REFORM TURNS RADICAL
Most reform aimed to improve society
 Some radical reformers sought destruction of
old society, creation of perfect social order

DIVISIONS IN THE
BENEVOLENT EMPIRE

Radical perfectionists impatient by 1830s, split
from moderate reform
 Temperance
movement
 Peace movement
 Antislavery

movement
Moderates sought gradual end to slavery and
colonization of freed slaves to its colony of
Liberia
ABOLITIONISM
Roots in Second Great Awakening – see impact of
Charles Grandison Finney
 BEFORE 1820 antislavery societies are more numerous
in the South. Slave revolts end Southern toleration of
abolition.
 1835 Congress forbids use of mail to send abolitionist
material through the mail.
 1836 House of Reps passes the “gag rule,”
John Quincy Adams defeats this in court after 8 yrs.
 South advances theory that slavery “civilizes” Africans,
compares slave’s quality of life to “wage slaves” in the
North

SHIFT FROM GRADUALISM TO ABOLITIONISM
Urgency of the Reform Movement following 2nd
Great Awakening
 Increasing number of manumissions
 Failure of “Re-Colonization” efforts
 Tensions Increase following Turner’s 1831
Rebellion
 Free Blacks loose rights/sometimes freedom
 Impact of Garrison  Propaganda War
 Gag Rule

HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/EXHIBITS/AFRICAN/AFAM005.HTML
This handbill urging opponents of abolitionists to obstruct an anti-slavery meeting demonstrates the
depth of pro-slavery feeling. Although the handbill advocates peaceful means, violence sometimes
erupted between the two factions. An emotion-laden handbill was a factor in the well-known Boston
riot of October 21, 1835. In that incident, a mob broke into the hall where the Boston Female AntiSlavery Society was meeting, and threatened William Lloyd Garrison's life. "Outrage," February 2,
1837 Handbill
DIVISIONS IN THE
BENEVOLENT EMPIRE

Radicals like William Lloyd Garrison demanded
immediate emancipation
 1831:
Garrison founded The Liberator
 1833:
American Anti-Slavery Society
THE ABOLITIONIST ENTERPRISE: PUBLIC
RECEPTION
Appealed to hard-working small town folk
 Opposition in cities and near Mason-Dixon line
 Opposition from the working class

 Disliked
blacks
 Feared black economic and social competition

Solid citizens saw abolitionists as anarchists
THE ABOLITIONIST ENTERPRISE:
THEODORE DWIGHT WELD
Weld an itinerant minister converted by Finney
 Adapted his revivalist techniques to abolition
 Successful mass meetings in Ohio, New York

BLACK ABOLITIONISTS

Former slaves related the horrible realities of
bondage
 Prominent
figures included Frederick Douglass
and Sojourner Truth
Black newspapers, books, and pamphlets
publicized abolitionism to a wider audience
 Blacks were also active in the Underground
Railroad

Free black from North
Carolina
DAVID WALKER
 Urged slaves to rise up and
revolt for their freedom.
 Found dead outside of his
printing office

“Southern slave masters hated Walker and put a
price on his head. In 1829, 50 unsolicited
copies of Walker's Appeal were delivered to a
black minister in Savannah, Ga. The frightened
minister, understandably concerned for his
welfare, informed the police. The police, in turn,
informed the governor of Georgia. As a result,
the state legislature met in secret session and
passed a bill making the circulation of materials
that might incite slaves to riot a capital offense.
The legislature also offered a reward for
Walker's capture, $10,000 alive and $1,000
dead.”
http://www.africawithin.com/bios/david_walker.htm
“I have been frequently asked how I felt
when I found myself in a free state….It
was a moment of the highest excitement
I ever experienced…. This state of mind,
however, very soon subsided; and I was
again seized with a feeling of great
insecurity and loneliness. I was yet
liable to be taken back, and subjected to
all the tortures of slavery. This in itself
was enough to damp the ardor of my
FREDERICK
DOUGLASS
(1817-1895)
enthusiasm.”
Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, 1845
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/images/4fred16m.jpg
THE ABOLITIONIST ENTERPRISE:
OBSTACLES
Abolitionists hampered by infighting
 William Lloyd Garrison disrupted movement by
associating with radical reform efforts

 Urged
abolitionists to abstain from participating in
the political process
 Also involved in women’s rights movement

Some abolitionists helped form the Liberty
Party in 1840
“ I am earnest – I will not
equivocate – I will not
excuse – I will not
retreat a single inch –
and I will be heard.”
(The Liberator, 1831)
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/images/lib.jpg
http://edison.rutgers.edu/latimer/wlg.htm
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON
(1805-1879)
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
GARRISON
F. DOUGLASS
DAVID WALKER
WOMEN’S CHANGING ROLES







Women experience more freedom, esp. on frontier
Lucretia Mott, Quaker, Abolitionist
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, organizer
Susan B. Anthony, lecturer
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, first MD
Margaret Fuller, editor
1848 “Declaration of Sentiments,” Seneca Falls,
NY, “all men and women are created equal,”
LAUNCHES WOMEN”S RIGHTS MOVEMENT
DOMESTICITY AND CHANGES
IN THE AMERICAN FAMILY
New conception of family’s role in society
 Child-rearing seen as essential preparation for
self-disciplined Christian life
 Women confined to domestic sphere
 Women assumed crucial role within home

MARRIAGE FOR LOVE
Mutual love must characterize marriage
 Wives became more of a companion to their
husbands and less of a servant
 Legally, the husband was the unchallenged
head of the household

THE CULT OF DOMESTICITY

“The Cult of True Womanhood”
 Placed
women in the home
 Glorified home as center of all efforts to civilize
and “Christianize” society
Middle- and upper-class women became
increasingly dedicated to the home as
mothers
 Women of leisure entered reform
movements

THE DISCOVERY OF CHILDHOOD
Nineteenth-century child the center of family
 Each child seen as unique, irreplaceable
 Ideal to form child’s character with affection
 Parental discipline to instill guilt, not fear
 Train child to learn self-discipline
 Family size declines from average of 7.04
children to 5.42 by 1850

FROM ABOLITIONISM TO
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Abolitionism opened to women’s
participation
 Involvement raised awareness of women’s
inequality

FROM ABOLITIONISM TO
WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Seneca Falls Convention in 1848
 Organized
by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton
 Prompted by experience of inequality in abolition
movement
 Began movement for women’s rights