US History

Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)

Social Movements

African Americans

This collection uses primary sources to explore the American Abolitionist Movement.

An excerpt from an 1838 printed pamphlet, *Proceedings of the Anti-slavery Convention of American Women*.

The text of Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech, “What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?”

A photograph of Sojourner Truth.

A British anti-slavery medallion created by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons some time after 1787.

An 1859 illustration by Gilbert William Gaul depicting men in Kansas breaking up a pro-slavery camp.

An excerpt from an 1832 book, *Abolitionism Exposed!*, by William Willcocks Sleigh.

A commemorative print of the Emancipation Proclamation.

A pro-McClellan political cartoon for the 1864 presidential election titled “The Abolition Catastrophe. Or the November Smash-Up.”

This cartoon includes racist language and caricatures typical of this period. In the U.S. presidential election of 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Democrat George B. McClellan and his early peace platform. This pro-McClellan cartoon shows "Little Mac" in the cab of the "Union" train, which has a clear track to the White House. Lincoln's "Abolitionism" train with its cargo of cabinet members and abolitionists has just smashed against the rock of "Confiscation," "Emancipation,” etc. that are piled across the track.

A lithograph by John L. Magee depicting Preston Brooks' 1856 attack on Senator Charles Sumner.

An excerpt from an 1833 edition of William Lloyd Garrison’s *The Liberator*.

Questions

1. Consider the [photograph of Sojourner Truth](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-american-abolitionist-movement/sources/172) and the [text of Frederick Douglass’ speech](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-american-abolitionist-movement/sources/171). Why were the voices of former slaves essential to the success of the abolitionist movement?

2. How were visual images, including objects such as the [British medallion](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-american-abolitionist-movement/sources/173), and the popular press used to advance the abolitionist cause?

3. Using the [excerpt from the 1838 printed pamphlet](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-american-abolitionist-movement/sources/170), explain how women fighting for suffrage found common cause with abolitionists. 

4. Using [*Abolitionism Exposed!*](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-american-abolitionist-movement/sources/175) as evidence, describe some counterarguments to abolition that were expressed at the time.

5. What was one argument made for the eradication of slavery by abolitionists? Choose one item from this set that expresses that argument. 


Activity

1. Imagine you live in Massachusetts in 1833. A cousin from South Carolina writes to you to ask about [*The Liberator*](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-american-abolitionist-movement/sources/179), about which she has heard many rumors. Write a letter to her in which you tell her what you know about *The Liberator* and what you have read in the latest issue. Include your opinions on *The Liberator*, its abolitionist cause, and its tactics.

2. Ask students to choose five documents from the gallery above, and to create their own document-based question about abolitionism. Ask students to share their document-based questions with a partner and to discuss how they would respond to the question, using evidence to justify their response.

Teaching Guide: Exploring American Abolitionism

Resources

1. [*Uncle Tom’s Cabin*](http://dp.la/item/7709e9556bb0de7db7a7c9efb8f47e5f) by Harriet Beecher Stowe, HathiTrust, Digital Public Library of America. 

2. [American Abolitionism](http://americanabolitionist.liberalarts.iupui.edu/), Indiana University. 

3. [“I will be heard!”: Abolition in America](http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/abolitionism/abolitionists.htm), Cornell University. 

4. [Resistance and Abolition](http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/african5.html), the Library of Congress. 

Overview

The abolitionist movement espoused the view that slavery was morally wrong, and that the United States should ban slavery and emancipate all enslaved people. Some states had banned slavery during the colonial period or shortly after independence, often due to advocacy by Quakers and other religious people objecting to slavery. However, slavery persisted in parts of the American mid-Atlantic and the entirety of the American South. As the expansion of the US westward created the potential for new states where slavery could be legal, the abolitionist movement took shape, mounting increasing political activism between 1820 and the outbreak of Civil War in 1860. Abolitionists included former slaves such as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, publishers and writers such as William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Beecher Stowe, politicians such as Senator Charles Sumner, and feminists such as Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone, who, at times, saw the causes of women’s rights and the abolition of slavery as related. Ultimately, the goal of the abolitionist movement was partially enacted with President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, and fully achieved with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.

English

The American Abolitionist Movement

abolition-movement_09_63dd61c83c29c0d1e197d173ac6a57a2.jpg

Courtesy of Kansas City Public Library via Missouri Hub.

Magee, John L., “Lithograph of Preston Brooks' 1856 attack on Sumner,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/63dd61c83c29c0d1e197d173ac6a57a2.

A lithograph by John L. Magee depicting Preston Brooks' 1856 attack on Senator Charles Sumner.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 9 of 10 in the Primary Source Set The American Abolitionist Movement