Video Analysis: on the Underground Railroad

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African Americans:
A Concise History, Combined Volume, 5e
Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, Stanley C. Harrold

Chapter 8

Opposition to Slavery

1730–1833

This drawing, known as “Nat Turner Preaches Religion,” portrays Turner telling “friends and brothers” in August 1831 that God has chosen them to lead a violent “struggle for freedom.”

  • Nat Turner’s rebellion in Virginia, along with the Denmark Vesey conspiracy in South Carolina, spread a fear of slave revolts throughout the South
  • Heightened restrictions on slaves and free blacks resulted, as depicted in literature such as the drawing above warning of the dangers of slave conspiracies

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Learning Objectives

8-1 Why and how did abolitionism begin in America?

8-2 What forces and events fueled the antislavery movement?

8-3 What were the goals of the American Colonization Society?

8-4 What role did black women play in the abolition movement?

8-5 Why was Walker’s Appeal important?

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Antislavery Begins in America

  • Antislavery movements arose in South, North

Southern movement founded by slaves, those sympathetic to them

  • Movement in North, advanced by white and black abolitionists
  • Quakers organized first antislavery society, 1730s

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  • Antislavery movements reflected economic, intellectual, and moral changes that affected the Atlantic world during Age of Revolution beginning in 1760s
  • Northern movements much larger than southern
  • In the Upper South, African Americans could not openly establish or participate in antislavery organizations

Antislavery Begins in America (cont’d)

  • Quakers remain prominent in movement
  • Movement had several limitations
  • Blacks, whites worked in different organizations
  • Quakers expected slavery to be abolished peacefully and gradually
  • Whites did not advocate equal rights for blacks
  • Northern abolitionists did little to end Southern slavery
  • Two movements influenced each other

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  • The revolutionary doctrine that all men had a natural right to life, liberty, and property expanded antislavery movement
  • Even white Quaker abolitionists rarely mixed socially with African Americans or welcomed them to their meetings
  • Except in parts of New England, northern abolitionists supported gradual emancipation

Antislavery Begins in America (cont’d)

  • From Gabriel to Denmark Vesey

Gabriel’s abortive slave revolt influenced revolutionary spirit

Gabriel’s revolt worsened conditions for antislavery organizations in the Chesapeake region

Revolt caused fear of race war among whites

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  • The arrival of Haitian refugees in Virginia led to slave unrest throughout the 1790s
  • Virginia authorities had to suppress another slave conspiracy in 1802 and periodic uprisings thereafter
  • Free African Americans were, slavery’s defenders contended, a dangerous, criminal, and potentially revolutionary class
  • Had to be regulated, subdued, and ultimately expelled from the country

Antislavery Begins in America (cont’d)

  • From Gabriel to Denmark Vesey(cont'd)

Free black, Denmark Vesey, organized slave revolt conspiracy

Revolt thwarted, organizers executed

Charleston’s AME church destroyed, assemblies banned, patrols intensified

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  • Vesey could read and was well aware of the revolutions that had shaken the Atlantic world
  • Religion had a more prominent role in Vesey’s plot than in Gabriel’s
  • Vesey, Bible-quoting Methodist who conducted religious classes, resented white authorities’ attempts in 1818 to suppress Charleston’s African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church
  • To reach slaves whose Christian convictions blended in with West African spiritualism, Vesey relied on Gullah Jack to distribute charms and cast spells
  • Major slave conspiracies and revolts illustrated in the above map occurred in areas heavily populated by blacks, leading to harsh measures aimed at cracking down on freedom of movement

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Antislavery Begins in America (cont’d)

f

LO 8-1. The second antislavery movement began during the 1730s by .

A: white Quakers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania

B: Tories in New England

C: Catholics in Baltimore

D: Presbyterians in Boston

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Antislavery Begins in America (cont’d)

f

LO 8-1. The second antislavery movement began during the 1730s by .

A: white Quakers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania

B: Tories in New England

C: Catholics in Baltimore

D: Presbyterians in Boston

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Antislavery Begins in America (cont’d)

LO 8-1. Northern white abolitionists often mixed socially with African Americans and welcomed them to their meetings.

A: True

B: False

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Antislavery Begins in America (cont’d)

LO 8-1. Northern white abolitionists often mixed socially with African Americans and welcomed them to their meetings.

A: True

B: False

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The Path Toward a More Radical Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

  • Expanded transportation, factories in urban areas, disruptive
  • Americans become more mobile

Families scattered, ties to local communities weakened

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  • As steamboats became common and networks of macadam turnpikes (paved with crushed stone and tar), canals, and railroads spread, travel time diminished
  • Cities grew, and increased immigration from Europe meant native blacks and whites competed for jobs with foreign-born workers
  • Slavery and Politics

Democrats claimed equal rights but only for white men

Whigs opposed Democrats, supported evangelical Christianity

Slave power

A term used to indicate the control exercised by slaveholders over the U.S. government before the Civil War

The Path Toward a More Radical Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

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  • Democratic Party represented the interests of the South’s slaveholding elite
  • Democrats stood for natural rights and economic well-being of American workers and farmers against what they called the “money power”
  • Democratic politicians, North and South, favored a state rights doctrine that protected slavery from interference by the national government
  • Democrats demanded the removal of Indians to the area west of the Mississippi River—led to Cherokee “Trail of Tears”
  • Democrats also support subservience of women and exclusion from public sphere

The Path Toward a More Radical Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

  • The Second Great Awakening

Evangelicals carried Christian morality into politics

Influenced establishment of black churches

Second Great Awakening influenced Richard Allen and Absalom Jones’s establishment of black churches in Philadelphia, 1790s

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  • During the 1730s and 1740s, the revival known as the Great Awakening used emotional preaching and hymn singing to encourage men and women to embrace Jesus
  • At the end of the eighteenth century, a new emotional revivalism began, known as the Second Great Awakening; it lasted through the 1830s
  • Black churches became an essential part of the antislavery movement

This print, published in Harper’s Weekly in August 1872, depicts what Harper’s calls “A Negro Camp Meeting in the South.” Although the print comes from a much later time, it suggests the spirit of revival meetings during the Second Great Awakening

  • The Second Great Awakening occurred almost exactly a century after the first religious revival movement that inflamed the British colonies
  • The Second Great Awakening aided the expansion of free black churches in the North, as well as rural camp meetings in the South, as seen above

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  • This chart highlights the rapid expansion of the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches involved in the Second Great Awakening

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The Path Toward a More Radical Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

  • The Benevolent Empire

Church-related organizations designed to fight sins, rescue souls

Evangelicals emphasized “practical Christianity

Black evangelicals formed antislavery societies

Abolitionists wanted end of slavery

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  • Black evangelicals called for “a liberating faith” applied in ways that advanced material and spiritual well-being
  • Centered in the Northeast, this broad social movement flourished through the 1850s
  • Among causes embraced by social organizations are public education, self-improvement, limiting or abolishing alcohol consumption, prison reform, and aid to the intellectually and physically challenged

Classroom Activity: Use the Internet to access primary documents from the state of Virginia’s website on the abolition movement (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/exhibits/DeathLiberty/natturner/).

The Path Toward a More Radical Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

  • The Benevolent Empire (cont'd)

Benevolent Empire

A network of church-related voluntary associations designed to fight sin and save souls; it emerged during the 1810s in relationship to the Second Great Awakening

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  • The most important of these reform associations addressed the problem of African-American bondage

The Path Toward a More Radical Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

  • The Benevolent Empire (cont'd)

Abolitionists

Those who sought to end slavery within their colony, state, nation, or religious denomination; by the 1830s, the term best applied to those who advocated immediate rather than gradual emancipation

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  • Most abolitionists were located in Northern states

The Path Toward a More Radical Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

f

LO 8-2. Beginning in the 1790s, adherents of the

sought to impose moral order on a turbulent society and influenced the antislavery movement.

A: Democratic Party

B: Whig Party

C: Second Great Awakening

D: Great Awakening

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The Path Toward a More Radical Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

f

LO 8-2. Beginning in the 1790s, adherents of the

sought to impose moral order on a turbulent society and influenced the antislavery movement.

A: Democratic Party

B: Whig Party

C: Second Great Awakening

D: Great Awakening

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The Path Toward a More Radical Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

LO 8-2. An emphasis on practical Christianity led during the 1810s and 1820s to the Benevolent Empire, a network of church-related organizations

A: True

B: False

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The Path Toward a More Radical Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

LO 8-2. An emphasis on practical Christianity led during the 1810s and 1820s to the Benevolent Empire, a network of church-related organizations

A: True

B: False

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Colonization

  • American Colonization Society (ACS), prominent slaveholders among founders
  • Proposed gradual abolition of slavery
  • Proposed sending free Africans, emancipated slaves to Africa

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  • ACS, founded by white elites, was the most prominent organization of the 1810s and 1820s that claimed to be opposed to slavery
  • To achieve expulsion of African Americans, the ACS—with the support of the U.S. government—in 1822 formally established the colony of Liberia on the West African coast
  • The ACS always had its greatest strength in the Upper South and enjoyed the support of slaveholders

Colonization (cont’d)

  • Black Nationalism and Colonization

Paul Cuffe took African Americans to Sierra Leone

Cuffe and many other African Americans believed that white prejudice would never allow blacks to enjoy full citizenship, equal protection under the law

Haiti, Liberia refuges for African Americans

Black nationalists

African Americans who believed that they must seek their racial destiny by establishing separate institutions and, perhaps, migrating as a group to a location (often Africa) outside the United States

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  • American evangelicalism also led many African Americans to embrace the prospect of bringing Christianity to African nations.
  • In 1815 Cuffe, who owned and commanded a ship, took 34 African-American settlers to the British free black colony of Sierra Leone
  • Former AME bishop Daniel Coker in 1820 led the first 86 African-American colonists to Liberia
  • By 1838 approximately 2,500 colonists moved to Africa
  • Despite the efforts of black nationalists only about 10,000 African-American immigrants had gone to Liberia by 1860
  • The highly contentious issue of colonization divided African Americans, as well as white abolitionists
  • This map shows the two colonies established for former slaves on the west coast of Africa.

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Monrovia, Liberia, c. 1830. This map shows the American Colonization Society’s main Liberian settlement as it existed about 10 years after its founding

  • The above map illustrates the design for the resettlement of former slaves in Liberia, with the city of Monrovia’s plan based on a European-style street grid design

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Colonization (cont’d)

  • Black Opposition to Colonization

James Forten criticized colonization and ACS

Samuel Cornish called for independent black action against slavery

Cornish feared ACS policies of voluntary colonization misleading

Most Black abolitionists see ACS as pro-slavery, and believed America was their home

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  • By the mid-1820s, many black abolitionists in cities from Richmond to Boston had criticized colonization in general and the ACS in particular
  • Also by the mid-1820s, most black abolitionists had concluded that the ACS represented a proslavery effort to drive free African Americans from the United States

Colonization (cont’d)

f

LO 8-3. The American Colonization Society, founded by

, was the most prominent organization of the 1810s and 1820s that was opposed to slavery.

A: former slaves

B: free blacks

C: white workingman

D: white elites

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Colonization (cont’d)

f

LO 8-3. The American Colonization Society, founded by

, was the most prominent organization of the 1810s and 1820s that was opposed to slavery.

A: former slaves

B: free blacks

C: white workingman

D: white elites

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Colonization (cont’d)

LO 8-3. By 1838, approximately 2,500 African-American colonists had made the journey to the free black colony in Liberia.

A: True

B: False

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Colonization (cont’d)

LO 8-3. By 1838, approximately 2,500 African-American colonists had made the journey to the free black colony in Liberia.

A: True

B: False

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Black Abolitionist Women

  • Women not allowed in politics, professions, businesses
  • Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society
  • Founded by Charlotte Forten, Maria W. Stewart
  • Stewart influential as black orator
  • Practical abolitionists were poor, uneducated black women, not elite

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  • The United States in the early nineteenth century had a rigid gender hierarchy
  • Law and custom proscribed women from engaging in politics, the professions, and businesses
  • Stewart’s brief career as an antislavery orator provoked far more controversy than other early black abolitionist women
  • From the revolutionary era onward, countless anonymous black women, both slave and free, living in southern border cities risked everything to harbor fugitive slaves

Black Abolitionist Women (cont’d)

  • The Baltimore Alliance

Ben Lundy, white Quaker abolitionist, published antislavery newspaper

Garrison, white abolitionist, published own antislavery newspaper

Garrison supported radical abolitionism

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  • In 1829, Watkins, Greener, and Grice profoundly influenced William Lloyd Garrison, who later became the most influential American antislavery leader
  • In 1831, when he began publishing his abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, in Boston, Garrison led the antislavery movement in a radical direction

William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) was the leading American abolitionist during the 1830s. He called for immediate emancipation of American slaves, without compensation to their masters, and led the American Anti-Slavery Society.

  • This picture of Garrison as an older man highlights his continuing involvement in the abolitionist movement for four decades leading up to the Civil War
  • Garrison’s crusading journalism included creating “black lists” to highlight the barbarities of slavery, as well as reporting on the involvement in the slave trade of prominent northern businessmen

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Black Abolitionist Women (cont’d)

  • The Baltimore Alliance (cont'd)

Immediatism

Refers to an antislavery movement that began in the US during the late 1820s, which demanded that slavery be abolished immediately rather than gradually

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  • Garrison learned from Watkins, Greener, and others that immediate emancipation must be combined with a commitment to racial justice in the United States

Black Abolitionist Women (cont’d)

f

LO 8-4. The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society was founded by .

A: women who were former slaves

B: a mix of black and white women

C: elite white women

D: free black women

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Black Abolitionist Women (cont’d)

f

LO 8-4. The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society was founded by .

A: women who were former slaves

B: a mix of black and white women

C: elite white women

D: free black women

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Black Abolitionist Women (cont’d)

LO 8-4. Because of severe penalties, few black women living in southern border cities risked everything to harbor fugitive slaves.

A: True

B: False

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Black Abolitionist Women (cont’d)

LO 8-4. Because of severe penalties, few black women living in southern border cities risked everything to harbor fugitive slaves.

A: True

B: False

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David Walker and Nat Turner

  • Black abolitionist Walker wrote Appeal, shaped struggle over slavery
  • Appeal influenced Garrison, others advocating immediate abolition
  • Appeal inspired increasingly militant black abolitionists
  • Appeal caused white southern fear of encirclement, subversion

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  • Walker and Turner were from the South, both were deeply religious, both advocated employing violent means against slavery
  • Nat Turner’s contribution exceeded Walker’s in its impact

David Walker and Nat Turner (cont'd)

  • Nat Turner’s uprising killed largest number of whites
  • Black, White abolitionists respected Turner
  • Peaceful means versus violence characterized antislavery movement

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  • In 1831 Turner, a privileged slave from eastern Virginia, became the first to initiate a large-scale slave uprising since Charles Deslondes’s revolt in Louisiana in 1811
  • Turner inspired far greater fear among white southerners than Walker had
  • Turner began his uprising on the evening of August 21, 1831
  • His band, which numbered between 60 and 70, killed 57 white men, women, and children
  • This timeline charts the increasing radicalism of the abolition movement in the late 1820s
  • After a brief period of widespread interest in African colonization of former slaves, most abolitionists came to believe that slavery had to be ended in the United States permanently

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This recently colorized drawing of the capture of Nat Turner dates to the 1830s. Turner avoided apprehension for nearly two months following the suppression of his revolt. The artist conveys how Turner maintained his dignity in surrender.

  • This image highlights how the antislavery movement drew widespread public interest with periodicals and newspapers announcing abolitionist activities, as well as more violent events such as the Nat Turner rebellion

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David Walker and Nat Turner (cont'd)

f

LO 8-5. In 1831, , a privileged slave from eastern Virginia, became the first to initiate a large-scale slave uprising since a revolt in New Orleans in 1811.

A: David Walker

B: Benjamin Lunday

C: William Lloyd Garrison

D: Nat Turner

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David Walker and Nat Turner (cont'd)

f

LO 8-5. In 1831, , a privileged slave from eastern Virginia, became the first to initiate a large-scale slave uprising since a revolt in New Orleans in 1811.

A: David Walker

B: Benjamin Lunday

C: William Lloyd Garrison

D: Nat Turner

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David Walker and Nat Turner (cont'd)

LO 8-5. David Walker’s Appeal . . . to the Colored Citizens of the World, which he published in Boston in 1829, argued in favor of peaceful measures to end slavery.

A: True

B: False

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David Walker and Nat Turner (cont'd)

LO 8-5. David Walker’s Appeal . . . to the Colored Citizens of the World, which he published in Boston in 1829, argued in favor of peaceful measures to end slavery.

A: True

B: False

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Conclusion

  • Two antislavery movements
  • Slaves in South, free blacks/whites in North
  • Two movements influenced each other
  • Northern abolitionists used peaceful means to fight slavery
  • Gabriel, Vesey, Turner used violence
  • Antislavery movement was biracial

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  • The antislavery movement that existed in the North and portions of the Upper South was always biracial and emphasized peaceful means to end slavery
  • Unlike northern abolitionists, anti-slave Southerners like Gabriel, Vesey, and Turner had to rely on violence to fight slavery

Conclusion (cont'd)

  • Second Great Awakening (1790s–1830s)
  • A widespread religious revival, centered in the North and upper South, that encouraged reform movements

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  • The Chapter 8 timeline compares the activities and events of the anti-slavery movement with national events in the early nineteenth century

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Chapter Discussion Question

Compare the interaction of black and white abolitionists during the early nineteenth century. How did their motives and effectiveness differ?

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Resources

  • 1. Africans in America: Brotherly Love
  • http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
  • The accompanying website for this PBS production provides a range of primary source documents on several themes related to the chapter, including resistance and colonization
  • 2. African American Mosaic
  • http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam002.html
  • This Library of Congress site provides a research guide to the primary documents relating to African-American history in the Library of Congress. The site is useful for the entire range of black history subjects and timelines.
  • 3. Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property
  • http ://www.pbs.org/independentlens/natturner/slave_rebellions.html
  • This site accompanies a PBS documentary on the issue of Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion and provides information on slave rebellions in U.S. history prior to 1831, including Gabriel’s and Vesey’s rebellions. An interactive timeline and links to further documents are also provided.