Chapter 5: Causes of the Civil

WarCore Lesson 2: The Struggle for

Freedom

The Antislavery Movement

• Groups against slavery formed in the mid-1800s

• Some people felt slavery was completely necessary to grow cotton and tobacco in the South

• Abolitionists – Someone who joined the

movement to abolish, or end, slavery

– Included all types of people from South and North

The Antislavery Movement• Leading Abolitionists

– William Lloyd Garrison printed antislavery newspaper The Liberator demanding freedom

– Frederick Douglass• Escaped slave himself• Wrote/spoke to with audiences about slavery

– Sojourner Truth = previously a slave who spoke out against slavery and for women’s rights

– Sarah Grimke and Angelina Grimke• Daughters of cruel S. Carolina slave-owner• Disagreed with father, moved north, and spoke

out

The Antislavery Movement

• Free Blacks– In the South

• Faced discrimination (the unfair treatment of particular groups)

• Laws limited rights of free blacks– Permission to travel– Meet in group only w/ white person

present

– In the North• Some discrimination but still able to

work openly against slavery• Created the American Anti-Slavery

Society (1833)– Raised funds to continue working

against slavery

The Antislavery Movement

Review:What did free blacks in the

North do to convince people that slavery was

wrong?

The Underground Railroad• The Underground Railroad

helped people escape from slavery.

• Underground Railroad – Series of escape routes and hiding

places to bring slaves out of the South

– Runaways could go for the North and Canada or south to Florida, Mexico, or the Caribbean

– Operated at night in secret– If caught they were returned and

punished

The Underground Railroad• Stations and Conductors

– Stations• Supported mainly by free blacks• Gave food, clothing, and medical

aid to runaways• Offered a hiding place

– Conductors• Guided runaways to next station• Most famous = Harriet Tubman

– Escaped slavery in Maryland– Returned 19 times to help, in all,

about 300 people escape– Symbol of abolitionist movement

The Underground Railroad

Review:What was the

purpose of the Underground Railroad?

Why it Matters…

As abolitionists struggled to free enslaved people, they convinced others

that slavery was wrong.