American History Assignment

Chapter 12

Racial tensions led to the formation of black Methodist and Baptist churches in the north and south. The most important was the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church.

- It was organized in Philadelphia in 1816 - Richard Allen a former slave who bought his freedom became their

first bishop Fears in the south caused southern white communities especially in the deep south to stop independent black churches. Black churches continued to grow in the north. By 1856, the AME church had 20,000 members On January 1, 1831 the first issue of The Liberator appeared and abolitionism was born William Lloyd Garrison - ​He insisted slavery end at once. He published an anti-slavery journal. He organized in 1832 the New England Anti Slave Organization. Abolitionists thought slavery was a moral not economic question. They thought the institution was a contradiction of the principle of the American Revolution that all human beings had been created with natural rights. Most of all they denounced slavery as contrary to Christian teachings. Garrison joined with other abolitionists and formed a national organization - the American Anti-Slavery Society. In the years before the Civil War 200,000 people in the north were members of the organization.

In the 1840’s the Methodist and Baptist church each split into northern and southern organizations over the issues. Underground Railroad​ - hid fugitives and transported them north. One of its most famous conductors was Harriet Tubman an escaped slave who brought more than 200 slaves to freedom. An anti-abolitionist mob burned downed the headquarters of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. Harriet Beecher - Stowe - ​wrote the most successful piece of anti-slavery literature in the nation’s history- Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Women’s Rights Movement Elizabeth Cady Stanton-​ organized the Seneca Falls Convention. It called for educational and professional opportunities for women.