Chapter 12: Religion and Chapter 12: Religion and ReformReform

By Neil HammondMillbrook High School

The Abolitionist MovementThe Abolitionist Movement• 1776 to 1817 – Gradualism

• 1817 to 1830 – Colonization

• 1790s Free N blacks focused on their “social uplift”– Self help organizations, churches, schools

etc.– Met with frosty reception from N whites

David WalkerDavid Walker• An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the

World, 1829. Walker was a free black who lived in Boston (he had been born in NC).– Called on black Americans to mobilize for

abolition…by force if necessary

– Warned whites that the nation faced divine punishment IF slavery was not abolished

– Celebrated black achievements in ancient African civilizations

– Rejected colonization. Freed blacks would become full citizens of the US

Nat Turner’s RebellionNat Turner’s Rebellion• August 1831, Southampton County, VA

– 55 whites murdered– The South’s worst nightmare (well almost…)

• Virginia Debates…a bill to gradually emancipate and colonize VA’s slaves– Defeated 73 to 58– Ended chance that South would end slavery– After that, slave codes toughened– Slaves’ movement limited– Slaves prohibited from learning to read

The Abolitionist MovementThe Abolitionist Movement• 1776 to 1817 – Gradualism• 1817 to 1830 – Colonization

• 1830s abolitionist movement was much different. Immediate emancipation was demanded:– Religious belief (Evangelical Christians) –

slavery was a sin– Secular belief – slavery did not agree with

the ideals of the Declaration of Independence

– Anger directed at slaveowners– Abolitionists wanted freed slaves to become

full citizens of the Republic

The Emergence of GarrisonThe Emergence of Garrison• But it was William Lloyd Garrison who was to

lead the abolitionist movement. Garrison edited The Liberator, a weekly anti-slavery journal published in Boston

• “I will be as harsh as truth…and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, speak, or write with moderation…I will not equivocate…and I will be heard”

• 1833 American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS)– Women founded many of their own societies

Garrison

Three-Pronged AttackThree-Pronged Attack• 1. Appeal to religious Americans

– The movement rapidly expanded throughout the North. The movement took advantage of developments in printing technology and the expansion of literacy thanks to education reform. Between 1833 and 1840, 100,000 Northerners joined anti-slavery groups.

– If Garrison was the movement’s chief propagandist, Theodore Weld, a young Evangelical minister who had been converted by Charles Grandison Finney, helped create its mass constituency.

– Weld trained a small band of speakers who took the message to small-town / rural North. Their method was similar to religious revivals, and their message was simple: slavery was a sin.

Three-Pronged AttackThree-Pronged Attack• 2. Help African-

Americans who had fled slavery– Most free blacks

in the N did NOT have civic equality

– 1793 Fugitive Slave Law

• White abolitionists & free blacks formed mobs to seize recovered slaves and drive slave catchers out of town

Three Pronged AttackThree Pronged Attack

• 3. Appeal to state & national legislatures– 1835 AASS

bombarded Congress with petitions

– 2000 A.S. by 1840 with 200,000 members

Opposition to AbolitionistsOpposition to Abolitionists• At first abolitionism aroused violent

hostility from northerners who feared that the movement threatened to disrupt the union

• In 1835 William Lloyd Garrison was dragged through the streets with a rope around his neck, barely escaping with his life. In 1837, antislavery editor Elijah Lovejoy was killed by a mob at his printing press in Alton, Illinois. Four times, mobs had destroyed his presses, only to see him resume publication. The fifth time ended with his death

Opposition to AbolitionistsOpposition to Abolitionists• Property…Northern wage earners…fear

of “amalgamation”

• Strong racial solidarity in South– Southern postmasters refused to deliver

abolitionist mail– President Jackson asked Congress to restrict

the abolitionists’ use of the mail• Congress did not comply

• Gag Rule 1836 to 1844– Abolitionist petitions / bills tabled

The Origins of FeminismThe Origins of Feminism• “When the true history of the antislavery

cause shall be written, women will occupy a large space in its pages”…Frederick Douglass

• Much of the abolitionist movement’s strength came from women, who joined northern anti-slavery groups by the thousands. Most were evangelical protestants who were convinced of the sinfulness of slavery

• Women spearheaded many reform movements. Long before they could vote, women circulated petitions, attended meetings, marched in parades and delivered public lectures.

The Origins of FeminismThe Origins of Feminism• Post Revolution

– Republican Motherhood– Separate Spheres

• 2nd Great Awakening– Increased public role of women– 1834 Female Moral Reform Society– Dorothea Dix

• Education Reform– Horace Mann, MA– Women crucial role…Beecher “Women uniquely

qualified to teach kids– School Boards started hiring women

• Listened to Beecher• Cheaper!

The Origins of FeminismThe Origins of Feminism• During the 1830s,

some female abolitionists, such as the Grimké sisters (daughters of South Carolina slave owners who converted to Quakerism and became outspoken abolitionists), gave public lectures about slavery

The Origins of FeminismThe Origins of Feminism• The Grimké sisters were the first people to

apply the abolitionists’ theories of universal freedom to women

• Catherine Beecher reprimanded the sisters for stepping outside the “domestic and social sphere”

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott came to the forefront of the movement in the 1840s. In 1840, they traveled to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London…they were forced to sit in the non-speaking section of the crowd.

The Origins of FeminismThe Origins of Feminism• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia

Mott were key organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, a gathering on behalf of women’s rights held in the upstate NY town where Stanton lived

• Seneca Falls marked the beginning of a seventy year struggle for suffrage

• It produced the Declaration of Sentiments

The Origins of FeminismThe Origins of Feminism• Progress was slow

• Some states passed “women’s property laws,” shielding from a husband’s creditors property brought into a marriage by a wife, but such laws were not aimed at protecting women’s rights; they were designed to prevent families from losing everything during the terrifying Panic of 1837

• Even up to the Civil War, most states laws saw property and wages gained after marriage as belonging to the husband

The Origins of FeminismThe Origins of Feminism• During the 1850s some feminists tried

to popularize a new style of dress, popularized by Amelia Bloomer

Split Movements: FeminismSplit Movements: Feminism• Some feminists took the discussion in an

entirely different direction. Domestic relations laws presupposed a husband’s right of sexual access to his wife AND to inflict corporal punishment on her

• Courts were very reluctant to intervene unless abuse was “extreme” or “intolerable”

• Various views coexisted in the early feminist movement. Some women were happy with a slightly increased public role; others demanded freedom all the way down to the concept of within the marriage.

Split Movements: Split Movements: AbolitionismAbolitionism• The demand for greater rights for women split

the abolitionist movement

• In 1840 the movement split over a women being appointed to the business committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society..behind this was a fear that radicals like garrison, who demanded a full role for women, were actually hurting the anti-slavery movement

• Determined to make abolitionism a political movement, the people who left founded the Liberty Party, which ran presidential candidates in the 1840s