The Abolitionists. Part I, ll and III.
The first part of the documentary tells us three stories about three people who belonged
to different rungs of the social ladder. The first story is about Angelina Grimke. Historian Carol
Berkin tells us about Angelina’s family. Angelina belonged to a very wealthy family from South
Carolina. Each member in the family had their own personal slave. They didn’t have to do
anything because a slave could take care of it for them. Based on Carol Berkin, Angelina
believed slavery was a sin and that God would punish people who had slaves. The
documentary shows a scene of an argument between Angelina and her mother over beating a
slave. Carol Berkin believes that Angelina was against slavery because she was really
concerned about the fate of their white owners. Angelina Grimke left Charleston in the autumn
of 1829. Grimke left her luxurious life behind for an uncertain future in the North. At that time, for
a woman, especially for a white southern woman, such an act was considered disobedience to
proper society.
The second story is about Frederick Douglass. The documentary shows us the horrifying
scene of Frederick’s aunt being beaten by her master. The beating took place in front of sixyear-old Frederick.
The third story is about William Lloyd Garrison. William grew up in poverty. Harrison was
abandoned by his father when he was two years old. Garrison's mother had to leave her
children for years in search of work. Garrison arrived in Boston from his hometown of
Newburyport in 1828. He was only 22 years old. In Boston, Harrison met a publisher who was
raising money for his anti-slavery newspaper. Garrison was deeply moved by the description of
the conditions in which enslaved men, women, and children were kept awaiting shipment further
south. This made him realize that ending slavery was the cause that could give meaning to his
life.
The second part of the documentary goes back to Frederick Douglas.
Like every slave, Frederick Douglass heard many stories of slaves trying to escape. Many of
them died of hunger, froze to death or were torn to pieces by wild animals. Some lost hope and
returned to their owners. Others would rather commit suicide than return to slavery. But some
managed to escape. Frederick Douglas was one of them.
In the fall of 1838, Frederick Douglass arrived in New York. A free black woman named
Anna Murray helped him to escape. Frederick and Anna got married in New York, and shortly
after they moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, a town known as an abolitionist “Mecca”, with
a large population of free black people and runaway slaves. For three years, Douglas worked
hard to get out of poverty. Although he often worked two shifts a day, he found time to attend
anti-slavery meetings. He was also an avid reader of Garrison's most famous abolitionist
newspaper, The Liberator.
Douglass once made a decision to join Garrison’s anti-slavery convention in Nantucket,
a decision that changed his life. He was unexpectedly called to speak. On stage, Frederick told
the story of his mother, Harriet Bailey, his father, a white man, and the horrors of slavery.
William Lloyd Garrison was so impressed with Douglas' "gift" to captivate the public that he
asked Frederick to join him in his fight against slavery. Together they were able to put the fight
against slavery at the center of national life. In March 1843, the Personal Liberty Act was
passed in Massachusetts. Government officials could never again take part in the capture of a
runaway slave. A few years later, almost all other northern states followed suit.
The third part of the documentary tells us the story of John Brown and his fight against
slavery in Kansas. Twenty-five years have passed since William Lloyd Garrison began his fight
against slavery. Since then, the number of slaves has doubled to four million. It was now up to
the northerners and southerners to decide whether the new western territories should be slave
states or free states. Kansas was a flashpoint because wherever Kansas went, the territories
further west were more likely to follow the same path. Congress decided to let the settlers in
Kansas decide whether it should be a slave state or a free state.
John Brown made a decision to go to Kansas to fight against slavery. He collected
money and weapons and headed west. Frederick Douglass was among those who contributed.
The group of 800 Southerners surrounded the Kansas capital on May 21, 1856. They flew a
blood-red flag with the words "Southern Rights" written on it. News of the war in Kansas
became the talk of the nation. The northerners began to send clothes and food to the settlers on
free land.
In Washington, anti-slavery senator Charles Sumner denounced the spread of slavery in
Kansas and accused Southerners of "raping and pillaging virgin territory." South Carolina
Congressman Preston Brooks got offended . On the floor of the United States Senate, Brooks
beat Sumner with the gold head of his heavy cane. Brooks kept beating him until his cane
broke. Sumner never fully recovered. The newspapers of the South celebrated the attack, but
when news of the incident reached John Brown's camp in Kansas, he and his followers were
furious. On the night of May 24, 1856, Brown and four of his sons dragged five pro-slavery
people out of their homes and hacked them to pieces with broadswords.
After the massacre, Brown and his followers hid in the desert, occasionally appearing on the
surface to fight the pro-slavery forces. In early October 1856, he left Kansas for the East to raise
more money and weapons. During a secret walk through Boston, John Brown finally met
William Lloyd Garrison for the first time. The pacifist typographer chastised Brown for his role in
the Pottawatomie murders and insisted that non-violence was still the only way to win. Garrison
would be even more worried if he knew all of Brown's plans.
In 1857, the Supreme Court radically changed not only the battle for slavery, but also
the status of every black in America. Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that Congress did not
have the power to prevent the expansion of slavery into the territories. The reason this
happened was the case of a slave named Dred Scott who wanted the court to set him free
because his master had taken him to live in Illinois and then to Wisconsin Territory where
slavery was illegal. Chief Justice Roger Taney saw this case as an opportunity to solve the
problem of slavery.
The decision of the Supreme Court had a direct impact on the abolitionist movement,
plunging Douglas into a deep depression…