Chapter 9

Let Your Motto Be Resistance, 1833-1850

I. A Rising Tide: Racism & Violence

Increased racism and violence, 1830-1860– Met with growing abolitionist militancy

Manifest Destiny – Legitimized war for territorial expansion– Defined progress in racial terms

• White people are a superior race– Nativism– Scientific justification– Continued enslavement of black people– Extermination of Indians

Anti-black and Anti-abolitionist Riots Urban riots pre-dated abolition

– Increased as abolitionism gained strength, 1830s-1840s

• Philanthropist, 1836 and 1841• Providence, Rhode Island• New York City

– See Map 9-1 and Figure 9-1

Texas and War with Mexico

Texas annexation divided the nation– Fear of adding another slave state

• Political parties avoided the issue Manifest Destiny and “54-40 or Fight”

– James K. Polk wanted Texas and Oregon• Texas annexed in 1845

War with Mexico, 1846-1848– Polk provoked war

Texas and War with Mexico (cont.) Mexican Cession

– Wilmot Proviso– Slavery expansion– California gold– Compromise of 1850

• Stronger fugitive slave law• Personal liberty laws

– Prigg v. Pennsylvania

II. The Response of the Antislavery Movement

Race-related violence increased– Created difficulties

• Setting policies– White abolitions set policy

• Abolitionist commitment to non-violence weakened

– Limited options

The American Anti-Slavery Society American Anti-Slavery Society

– AASS, 1831• Black men participated without formal

restrictions– Rarely held positions of authority

– William Lloyd Garrison• Immediate, uncompensated emancipation• Equal rights for African Americans

Black and Women’s Anti-slavery Societies Fundraising

– Main task • Bake sales, bazaars, and fairs

Feminism– Created an awareness of women’s rights

• Challenged male culture– Essays, poems, speeches– Sojourner Truth

» See PROFILE

The Black Convention Movement First convention, Philadelphia, 1831

– Local, state, and national black conventions

– Provided a forum for black male abolitionists

• Abolition of slavery• Improve conditions for northern black people

– Integrate public schools– Black suffrage– Juries– Testify against white people in court

III. Black Community Institutions Free black communities

– Fivefold increase, 1790-1830• Gradual emancipation and individual

manumission– Provided resources

• Churches, schools, and benevolent organizations

– Provided the foundations for black anti-slavery institutions

Black Churches

Leading black abolitionists often ministers– Used pulpits to attack slavery and racial

hatred– Provided meeting places for abolitionists– Forum for speakers

Black Newspapers

Important voice in abolition movement– Freedom’s Journal

• Samuel Cornish– North Star

• Frederick Douglass– Financial difficulties

IV. Moral Suasion

Reform strategy– Appeal to Christian conscience

• Support abolition and racial justice• Slaveholding was a sin

– Sexual exploitation, unrestrained brutality– Northerners’ guilt

» Government protected slaveholder interests» Cloth manufactures» Fugitive Slave Act of 1798

Moral Suasion (cont.)

AASS– Used moral arguments against slave

owners• Ultimately failed

– Great Postal Campaign• Sent anti-slavery literature to the South

– Petitions to Congress• To end slavery in Washington, D.C.

Moral Suasion (cont.)

Reactions– Southern response

• Southern postmasters censored mail• Vigilantes attacked antislavery supporters• Gag Rule, 1836

– Northern response• Mobs attacked abolitionists

– Disrupted meetings, destroyed newspaper presses– Elijah P. Lovejoy

V. The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society Divided by failure of moral suasion

– AASS splintered in 1840• Role of women in abolitionism• Garrison’s increasing radicalism• Members form the AFASS

– Lewis Tappan

• Liberty party– First antislavery political party– James G. Birney, 1840

VI. A More Aggressive Abolitionism

Growing northern empathy for slaves– Labor demands sent slaves to the Southwest– Radical wing of Liberty party

• Constitution supported slave resistance – Encouraged northerners to help slaves escape

The Amistad and the Creole The Underground Railroad

– Harriet Tubman• See Map 9-2

Canada West

VII. Black Militancy

Too much talk and not enough action– More black abolitionists consider forceful

action• Weak loyalty to national organizations• Influenced by rebellious slaves

– Many black abolitionists wanted to do more, 1840s-1850s

• Charged white abolitionists with duplicity– Lewis Tappan– William Lloyd Garrison

VIII. Frederick Douglass Born a slave, 1818

– Learned to read– Developed a trade– Escaped in 1838– Antislavery lecturer, 1841

• Encouraged by Garrison– Breaks with Garrison in 1847

– North Star, 1847– Endorsed the New York Liberty party, 1851

IX. Black Nationalism African-American migration and black

nationalism– Best means to realize black aspirations– Violence

• Convinced a small few to advocate emigration – Martin R. Delany

» See VOICES – Henry Highland Garnett

» See PROFILE– Douglass and other black abolitionists rejected

» Wanted freedom in the Unites States

X. Conclusion From gradual to immediate abolition of slavery

– Adjust antislavery tactics to meet rising violence– Combined approach

• Moral suasion• Political involvement• Direct action

Movement to black nationalism– Promote interests, rights, and identity