The Abolitionist
Movement
Lindsay Levin, David Lefkowitz, Kyle
Connors, Enbar Ozeri
What was the abolitionist
movement?
• The attempt of emancipation of all slaves and
the end of racial discrimination and
segregation during the time of the Civil War
• A great influence on the Abolitionist Movement
was the Second Great Awakening, a religious
revival movement
The Beginning
• One of the first supporters of
abolitionism was William Lloyd
Garrison, who published the famous
newspaper The Liberator.
• 1833, more than 60 delegates
gathered in Philadelphia to found the
American Anti-Slavery Society
• denounced slavery as a sin that
must be abolished immediately,
endorsed nonviolence, and
condemned racial prejudice
Frederick Douglass
• escaped slavery and
became an abolitionist
movement leader
• known for his incisive
anti-slavery writing
• wrote many
autobiographies about life
as a slave
• "I would unite with
anybody to do right and
with nobody to do wrong."
The Liberty Party
• A minor political party in the 1840s; early
advocate of abolitionism
• Party was made up of abolitionists who
worked within electoral politics to try and
influence the population to support their goals
• Did not gain much support
Compromise of 1850/
Fugitive Slave Act
• Popular Sovereignty: the people would pick
whether a state would have slaves or be free
• California becomes state, Republic of Texas
gave up some land
• Fugitive Slave Act: made any federal official
who did not arrest a runaway slave liable to
pay a fine
• Popular sovereignty allowed abolitionists a
chance to sway territories toward ending
slavery
Uncle tom’s Cabin
• 1852, famous anti-slavery novel
written by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• The novel depicts the reality of
slavery while also asserting that
Christian love can overcome
something as destructive as
slavery.
• was called the “most popular novel
of our day”
• goal was to change how
Americans viewed slavery
Kansas-Nebraska Act/
Bleeding Kansas
• This act allowed both of these territories to decide
upon the issue of slavery based on popular
sovereignty
• Bleeding Kansas: Kansas was not a very populous
state, so many families settled in state to vote on this
issue.
• “bully-boys” would come to intimidate voters and
disrupt polls
• Kansas had voted to be free-soil, but popular
sovereignty was never used again
Formation of the
republican Party
• Three northern leaders Horace Greeley, Salmon
Chase, and Charles Summer could not sit back and
watch the flood of pro-slavery settlers cross the
parallel, so they decided a new party was needed.
• 10,000 people turned out for a mass meeting “Under
the Oaks.” Which led to the first organized
convention in Pittsburgh on February 22, 1856.
• 1856 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, the gavel fell to
open the Party’s first nominating convention, which
announced the birth of the Republican party as a
unified political force.
Dred Scott Court Decision
• In 1857, the United States Supreme Court declared that all
black people (slaves and free) could never become citizens
and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional,
therefore allowing slavery in all of the country’s territories.
• Dred Scott was a slave who lived in free states and then
moved back to the slave state of Missouri, he brought his
case to the Supreme Court in hopes to be given his freedom.
• Chief Justice Roger B. Taney was pro-slavery and explained
that the Declaration of Independence didn’t consider “all men
are created equal” to include black men.
• Although, Dred Scott wasn’t granted his freedom, it brought
slavery to the United States’ attention and became a step
closer to abolishing slavery.
Abraham Lincoln
Stephen Douglas
Lincoln/Douglas Debates
• In 1958, debates between
Stephen Douglas and
Abraham Lincoln were held
in order to receive a seat in
the US Senate from Illinois.
• Douglas was a well-known
democrat, he was
responsible for the KansasNebraska Act, he helped
with the Compromise of
1850, and he chaired the
Senate Committee on
Territories.
Presidential Election/ Start of
South Secession
• After Lincoln was elected president and before his
inauguration, states from the south saw this as a threat
• Seven states seceded from the Union: Mississippi, Texas,
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana
• Delegates from the states except Texas, met to create a new
government called the “Confederate States of America” and
elected a president, Jefferson Davis.
• When Lincoln was inaugurated he explained that he had no
need to end slavery in slave states, but he also didn’t accept
that they seceded from the Union. He also wanted to resolve
the situation peacefully.
Beginning of Civil War
• The Civil War started at Fort
Sumter when the confederates
demanded the Union surrender
at Fort Sumter.
• When the Union refused, the
Confederates began bombarding
the fort, causing the Union to
surrender
• Although there were no
casualties, the bombardment of
Fort Sumter was the beginning
of the Civil War.
Emancipation
Proclamation
• An executive order issued on January 1,1863 to proclaim
freedom of slaves in the ten states then in the rebellion
• The proclamation did not compensate the owners, did not
itself outlaw slavery, and did not make the ex-slaves citizens
• Lincoln announced that he would issue a formal emancipation
of all the slaves in any state of the Confederate States of
America that did not return to union control by January 1,
1863.
• The Proclamation freed most slaves as a war measure it did
NOT make slavery illegal. Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee,
and West Virginia prohibited slavery before the war ended;
however, in Delaware and Kentucky slavery continued to be
legal until December 18,1865, when the Thirteenth
Amendment went into effect.
Thirteenth Amendment
• Completely outlawed slavery as well as involuntary servitude
• First Section: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except
as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any
place subject to their jurisdiction.
• Second Section: Victims of human trafficking and other
conditions of forced labor are commonly coerced by threat of
legal actions to their detriment
• Corwin Amendment: would have forbidden the adoption of
any constitutional amendment that would have abolished or
restricted slavery, or permitted the Congress to do so.
However, did not persuade the southern states to not secede
from the union.