The Movement to End Slavery

The Movement to End Slavery

​Some Americans had opposed slavery since before the country was founded. Benjamin Franklin was the president of the first antislavery society in America, the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. In the 1830s Americans took more organized action to support abolition, or a complete end to slavery.

​Religious leaders gave speeches and published pamphlets that moved many Americans to support abolition. In one of these, abolitionist Theodore Weld wrote that “everyman knows that slavery is a curse.” Other abolitionists referred to the Declaration of Independence. They reminded people that the American Revolution had been fought in the name of liberty.

​Antislavery reformers did not always agree on the details, however. They differed over how much equality they thought African Americans should have. Some believed that African Americans should receive the same treatment as white Americans. In contrast, other abolitionists were against full political and social equality.

Multiple Choice

The complete end to slavery

• Abolition
• Anti-Slavery
• "Equality For All" Movement
• Temperance

​Spreading the Abolitionist Message

​Abolitionists found many ways to further their cause. Some went on speaking tours or wrote pamphlets and newspaper articles. John Greenleaf Whittier wrote abolitionist poetry and literature. William Lloyd Garrison published an abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, beginning in 1831. In 1833 he also helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society. Its members wanted immediate emancipation and racial equality for African Americans. Garrison later became its president.

Multiple Choice

"Where there is a human being, there are God-given rights." Also published a newspaper called the "Liberator."

• William Lloyd Garrison

• Robert Finley

• David Walker

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

Multiple Choice

Identify William Lloyd Garrison

​Angelina and Sarah Grimké, two white southern women, were prominent antislavery activists of the 1830s. They came from a South Carolina slaveholding family but disagreed with their parents’ support of slavery. Angelina Grimké tried to recruit other white southern women in a pamphlet called Appeal to the Christian Women of the South in 1836.

Multiple Choice

These woman and her sister were from a slave-holding family, but became abolitionists

• Sojourner & Harriet Truth

• Harriet & Sarah Tubman

• Angelina & Sarah Grimke

• Harriet & SojournerJacobs

​African American Abolitionist

​Many former slaves were active in the antislavery cause. Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery when he was 20 and went on to become one of the most important African American leaders of the 1800s. Douglass secretly learned to read and write as a boy, despite a law against it. His public-speaking skills impressed members of the Anti-Slavery Society. In 1841 they asked him to give regular lectures.

Multiple Choice

Incredible speaker and writer who escaped slavery at 20 years old. Toured around the country and the world speaking out against the institution of slavery. Wrote a best-seller and was friends with Abe Lincoln.

• Harriet Tubman

• Sojourner Truth

• Frederick Douglass

• Isabella Baumfree

​Another former slave, Sojourner Truth, also contributed to the abolitionist cause. She claimed God had called her to travel through the United States and preach the truth about slavery and women’s rights. With her deep voice and quick wit, Truth became legendary in the antislavery movement for her fiery and dramatic speeches.

Multiple Choice

This woman felt God called her to travel the U.S. and preach about slavery and women's rights

• Harriet Tubman

• Sarah Grimke

• Angelina Grimke

• Sojourner Truth

​The Underground Railroad

​By the 1830s a loosely organized group had begun helping slaves escape from the South. Free African Americans, former slaves, and a few white abolitionists worked together. They created what became known as the Underground Railroad. The organization was not an actual railroad but was a network of people who arranged transportation and hiding places for fugitives, or escaped slaves.

​The most famous and daring conductor on the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman. When Tubman escaped slavery in 1849, she left behind her family. She swore that she would return and lead her whole family to freedom in the North. Tubman returned to the South 19 times, successfully leading her family and more than 300 other slaves to freedom. At one time, the reward for Tubman’s capture reportedly climbed to $40,000, a huge amount of money at that time.

Multiple Choice

System of transportation of slaves to freedom in the North

• Operation Northern Freedom
• Road to Freedom Route
• Underground Freedom Road
• Underground Railroad

Multiple Choice

Famous conductor - Helped free slaves on the Underground Railroad risking life nearly 20 times.

• Frederick Douglass

• Harriet Tubman

• Nat Turner

• Sojourner Truth

Multiple Select

Pick the picture of Harriet Tubman

​Although the North was the center of the abolitionist movement, many white northerners agreed with the South and supported slavery. Others disliked slavery but opposed equality for African Americans.

Newspaper editors and politicians warned that freed slaves would move North and take jobs from white workers. Some workers feared losing jobs to newly freed African Americans, whom they believed would accept lower wages. Abolitionist leaders were threatened with violence as some northerners joined mobs. Such a mob killed abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy in 1837 in Alton, Illinois.