U.S. History / Unit 4: Sectionalism, Civil War and Reconstruction
4.1 Slavery and the Abolition Movement
Notes
By 1860 about 4 million people were enslaved in the United States, almost all in the South.
- Enslaved people built families, faith and culture and resisted through slowdowns, escape and revolt. Nat Turner's Rebellion (1831) in Virginia led Southern states to pass harsher slave codes.
- Abolitionists wanted to end slavery. William Lloyd Garrison published The Liberator and demanded immediate emancipation.
- Frederick Douglass escaped slavery and became a famous speaker, writer and newspaper editor.
- The Underground Railroad was a secret network helping freedom seekers escape north. Harriet Tubman guided many people to freedom.
- Many Northerners opposed slavery's spread without being abolitionists. Many white Southerners defended slavery as the base of their economy and social order.
- Abolition overlapped with other reforms: the Seneca Falls Convention (1848) demanded equal rights for women.
Practice
Which person escaped slavery and became one of the most influential abolitionist speakers and writers?
Douglass wrote a famous autobiography and edited the newspaper The North Star.
The Underground Railroad was:
It was neither underground nor a railroad, but a network of helpers and routes.
How did Southern states respond to Nat Turner's Rebellion in 1831?
Fear of revolt led to harsher slave codes, including bans on teaching enslaved people to read.
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