American History I - Unit 6
Ms. Brown

• What was the main idea of the Second Great Awakening? How did this lead to all other reform movements?
• Responsibility for personal salvation, betterment of society  betterment of self  salvation
• Why was the African Methodist Episcopal Church an important part of African-American society?
• Provided a common cultural center and the support to fight slavery
• What did transcendentalism emphasize?
• Simplicity in life, self-sufficiency, and freedom of thought/identity
• Who was Dorothea Dix and what did she do?
• Prison reformer
– helped improve prison conditions and set up asylums for mentally ill people
• Who was Horace Mann and what did he do?
• Education reformer
– passed laws to help public schools, made school mandatory, trained teachers

• Antebellum – refers to the time period before the
American Civil War
• By 1830 -
• 2 million slaves in US (cotton gin  increase in slave population)
• Most slaves were not from Africa or the Caribbean but were born into slavery
• Most spoke English
• Most were Christian

• Rural – countryside, away from cities
• Demand for cotton  growth of slavery in south
• By 1850 – 2.5 million slaves working on plantations
• Men, women, and child slaves worked in fields from sunrise-sunset

• Urban – in a city
• Demand for cotton  more Southern whites went into farming  Created a shortage in white workers in the textile and lumber industries
• Urban slaves
•
•
~400,000 in US
Worked in mills or on ships doing unskilled labor – slaveowners collected the wages
• Skilled slaves could be blacksmiths or carpenters
• Generally led better lives than plantation/rural slaves because they spent more time away from owners

• Many joined anti-slavery societies
• Not all agreed with Garrison or Walker
• Worked in low-paying jobs, usually for a white person
• Drove carriage
• Carried baskets/bags
• Brushed shoes
• Cleaned the house

• Abolition – the banning/outlawing of slavery
• Abolitionist – a person who fought to end slavery
• Emancipation – the freeing of slaves
• Abolitionists were white and black, men and women.
• Not all abolitionists agreed with the same plan to emancipation.

• Radical white abolitionist
• Published the newspaper, The Liberator
• Called for immediate emancipation and no payment to slaveholders
• Very influenced by Christian values
• 1833 – American Anti-Slavery Society
• White and black abolitionists
• 3 of 4 members were black abolitionists
• Many hated Garrison
• Some whites that were pro-abolition were also anti-Garrison because he attacked churches and the government for allowing slavery
• Some abolitionists disliked Garrison because he supported David
Walker

• Free black abolitionist
• 1829 - Wrote Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World
• Encouraged blacks to fight for freedom rather than wait for slave holders to end slavery
“The man who would not fight … ought to be kept with all of his children or family, in slavery, or in chains, to be butchered by his cruel enemies!”
-
David Walker

• Former slave, abolitionist
• Taught to read and write by his owner’s wife
• Ran away to New York by taking the identity of a free black sailor and the official papers
• Skilled speaker  Garrison invited him to speak at Anti-
Slavery Society meetings
• Later split with Garrison because he was too radical
• Douglass believed freedom could be gained by political means instead of violence or rebelling
• Established the anti-slavery newspaper called “ The North
Star”
• Named after the star that guided runaway slaves to freedom in the north

• Abolitionists
• Daughters of a wealthy slaveholder in SC
• 1836 – Angelina published An Appeal to the Christian
Women of the South
• Urged women to “overthrow this horrible system of oppression and cruelty.”
• Supported by Garrison
• Not all men supported women abolitionists
• Massachusetts clergy criticized the Grimké sisters for taking the
“place and tone of a man as public reformer”
• Discrimination in the abolition movement and in society in general fueled reform in women’s rights

• Nat Turner
•
•
Born into slavery in Virginia
Preacher – believed he had been chosen by God to lead his people out of bondage (being held against your will as a slave)
• 1831 – Nat Turner’s Rebellion
• Turner led 80 followers to attack 4 plantations
• Killed almost 60 whites in several weeks
• Captured by state and federal troopers
• Tried for murders and hanged (56 conspirators also executed)

• Nat Turner’s Rebellion caused a debate over slavery in
Virginia
• Some called for emancipation to prevent future revolts
• Some called for tighter restrictions on all blacks (free or slave)
• Virginia governor called for a law to gradually abolish slavery in the state  the law did not pass
• 73-58
• More representatives from the eastern slave-holding part of the state compare to those from the western non-slave-holding areas

• White southerners feared more revolts  pushed for tighter restrictions on blacks
• Slave Codes or Black Codes were passed in southern states to restrict rights of free blacks.
• Free blacks could not vote, own guns, buy alcohol, assemble in public, testify in court, own property, learn to read/write, or work independently as a carpenter or blacksmith.

• Some proslavery Southerners used Christianity as a defense.
•
• Cited the Bible – servants should obey their masters
Slavery benefited blacks – making them part of a prosperous and
Christian civilization
• Southern white ministers believed slavery and Christianity could coexist.

• Myth of the “happy slave”
• Lived happy and comfortable lives on a plantation
• Food and shelter provided
• No need for money
• Sang in the fields

• Debates over slavery led to a large number of anti-slavery petitions being sent to Congress in DC.
• Congress (mostly the Southern representatives) passed a gag rule on slavery (1836-1844)
• Gag rule – a rule limiting or preventing debate on an issue in
Congress
• Citizens who submitted anti-slavery petitions were not allowed to be heard in Congress
• The debate over slavery was at a gridlock – neither side willing to back down.