Abolition Movement

Level 2

Vocabulary

• Indentured servant: a person who work under contract on average of 7 years and then are allowed to leave servitude

• Slave: a person who is property of another• Triangle trade: system of trade that involved New England,

Africa and the West Indies. The middle passage from Africa to the West Indies carried slaves.

• Slave Codes: defined the status of slaves and powers of the masters

• Plantation: a large farm that usually grew cotton or tobacco• Abolition: ending slavery • Underground Railroad: a route from the South to the

North that allowed slaves to escape• Emancipation: the freeing of slaves

Essential Question

• What were the different avenues taken that encouraged the abolition of slavery?

Slavery and Abolition

• What is slavery? – An institution that allows for one human being to have

absolute control over another in the way of life, liberty and fortune. Slaves must work for little to no pay and will remain a slave for life.

• Morality of slavery:– Slave owners saw it as a necessary to ensure their way of life

on plantations. Most slave owners treated their slaves humanely, however some didn’t and they were exposed to horrors and abuse. Slave owners defended slavery by stating that the slaves couldn’t survive without them because they gave them food, security and shelter.

Leadership

• Harriet Tubman: abolitionist and escaped slave who conducted hundreds of slaves to freedom through the “underground railroad” during the 1850’s. The Freedom Trail led north to Canada.

• William Lloyd Garrison: leading New England abolitionist who advocated separation from the South. Founder and editor of The Liberator (1831) and a fiery and controversial speaker.

• Frederick Douglas: escaped slave that became a public speaker for the abolitionist cause; author of his biography explaining the evils of slavery; published the North Star newspaper out of Rochester, NY

• Harriet Beecher Stowe: author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin exposing the evils of slavery

Effects of Abolition

• Brought it into the political realm as a moral issue

• Sectional differences including slavery led to the Civil War

• Slaves were Emancipated during the Civil War

Essential Question

• What were the different avenues taken that encouraged the abolition of slavery?