and treated by their fellow-
beings, as marketable commodities, as goods and chattels, as brute beasts; really enjoying no constitutional nor
legal protection… Therefore we believe and affirm - that the slaves ought instantly to be set free, and brought
under the protection of the law”

Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society, LIbrary of Congress. [Philadelphia Pennsylvania].
14 Nov. 2018. https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.11801100/?sp=2

The Anti Slavery Society was founded on the basis that the Constitution was illegal because it denied unalienable
rights to African American slaves, and it supported the idea that there should be a creation of a new government
that made slavery illegal. The Anti Slavery society was an opportunity for many famous abolition reformers, as
well as reformists of other movements, such as, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton, Frederick Douglass, William
Garrison, and Lucretia Mott, to meet and create action towards emancipation. The Declaration of Sentiments
from this society emphasizes that the foundation of the US is the equality for all, yet not everyone in the US has
equal rights. It highlights the awful conditions slaves experienced and states that under the government of the
United States, slaves need to be able to be protected by the law like other citizens of America. This declaration
represented ideas of many people of the 19th century that were presented to Congress in efforts to create
drastic change in laws and government.
10 WORKS CITED
“Abolitionist Movement.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2018, www.history.com/topics/black-history/abolitionist-

movement. Accessed 14 Nov. 2018.

“American Anti-Slavery and Civil Rights Timeline.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, 1999,

www.ushistory.org/more/timeline.htm. Accessed 14 Nov. 2018.

Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society, LIbrary of Congress. [Philadelphia Pennsylvania]. 14 Nov. 2018.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.11801100/?sp=2.

Douglass, Frederick. “The North Star.” Frederick Douglass’ Paper, [Rochester, New York] December 3rd, 1847. Center of History

and New Media, George Mason University, 14th November, 2018.

http://chnm.gmu.edu/loudountah/resources_files/byrne_douglass.pdf

“Frederick Douglass.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1539.html. Accessed 14 Nov. 2018
Garrison, William. “The First Issue of the LiberatorI”, The Liberator [Boston, Massachusetts] January 1st, 1831. Bartleby Great Books

Online. 14th of November,2018. https://www.bartleby.com/71/0507.html

McKivigan, John R. “A Brief History of the American Abolitionist Movement.” AAP Brief History of Movement, Indiana University,

http://americanabolitionist.liberalarts.iupui.edu/brief.htm. Accessed 14 Nov. 2018.

National Geographic Society. “A History of Slavery in the United States.” National Geographic Society, 28 Aug. 2018,

www.nationalgeographic.org/interactive/slavery-united-states/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2018.

“The Abolition Seminar 50 Essential Documents.” The Abolition Seminar, National Endowments for the Humanities , 2014,

www.abolitionseminar.org/documents/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2018

“William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, http://www.ushistory.org/us/28a.asp.

Accessed 14 Nov. 2018.