Fishbowl Discussions
Abolition Movement – How would you end slavery?
Goals:
•Talk about history in an informed & analytical way
•Listen & Talk to each other
•Question obvious conclusions, press each other to
learn more and understand ideas in new ways
American Anti-Slavery Society
Questions to consider:
1. Will the AASS contribute funds for colonization and
allow its name to be used in this effort?
2. Should the AASS spend time and money opposing
racial discrimination in the North in addition to
slavery in the South?
3. Should the AASS publicly endorse Seneca Falls and
the betterment of women?
4. Should the AASS support armed attempts to stop
the Fugitive Slave Act?
5. Should the AASS support John Brown with money
and/or guns?
Slavery’s Global Context
The Case of West Africa Squadron
& William Wilberforce
West Af Squad & Will Wilberforce
• Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807
– West Africa Squadron was a group of British Royal
Navy vessels that patrolled the African coast
capturing slave ships and freeing African slaves
• Britain outlawed slavery in 1833
– William Wilberforce was an evangelical Christian &
member of British parliament who led call to abolish
slavery in the British empire on moral grounds
What does the existence of the West Africa Squadron say about
19th c. slavery in the U.S.?
Views of Slavery in South
Southern Slave Owning Families
• 75% of Southern families
owned NO slaves
• Of the remaining 25%, 2/3
owned fewer than 10 slaves
What does the distribution of slave ownership in the South say
about 19th c. slavery in the U.S.?
Southern Slavery
• Planter aristocracy
• Small farm slave owners
• Subsistence farmers w/o slaves
– Often stoutest defenders of slavery:
• American dream of upward mobility
• Wanted to maintain racial superiority
• Mountain whites of Appalachians
– Resented planter aristocracy, blacks, & problems
that came with slavery
– Felt greater loyalty to North
American Abolition Movement
Abolition
• Fuelled by 2nd Great Awakening, emphasized the
harshness of Southern planters
– Breakers = harsh physical punishers assigned to whip
& break black resistance
Vs.
– Slaves as a commodity and investment = most
dangerous work often assigned to Irish day laborers
– Likely a compromised position
Often said that “The South hated the race but loved the
individual, while the North loved the race but hated the
individual.”
Abolition
• Early, gradual approaches
– American Colonization Society: which advocated
gradually freeing slaves, compensating planters, &
sending African Americans back to colonize Africa
• Richard (Bishop) Allen
– Started African American ministry & convention of
free black – pushed for move to Canada
Abolition
• Later, radical approaches
– William Lloyd Garrison
• Uncompromising, white reformer inspired by 2nd Great Awakening
to write incendiary newspaper, The Liberator
William Lloyd Garrison
• Discussed slavery as moral
issue rather than economic
• Believed it undermined
republican values
Abolition
• Later, radical approaches
– William Lloyd Garrison
• Uncompromising, white reformer inspired by 2nd Great Awakening
to write incendiary newspaper, The Liberator
– David Walker
• Free black who called for slaves to fight to end enslavement &
those who didn’t deserved to be enslaved
Abolition
• Later, radical approaches
– William Lloyd Garrison
• Uncompromising, white reformer inspired by 2nd Great Awakening
to write incendiary newspaper, The Liberator
– David Walker
• Free black who called for slaves to end enslavement & those who
didn’t deserved to be enslaved
– Sojourner Truth
• Free black woman who spoke of the sin of slavery & religious
justification for ending oppression of African Americans & women
Sojourner Truth
Abolition
• Later, radical approaches
– William Lloyd Garrison
• Uncompromising, white reformer inspired by 2nd Great Awakening
to write incendiary newspaper, The Liberator
– David Walker
• Free black who called for slaves to end enslavement & those who
didn’t deserved to be enslaved
– Sojourner Truth
• Free black woman who spoke of the sin of slavery & religious
justification for ending oppression of African Americans & women
– Frederick Douglass
• Free black whose literary & lecture skills made him a popular
voice of the struggles of being enslaved
Frederick Douglass
Fear
The Case of Haiti, Nat Turner, & the
Amistad
Haiti, Nat Turner, & the Amistad
• Haiti’s successful slave revolution & overthrow of
French rule served as a warning to American planters
• Nat Turner’s violent rebellion in Virginia furthered these
fears as an American example
• Amistad was Spanish slave ship in which slaves
successfully rebelled off coast of Cuba and were driven
ashore in Long Island before U.S. declared the slaves
free & returned them to Africa
Impact of Abolition Movement
Impact of Abolition Movement
• Abolition movement & supporters were wildly
unpopular in both North & South, and among
politicians & citizens
• But, movement helped Northerners cast
South as un-free and want to prevent slavery’s
spread to new territory