African-Americans and The Abolitionist Movement

Slave Family

Parents not legally married

Children did not work the fields until the age of 8

Families gathered to listen to folk songs and traditional African stories

African American Religion

Praise meetings – religious service praising God, usually done by singing

Spiritual – scared song or hymn created by Southern African Americans

Slave Rebellions

Slaves would gather, march in the street, and refuse to do work

Nat Turner’s Rebellion – Kill every white person they could see in Virginia

“Slave codes” – Not allow slaves to meet in big groups and severe punishment for talk of rebellion

Free Blacks

335,000 in 1830 Half lived in the

South Register with

authorities White guardians

White Abolitionist Movements

Believed in emancipation – freeing of slaves

William Lloyd Garrison publisher of the Liberator

Held protests

Frederick Douglass

Former slave turned abolitionist

Publisher of the North Star – Spoke out against slavery

Later helped raise African American regiments during the Civil War

Underground Railroad

Network of passages from slave states to free states/Canada for runaway slaves

“Conductors” led people to safety

Harriet Tubman “Black Moses” 19 journeys and led

over 300 slaves to freedom

Response to Abolition

Growth of racism Blacks are inferior Blacks would take

white jobs

Gag Rule – banning the discussion of abolition in the House of Representatives

Split between North and South