How do we know what it was like?

Many slaves were interviewed about their experiences.

We have newspaper and magazine accounts from the time.

We have letters people wrote.

We can read books.

The Library of Congress preserves history.The Library of Congress

What is slavery? How did it start?

Slavery is depriving someone of their freedom and requiring them to work without pay for you.

This illustration was used to help people realize that slavery was wrong.

Slavery began out of economic need

How did slaves live?

They worked from sun rise to sunset

They lived in one-room cabins

They were never to learn to read

A slave auction

They could be sold at any time.

They were separated from their families

Overseers could be cruel

You could be punished at any time by the overseer without due process.

This illustration is from Uncle Tom’s cabin

What did Mr. Lincoln think?

"Slavery is founded on the selfishness of man's nature-opposition to it on his love of justice. These principles are in eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow." -- Abraham Lincoln, 16 Oct. 1854, Peoria, Ill., during a debate with Stephen Douglas.

Why were so many abolitionists women? Why do you think

women were more sensitive to the issue of slavery and worked to overturn the system of slavery in the United States?

Uncle Tom’s Cabin changed minds

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a book using her imagination to capture the hearts of Americans. They saw how unjust slavery was.

Harriet’s Book made people think…

She used her storytelling to make people see what it would feel like to be a slave.

Sojourner Truth

Many people tried to help America abolish slavery.

Sojourner Truth was one

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman as a slave.

Harriet Tubman with slaves She freed.

Runaways were a big problem

Without the railroad, many would have died.

Fugitive slaves head for the river

This was a Station on the

Levy Coffin House

Here is where the slaves hid

Slaves hid in this wagon to get from one place to another.

Quilts and Songs helped slaves find their way

Example of the kind of map that the slaves would have known.

Underground railroad routes

If you wanted to change things…

What would you use today?

This was a play that showed someof the worst things of slavery.