Presentation by: Ana Pimenta,

Ashley Stephens and Vin Dorio

Chapter 8: Section 2

Slavery and Abolition

Why did slavery continue to be an issue as reformers tried to put an end to it?

What type of challenges did the people of the United States face as a result of the problems regarding slavery?

Essential Questions

Abolition: the call to outlaw slavery.

William Lloyd Garrison: radical white abolitionist and editor/owner of the

newspaper, “The Liberator.”

Emancipation: freeing of slaves with no payment to slaveholders.

David Walker: a free black who advised slaves to take action and fight for

freedom.

Frederick Douglass: born into slavery, educated by the wife of one of his

owners.

Nat Turner: born into slavery in 1800, a gifted preacher in Virginia.

Antebellum: the South prior to the Civil War

Gag rule: a rule limiting or preventing debate on an issue (eventually

repealed in 1844).

Key Terms and Names

In the 1820s, over 100 antislavery societies were recommending that blacks be sent back to Africa because of the belief that blacks were an inferior race and unfit to coexist in white society.

Most free blacks considered America their home and only about 1,400 blacks returned to Africa from 1820-1830.

Many whites supported abolition of slavery.

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison , a radical white

abolitionist, was active in religious reform movements in Mass. and started a newspaper to write about the immediate emancipation of slaves with no payment to slaveholders.

Abolitionists Speak Out

Garrison founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832 and the national American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.

Many whites hated Garrison and those who were in favor of abolition still disliked him because he attacked churches and the government for not condemning slavery.

David Walker: free black, urged blacks to fight rather than wait for slave owners to end slavery.

Abolitionists Speak Out

David Walker

William Lloyd Garrison

Frederick Douglass educated slave who escaped to New York to live a free life. Worked with Garrison on “The Liberator,” Douglass started his own

paper, “The North Star.”

.

Key Notes

Frederick Douglass

Life Under Slavery The population of slaves doubled from 1810-1830, growing from 1.2 million to about 2

million. By 1830, majority of slaves had been born in America and were able to communicate with

each other in English.

By the 1850s, most slaves lived on plantations or small farms, others lived and worked in cities. 2.8 million lived in rural areas, while 400,000 lived in cities.

By the 1830s, many Southern farmers took an interest in cotton, creating a shortage of workers for mining and lumber. Slaves with special skills were in demand to work in mills, on ships, in blacksmithing and in carpentry. This started a new class of skilled black laborers.

Artisan slaves in the South could find work more easily than free blacks in the North, where racial discrimination prevailed.

Slaves in cities spent much of their time beyond the watchful eye of their owner, received better food, clothes, and privileges and were not subject to the cruelty that slaves on plantations were. This is why urban slaves considered themselves almost “freemen”.

Key Notes

Nat Turner’s Rebellion Nat Turner, a gifted preacher born into slavery,

believed he had been chosen to lead his people out of bondage. In 1831, he saw an eclipse of the sun and believed it to be a divine signal for action. He and 80 followers attacked 4 plantations, killed almost 60 whites, and were then captured, tried and hanged.

In retaliation, whites killed up to 200 blacks, despite the fact that many had nothing to do with the uprising. Turner’s rebellion strengthened the resolve of white Southerners to defend slaver y and control their slaves.

Slave Owners Defend Slavery Some believed that in order to prevent slave revolts,

slaves should be freed, others argued they needed to be controlled even more.

Virginia Debate Virginia debated on whether or not to end slavery in the

state, but the motion for abolition lost by a 73 to 58 vote, mostly because the state legislature favored eastern slaveholders over non-slaveholders in western Virginia.

Key Notes

Backlash From Revolts Many slave owners believed that education and privilege inspired

revolt, thus many pushed their state legislatures to tighten controls on African Americans. These controls would later be called slave codes.

Alabama and Georgia forbade free and enslaved blacks from preaching the gospel unless slaveholders were present. North Carolina became the last Southern state to deny blacks the right to vote.

Blacks in some states also lost the right to own guns, buy alcohol, assemble in public, testify in court, own property, and learn to read or write.

Proslavery Defenses Abolitionists continued to fight for emancipation while Southerners

continued to oppose them with rebuttals such as the gag rule, which prevented petitions from abolitionists from being heard, and depictions of what they considered “happy slaves.”

Key Notes

The Abolitionist Movement Video - Slavery in America - HISTORY.com

Video Clip