Despite all the trouble this has caused these three men and their families, it was worth it for them. The Underground Railroad “was the first integrated civil rights movement, in which whites and blacks worked together for six decades before the Civil War, taking great risks together, saving tens of thousands of lives together and ultimately succeeding together in one of the most ambitious political undertakings in American History.” (pg.
This essay will recount well-known Anti-Slavery Advocates, societies and how these events known as the, “The Second Great Awakening,” contributed to the regional animosity between North and South and was a factor that leads to the Civil War. The abolitionist movement eradicated slavery in the United States, but did not achieve the aim of its supporters as quickly as many would have liked. The movement added to the rift between the North and South that erupted into a brutal war that cost over 600,000 lives and cleaved a nation in two. This movement stands as a part of African - American history that influenced change in the United States today. The Abolitionist Movement (1830 - 1865) The Abolitionist Movement during 1830 and 1865 was a crusade to achieve immediate emancipation of all slaves, and to end racial segregation and discrimination.
“Frederick Douglass was the most important African American leader and intellectual of the nineteenth century. He lived twenty years as a slave and nearly nine years as a fugitive slave” (Blight, 1). He planned on escaping from the plantation and starting a new life dedicated to the fight for equality. His early attempts failed, but finally in 1838, he managed to board a train that was headed to Maryland and out of the south, from there Douglass travelled to New York to the house of David Ruggles, who was also an anti-slavery activist. His autobiography focuses on his life as a salve and how these hardships shaped the man he became later on in his life.
From the beginning they were poorly treated, treated as though they were not real people, and had a sense that they would never actually be free in America. Americans found slaves invaluable and when they fought the war of 1812, southern plantations suffered dramatically. At the time of Douglas’ speech more slaves started to speak out and even violently act out against their enslavement. The abolitionist movement became very strong with slaves rebelling and white plantation owners fearing the loss of their slaves. Frederick Douglas helped them rise to power and was able to give them their own voice, their own beliefs but the last slaves were not freed until 13 years after Douglas speech in 1865.
The Underground Railway may been a tough journey and only allowed certain people to be able to make it, thousands of slaves escaped. For many slaves the hardest decision was their decision to escape. The conditions in which the slaves endured gave them the strength to finally escape. For most slaves, they believed that their lives in enslavement were worse then any conditions they would encounter in their effort to gain freedom (National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 2004-2011). Once the decision was made to escape they made the commitment to walk hundreds of miles from South to North and for some all the way to Canada.
The civil war was started in 1861 which was caused by slavery. It was suppose to be a white man's war. White southerners would wage war to make the confederacy a seperate and independent nation free to promote slavery. As a result the white northerners took up arms to maintain the Union but not to free a single slave. The blacks has contributed a lot of work to gain their own freedom.
A lot of these leaders were born into slavery and escaped, passing on powerful messages to the people to come together and fight for their rights. I found Fredrick Douglas to be a good example of one who was born into slavery. He had a slave mom and a white dad that resulted in him being sent to another plantation to be a servant because of his color. In 1838, Douglas escaped and became part of an Anti-Slavery Society in 1841. He gave a powerful speech on the fourth of July addressing his fellow African Americans called ‘What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July.’ He portrays how all of America celebrates Independence Day with their political freedom.
Additionally, the verdict had many political and social implications, provoked angry resentment in the North and led the country a step closer to civil war. After the Civil War and the introduction and passage of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment finally brought about the overturning of the decision. Adopted in 1868, this amendment granted citizenship to former slaves and their descendants and gave them the benefit and protection of their civil liberties. Dred Scott was an illiterate slave born in 1799. He was born as the property of the Peter Blow family since his parents were both slaves.
Frederick Douglass was born into slavery February 14, 1818. He spent most of his slave years in Maryland and Virginia. As a child an un-aware slave mistress made the “mistake” of teaching him to read. This opened to him a wide window of awareness and opportunity. He soon began to seek more and more education and to use his abilities to help teach other slaves to read from bible studies.
Teachers, such as John Chavis from Raleigh and Margaret Douglass in Norfolk, ran night schools to avoid being discovered of illegal education to slaves. Douglass, however, was convicted for her crimes of educating black children and slaves, and was thus imprisoned for her actions. Sophie Auld, the wife of a southern plantation owner was the one to begin teaching the youthful Frederick Douglass. Upon her secret being discovered, she quickly became resentful and bitter toward Douglass, and he was subsequently forbidden from any further education. This, as history has shown, was not the case.