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The abolitionists were very important people in US history. They fought for the freedom of the slaves and supported the idea that all people were equal. One of the many abolitionists was Harriet Tubman. She created the underground railroad.The under ground railroad was used to secretly get slaves into safer areas, away from the south.Eventually the abolitionists idea was heard, and all slaves were freed.

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Picture of underground railroad safe house

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Map of underground railroad

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The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century, and used by enslaved African-Americans to primarily escape into free states and Canada. The scheme was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees. The enslaved who risked escape and those who aided them are also collectively referred to as the "Underground Railroad". Various other routes led to Mexico, where slavery had been abolished, and to islands in the Caribbean that were not part of the slave trade. An earlier escape route running south toward Florida, then a Spanish possession (except 1763-83), existed from the late 17th century until approximately 1790. However, the network now generally known as the Underground Railroad was formed in the late 1700s. It ran north and grew steadily until the Civil War began. One estimate suggests that, by 1850, 100,000 enslaved people had escaped via the network.

At its peak, nearly 1,000 enslaved people per year escaped from slave-holding states using the Underground Railroad - more than 5,000 court cases for escaped enslaved were recorded - many fewer than the natural increase of the enslaved population. The resulting economic impact was minuscule, but the psychological influence on slave holders was immense. Under the original Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, officials from free states were required to assist slaveholders or their agents who recaptured fugitives, but citizens and governments of many free states ignored the law, and the Underground Railroad thrived.

With heavy lobbying by Southern politicians, the Compromise of 1850 was passed by Congress after the Mexican-American War. It stipulated a more stringent Fugitive Slave Law; ostensibly, the compromise addressed regional problems by compelling officials of free states to assist slave catchers, granting them immunity to operate in free states. Because the law required sparse documentation to claim a person was a fugitive, slave catchers also kidnapped free blacks, especially children, and sold them into slavery. Southern politicians often exaggerated the number of escaped slaves and often blamed these escapes on Northerners interfering with Southern property rights. The law deprived people suspected of being slaves the right to defend themselves in court, making it difficult to prove free status. In a de facto bribe, judges were paid a higher fee ($10) for a decision that confirmed a suspect as an enslaved person than for one ruling that the suspect was free ($5). Many Northerners who might have ignored enslavement issues in the South were confronted by local challenges that bound them to support slavery. This was a primary grievance cited by the Union during the American Civil War, and the perception that Northern States ignored the fugitive slave laws and regulations was a major justification for secession.

The escape network was neither literally underground nor a railroad. (Actual underground railroads did not exist until 1863.) According to John Rankin, "It was so called because they who took passage on it disappeared from public view as really as if they had gone into the ground. After the fugitive slaves entered a depot on that road no trace of them could be found. They were secretly passed from one depot to another until they arrived at a destination where they were able to remain free." It was known as a railroad, using rail terminology such as stations and conductors, because that was the transportation system in use at the time.

The Underground Railroad did not have a headquarters, nor were there published guides, maps, pamphlets, or even newspaper articles. The Underground Railroad consisted of meeting points, secret routes, transportation, and safe houses, all of them maintained by abolitionist sympathizers and communicated by word of mouth. Participants generally organized in small, independent groups; this helped to maintain secrecy because individuals knew some connecting "stations" along the route but knew few details of the escapees' immediate area. People escaping enslavement would move north along the route from one way station to the next. "Conductors" on the railroad came from various backgrounds and included free-born Blacks, white abolitionists, the former enslaved (either escaped or manumitted), and Native Americans. Church clergy and congregations of the North often played a role, especially the Religious Society of Friends ( Quakers), Congregationalists, Wesleyans, and Reformed Presbyterians, as well as the anti-slavery branches of mainstream denominations which split over the issue, such as the Methodist church and the Baptists. The role of free Blacks was crucial; without it, there would have been almost no chance for fugitives from slavery to reach freedom safely.

Members of the Underground Railroad often used specific terms, based on the metaphor of the railway. For example:

People who helped enslaved people find the railroad were "agents" (or "shepherds")

Guides were known as "conductors"

Hiding places were "stations" or "way stations"

"Station masters" hid enslaved people in their homes

People escaping slavery were referred to as "passengers" or "cargo"

Enslaved people would obtain a "ticket"

Similar to common gospel lore, the "wheels would keep on turning"

Financial benefactors of the Railroad were known as "stockholders"

The Big Dipper (whose "bowl" points to the North Star) was known as the drinkin' gourd. The Railroad was often known as the "freedom train" or "Gospel train", which headed towards "Heaven" or "the Promised Land", i.e., Canada.

William Still, sometimes called "The Father of the Underground Railroad", helped hundreds of slaves escape (as many as 60 a month), sometimes hiding them in his Philadelphia home. He kept careful records, including short biographies of the people, that contained frequent railway metaphors. He maintained correspondence with many of them, often acting as a middleman in communications between people who had escaped slavery and those left behind. He later published these accounts in the book The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts (1872), a valuable resource for historians to understand how the system worked and learn about individual ingenuity in escapes.

According to Still, messages were often encoded so that they could be understood only by those active in the railroad. For example, the following message, "I have sent via at two o'clock four large hams and two small hams", indicated that four adults and two children were sent by train from Harrisburg to Philadelphia. The additional word via indicated that the "passengers" were not sent on the usual train, but rather via Reading, Pennsylvania. In this case, the authorities were tricked into going to the regular location (station) in an attempt to intercept the runaways, while Still met them at the correct station and guided them to safety. They eventually escaped either further north or to Canada, where slavery had been abolished during the 1830s.

To reduce the risk of infiltration, many people associated with the Underground Railroad knew only their part of the operation and not of the whole scheme. "Conductors" led or transported the fugitives from station to station. A conductor sometimes pretended to be enslaved in order to enter a plantation. Once a part of a plantation, the conductor would direct the runaways to the North. Enslaved people traveled at night, about 10-20 miles (16-32 km) to each station. They rested, and then a message was sent to the next station to let the station master know the escapees were on their way. They would stop at the so-called "stations" or "depots" during the day and rest. The stations were often located in basements, barns, churches, or in hiding places in caves and hollowed-out riverbanks.[citation needed ]

The resting spots where the escapees could sleep and eat were given the code names "stations" and "depots", which were held by "station masters". "Stockholders" gave money or supplies for assistance. Using biblical references, fugitives referred to Canada as the " Promised Land" or "Heaven" and the Ohio River as the " River Jordan", which marked the boundary between slave states and free states.

Although the fugitives sometimes traveled on boat or train, they usually traveled on foot or by wagon in groups of one to three escapees. Some groups were considerably larger. Abolitionist Charles Turner Torrey and his colleagues rented horses and wagons and often transported as many as 15 or 20 people at a time.

Routes were often purposely indirect to confuse pursuers. Most escapes were by individuals or small groups; occasionally, there were mass escapes, such as with the Pearl incident. The journey was often considered particularly difficult and dangerous for women or children. Children were sometimes hard to keep quiet or were unable to keep up with a group. In addition, enslaved women were rarely allowed to leave the plantation, making it harder for them to escape in the same ways that men could. Although escaping was harder for women, some women were successful. One of the most famous and successful conductors (people who secretly traveled into slave states to rescue those seeking freedom) was Harriet Tubman, a woman who escaped slavery.

Due to the risk of discovery, information about routes and safe havens was passed along by word of mouth. Southern newspapers of the day were often filled with pages of notices soliciting information about fugitive slaves and offering sizable rewards for their capture and return. Federal marshals and professional bounty hunters known as slave catchers pursued fugitives as far as the Canada-US border.

Fugitives were not the only black people at risk from slave catchers. With demand for slaves high in the Deep South as cotton was developed, strong, healthy blacks in their prime working and reproductive years were seen and treated as highly valuable commodities. Both former slaves and free blacks were sometimes kidnapped and sold into slavery, as was Solomon Northup of Saratoga Springs, New York. "Certificates of freedom," signed, notarized statements attesting to the free status of individual blacks also known as free papers, could easily be destroyed or stolen, so provided little protection to bearers.

Some buildings, such as the Crenshaw House in far southeastern Illinois, are known sites where free blacks were sold into slavery, known as the " Reverse Underground Railroad". Under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, when suspected fugitives were seized and brought to a special magistrate known as a commissioner, they had no right to a jury trial and could not testify on their own behalf. Technically, they were guilty of no crime. The marshal or private slave-catcher needed only to swear an oath to acquire a writ of for the return of property.

Congress was dominated by Southern congressmen because the population of their states was bolstered by the inclusion of three-fifths of the number of slaves in population totals. They passed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 because of frustration at having fugitives from slavery helped by the public and even official institutions outside the South. In some parts of the North, slave-catchers needed police protection to exercise their federal authority. Opposition to slavery did not mean that all states welcomed free blacks. For instance, Indiana, whose area along the Ohio River was settled by Southerners, passed a constitutional amendment that barred free blacks from settling in that state.

British North America (present-day Canada) was a desirable destination, as its long border gave many points of access, it was farther from slave catchers, and beyond the reach of the United States' Fugitive Slave Acts. Further, slavery ended decades earlier in Canada than in the United States. Britain banned the institution of slavery in present-day Canada (and in most British colonies) in 1833, though the practice of slavery in Canada had effectively ended already early in the 19th century through case law, due to court decisions resulting from litigation on behalf of slaves seeking manumission.

Most former enslaved, reaching Canada by boat across Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, settled in Ontario. More than 30,000 people were said to have escaped there via the network during its 20-year peak period, although U.S. Census figures account for only 6,000. Numerous fugitives' stories are documented in the 1872 book The Underground Railroad Records by William Still, an abolitionist who then headed the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee.

Estimates vary widely, but at least 30,000 slaves, and potentially more than 100,000, escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad. The largest group settled in Upper Canada (Ontario), called Canada West from 1841. Numerous Black Canadian communities developed in Southern Ontario. These were generally in the triangular region bounded by Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Windsor. Several rural villages made up mostly of people freed from slavery were established in Kent and Essex counties in Ontario.

Fort Malden, in Amherstburg, Ontario, was deemed the "chief place of entry" for escaped slaves seeking to enter Canada. The abolitionist Levi Coffin, who was known for aiding over 2,000 fugitives to safety, supported this choice. He described Fort Malden as "the great landing place, the principle terminus of the underground railroad of the west." After 1850, approximately thirty people a day were crossing over to Fort Malden by steamboat. The Sultana was one of the ships, making "frequent round trips" between Great Lakes ports. Its captain, C.W. Appleby, a celebrated mariner, facilitated the conveyance of several fugitives from various Lake Erie ports to Fort Malden. Other fugitives at Fort Walden had been assisted by William Wells Brown, himself someone who had escaped slavery. He found employment on a Lake Erie steamer and transported numerous fugitives from Cleveland to Ontario by way of Buffalo or Detroit. "It is well known", he tells us, "that a great number of fugitives make their escape to Canada, by way of Cleaveland. ...The friends of the slave, knowing that I would transport them without charge, never failed to have a delegation when the boat arrived at Cleaveland. I have sometimes had four or five on board at one time."

Another important destination was Nova Scotia, which was first settled by Black Loyalists during the American Revolution and then by Black Refugees during the War of 1812 ( see Black Nova Scotians). Important Black settlements also developed in other parts of British North America (now parts of Canada). These included Lower Canada (present-day Quebec) and Vancouver Island, where Governor James Douglas encouraged Black immigration because of his opposition to slavery. He also hoped a significant Black community would form a bulwark against those who wished to unite the island with the United States.[citation needed ]

Upon arriving at their destinations, many fugitives were disappointed, as life in Canada was difficult. While the British colonies had no slavery after 1834, discrimination was still common. Many of the new arrivals had to compete with mass European immigration for jobs, and overt racism was common. For example, in reaction to Black Loyalists being settled in eastern Canada by the Crown, the city of Saint John, New Brunswick, amended its charter in 1785 specifically to exclude Blacks from practicing a trade, selling goods, fishing in the harbor, or becoming freemen; these provisions stood until 1870.

With the outbreak of the Civil War in the U.S., many black refugees left Canada to enlist in the Union Army. While some later returned to Canada, many remained in the United States. Thousands of others returned to the American South after the war ended. The desire to reconnect with friends and family was strong, and most were hopeful about the changes emancipation and Reconstruction would bring.

Since the 1980s, claims have arisen that quilt designs were used to signal and direct enslaved people to escape routes and assistance. According to advocates of the quilt theory, ten quilt patterns were used to direct enslaved people to take particular actions. The quilts were placed one at a time on a fence as a means of nonverbal communication to alert escaping slaves. The code had a dual meaning: first to signal enslaved people to prepare to escape, and second to give clues and indicate directions on the journey.

The quilt design theory is disputed. The first published work documenting an oral history source was in 1999, and the first publication of this theory is believed to be a 1980 children's book. Quilt historians and scholars of pre-Civil War (1820-1860) America have disputed this legend. There is no contemporary evidence of any sort of quilt code, and quilt historians such as Pat Cummings and Barbara Brackman have raised serious questions about the idea. In addition, Underground Railroad historian Giles Wright has published a pamphlet debunking the quilt code.

Similarly, some popular, nonacademic sources claim that spirituals and other songs, such as "Steal Away" or " Follow the Drinking Gourd", contained coded information and helped individuals navigate the railroad. They have offered little evidence to support their claims. Scholars tend to believe that while the slave songs may certainly have expressed hope for deliverance from the sorrows of this world, these songs did not present literal help for runaway slaves.

The Underground Railroad inspired cultural works. For example, " Song of the Free", written in 1860 about a man fleeing slavery in Tennessee by escaping to Canada, was composed to the tune of " Oh! Susanna". Every stanza ends with a reference to Canada as the land "where colored men are free". Slavery in Upper Canada (now Ontario) was outlawed in 1793; in 1819, John Robinson, the Attorney General of Upper Canada, declared that by residing in Canada, black residents were set free, and that Canadian courts would protect their freedom. Slavery in Canada as a whole had been in rapid decline after an 1803 court ruling, and was finally abolished outright in 1834.

When frictions between North and South culminated in the Civil War, many Blacks, both enslaved and free, fought for the Union Army. Following Union victory in the Civil War, on December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution outlawed slavery. Following its passage, in some cases the Underground Railroad operated in the opposite direction, as fugitives returned to the United States.

Frederick Douglass was a writer, statesman, and had escaped slavery. He wrote critically of the attention drawn to the ostensibly secret Underground Railroad in his seminal autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845):

I have never approved of the very public manner in which some of our western friends have conducted what they call the Underground Railroad, but which I think, by their open declarations, has been made most emphatically the upperground railroad.

He went on to say that, although he honors the movement, he feels that the efforts at publicity serve more to enlighten the slave-owners than the slaves, making them more watchful and making it more difficult for future slaves to escape.

Following upon legislation passed in 1990 for the National Park Service to perform a special resource study of the Underground Railroad, in 1997, the 105th Congress introduced and subsequently passed H.R. 1635 - National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act of 1998, which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1998. This act authorized the United States National Park Service to establish the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program to identify associated sites, as well as preserve them and popularize the Underground Railroad and stories of people involved in it. The National Park Service has designated many sites within the network, posted stories about people and places, sponsors an essay contest, and holds a national conference about the Underground Railroad in May or June each year.

The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park, which includes Underground Railroad routes in three counties of Maryland's Eastern Shore and Harriet Tubman's birthplace, was created by President Barack Obama under the Antiquities Act on March 25, 2013. Its sister park, the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn, New York, was established on January 10, 2017 and focuses on the later years of Tubman's life as well as her involvement with the Underground Railroad and the abolition movement.

1. ^ Cross, L.D. (2010). The Underground Railroad: The long journey to freedom in Canada. Toronto, ON: James Lorimer Limited, Publishers. ISBN 978-1-55277-581-3.

2. ^ "Underground Railroad". dictionary.com. 'A network of houses and other places abolitionists used to help enslaved Africans escape to freedom in the northern states or in Canada ... ' -American Heritage Dictionary

3. ^ "The Underground Railroad". Public Broadcasting Service.

4. ^ Leanos Jr., Reynaldo (2017). "This underground railroad took slaves to freedom in Mexico, PRI's The World, Public Radio International, March 29, 2017". Minneapolis, MN: Public Radio International.

5. ^ Leesa Jones Interview Transcript, 2020-01-07 [SHE.OH.017]. January 7, 2020.

6. ^ Smith, Bruce (March 18, 2012). "For a century, Underground Railroad ran south". Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 21, 2012.

7. ^ McIver, Stuart (February 14, 1993). "Fort Moses's Call To Freedom. Florida's Little-known Underground Railroad Was the Escape Route Taken by Slaves Who Fled to the State in the 1700s and Established America's First Black Town". Sun-Sentinel.

8. ^ Vox, Lisa, "How Did Slaves Resist Slavery?", African-American History, About.com, Retrieved July 17, 2011.

9. ^ Gara, Larry. Underground Railroad. National Park Service. p. 8.

10. Douglass, Frederick (July 5, 1852), ^ "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro", History Is a Weapon, Retrieved July 17, 2011.

11. ^ Ritchie, Andrew (1870). The soldier, the battle, and the victory : being a brief account of the work of Rev. John Rankin in the anti-slavery cause. Cincinnati: Western Tract and Book Society. pp. 96-97.

12. ^ Miles, Tiya (Summer 2011). "Of Waterways and Runaways: Reflections on the Great Lakes in Underground Railroad History". Michigan Quarterly Review. Vol. L no. 3. hdl:2027/spo.act2080.0050.320. ISSN 1558-7266.

13. ^ Pinsker, Matthew (2000). Vigilance in Pennsylvania: Underground Railroad Activities in the Keystone State, 1837-1861. Lancaster: PHMC.

14. ^ Still, William (1872). The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts. ASIN B00264GNTU.

15. ^ Cedarville University (February 12, 2018). "Underground Railroad Hiding Places". Slideshow Images.

16. ^ "Underground Railroad Codes" (PDF). Myths and Codes of the Underground Railroad. Safe Passage. Greater Cincinnati Television Educational Foundation. p. 20.

17. ^ Torrey, E. Fuller (2013). The Martyrdom of Abolitionist Charles Torrey. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

18. ^ Blackett, Richard (October 2014). "The Underground Railroad and the Struggle Against Slavery". History Workshop Journal. 78 (1): 279. doi:10.1093/hwj/dbu012. S2CID 154049844.

19. ^ Mary Ann Shadd (2016). A Plea for Emigration; or Notes of Canada West: A Broadview Anthology of British Literature Edition. Broadview Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-55481-321-6.

20. ^ "Settling Canada Underground Railroad". Historica Minutes. Archived from the original on January 6, 2010. Between 1840 and 1860, more than 30,000 people enslaved in America came secretly to Canada and freedom

21. ^ "From slavery to freedom" Archived July 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, The Grapevine, pp. 3-5.

22. ^ Jr, Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, Waldo E. Martin (2013). Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans, with documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. p. 287. ISBN 978-0-312-64883-1.

23. ^ Landon, Fred (1925). "Amherstburg, Terminus of the Underground Railroad". Journal of Negro History. 10 (1): 5. doi:10.2307/2713665. JSTOR 2713665. S2CID 149997017.

24. ^ Tom Calarco, Places of the Underground Railroad: A Geographical Guide (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2011)

25. ^ Brown, William W. (1848). Narrative of William W. Brown, a fugitive slave. The Anti-slavery Office (2nd ed.). Boston. pp. 107-108.

26. ^ "Arrival of the Black Loyalists: Saint John's Black Community" Archived May 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Heritage Resources Saint John

27. ^ Aronson, Marc (April 1, 2007). "History That Never Happened". School Library Journal.

28. ^ Kelley, James (April 2008). "Song, Story, or History: Resisting Claims of a Coded Message in the African American Spiritual 'Follow the Drinking Gourd'". The Journal of Popular Culture. 41 (2): 262-280. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2008.00502.x.

29. ^ "Black History-From Slavery to Settlement". Archives.gov.on.ca. Archived from the original on February 14, 2013.

30. Mark Lardas, ^ African American Soldier in the Civil War: USCT, 1862-66

31. Ann Heinrichs, ^ The Underground Railroad

32. ^ Gindy, Gaye E. (2008). The Underground Railroad and Sylvania's Historic Lathrop House. p. 20. ISBN 9781434367617.

33. Douglass, Frederick. (1845) ^ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Dover Publications. Chapter 11.

34. William Still, ^ "George Corson," The Underground Rail Road, (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872), pp. 721-23.

35. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr, ^ Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Oxford University Press, 1999 ISBN 978-0195170559

36. ^ "Aboard the Underground Railroad" - Boston African American NHS. Nps.gov (September 5, 1962). Retrieved on 2013-08-16.

37. ^ "The Rochester Years". Archived from the original on November 24, 2011.

38. ^ "For the People: A Newsletter of the Abraham Lincoln Association v.8 number 1 Spring 2006, Springfield, Illinois" (PDF).

39. ^ "Mary Meachum and the Underground Railroad". St. Louis Public Radio. October 9, 2012. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016.

40. ^ "Network to Freedom Homepage". www.nps.gov.

41. ^ Mitchell, William (1860). The Under-Ground Railroad . W. Tweedie - via Wikisource. [scan ]

Colson Whitehead (2016). The Underground Railroad; winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for this poetical, mythical reflection on the meaning of the Railroad in American history.

Blackett, R.J.M. (2013). Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

Curtis, Anna L. (1941). Stories of the Underground Railroad. Archived from the original on March 31, 2012. (Stories about Thomas Garrett, a famous agent on the Underground Railroad)

Frost, Karolyn Smardz (2007). I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374531256.

Larson, Kate Clifford (2004). Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-45627-0.

Still, William (1872). The Underground Railroad: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &c., Narrating the Hardships, Hair-Breadth Escapes and Death Struggles of the Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom, As Related by Themselves and Others, or Witnessed by the Author. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates. (Classic book documenting the Underground Railroad operations in Philadelphia).

Strother, Horatio (1962; reissued 2011). The Underground Railroad in Connecticut. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 9780819560124.

Tilley Turner, Glennette (2001). The Underground Railroad in Illinois. Newman Educational Pub. ISBN 978-0938990055.

Jones, Leesa Bailey (January 7, 2020). "Leesa Jones Interview". State Archives of North Carolina (Oral History). Interviewed by Ellen Brooks. Washington, N.C.

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The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century, and used by enslaved African-Americans to primarily escape into free states and Canada. The scheme was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees.

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Picture of underground railroad

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Map of the routes of the Underground Railroad (Photo: harriet-tubman.org)

August 2, 1850: African-American abolitionist William Still began recording his involvement with helping runaway slaves find lives of freedom. Years later, he wrote a book based on that work titled The Underground Railroad.

August 2, 1924: Novelist, playwright, poet, essayist and social critic James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York. His work explored themes of racial, sexual and class differences and discrimination in America. Baldwin is best known for his semi-autobiographical novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, in which examined the role of the Christian Church in the lives of African Americans. Active in the civil rights movement, he worked with SNCC and CORE, joining the 1963 March on Washington.

August 3, 1967: William Kunstler and other lawyers formed the Law Center for Constitutional Rights, later known as the Center for Constitutional Rights. The group became one of the most important legal institutions for the civil rights movement. In 1961, Kunstler traveled to Mississippi and began working in civil rights cases, helping to form the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee.

August 3, 1979: Patricia Roberts Harris began serving as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under President Jimmy Carter after serving for two years as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. She was the first African-American woman to serve in the presidential cabinet. When someone questioned her ability to represent the underclass, she shot back, "You do not seem to understand who I am. I am a black woman, the daughter of a dining-car worker. I am a black woman who could not buy a house eight years ago in parts of the District of Columbia!"

August 4, 1810: Abolitionist Robert Purvis, who was part African-American, was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He used his wealth and education to support anti-slavery causes as well as projects to improve the education of African Americans. Purvis helped William Lloyd Garrison establish the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. He served as president of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and strongly supported the Underground Railroad by providing aid to those fleeing slavery.

August 4, 1901: Louis Armstrong, trumpeter known around the globe as "Satchmo," was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. The musical influence of his playing and singing reached far beyond jazz.

August 4, 1961: Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. He went on to become a U.S. senator in Illinois and wrote two best-selling books, Dreams of My Father and The Audacity of Hope, before becoming the 44th President of the United States.

August 4, 1964: Forty-four days after the disappearances of three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Mickey Schwerner and Andy Goodman, FBI agents uncovered their bodies, buried 15 feet down in an earthen dam built on a Klansman's property.

August 5, 1966: Martin Luther King Jr. and other marchers from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were hit with rocks as they marched through white neighborhoods in Chicago, protesting racial discrimination in housing.

August 6, 1963: About 1,000 African Americans in the Mississippi Delta showed up at polls, attempting to cast provisional ballots because they had been prevented from registering to vote. They appeared despite intimidation and threats.

August 6, 1964: The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, formed to challenge the all-white regular Democratic Party in Mississippi, selected its delegates.

August 6, 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. The act made it illegal to prevent African Americans from exercising their constitutional right to vote. It created federal oversight of election laws in six Southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia) and in many counties of North Carolina where minority voter turnout had been very low. Prior to passage of the law, African-American voter registration rates had been as low as 7 percent in parts of Mississippi.

August 7, 1904: Diplomat Ralph Bunche was born in Detroit. After heading the Howard University Political Science Department for more than 20 years, he went to the United Nations and served as its mediator on Palestine. After negotiating the 1948 armistice agreements between Israel and the Arab states, he returned home to receive a ticket-tape parade up Broadway. In 1950, he received the Nobel Peace Prize. He took part in the civil rights movement for decades and helped Martin Luther King Jr. lead the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965 in Alabama.

August 8, 1925: In a show of force, more than 30,000 members of the Klan marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. "Phantom-like hosts of the Ku Klux Klan spread their white robe over the nation's most historic thoroughfare yesterday in one of the greatest demonstrations this city has ever known," The Washington Post reported. "Police estimated that there were 30,000-35,000 in the weird procession - men, women and children of the Klan."
Contact Jerry Mitchell at jmitchell@gannett.com or (601) 961-7064. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
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Map of the routes of the Underground Railroad (Photo: harriet-tubman.org) August 2, 1850: African-American abolitionist William Still began recording his involvement with helping runaway slaves find lives of freedom. Years later, he wrote a book based on that work titled The Underground Railroad.

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What Is an Abolitionist?

An abolitionist, as the name implies, is a person who sought to abolish slavery during the 19th century. More specifically, these individuals sought the immediate and full emancipation of all enslaved people.

Most early abolitionists were white, religious Americans, but some of the most prominent leaders of the movement were also Black men and women who had escaped from bondage.

The abolitionists saw slavery as an abomination and an affliction on the United States, making it their goal to eradicate slave ownership. They sent petitions to Congress, ran for political office and inundated people of the South with anti-slavery literature.

These staunch activists wanted to abolish slavery completely, which differed from the ideas of other groups like the Free Soil Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery into U.S. territories and newly formed states such as Kansas.

Did you know? Female abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott went on to become prominent figures in the women's rights movement.

How Did Abolitionism Start?

Opposition to slavery wasn't a new concept when abolitionism started. Since the inception of the Atlantic slave trade, which began in the 16th century, critics voiced their disapproval of the system.

In an early effort to stop slavery, the American Colonization Society, founded in 1816, proposed the idea of freeing slaves and sending them back to Africa. This solution was thought to be a compromise between antislavery activists and slavery supporters.

By 1860, nearly 12,000 African Americans had returned to Africa.

Missouri Compromise

The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which allowed Missouri to become a slave state, further provoked anti-slave sentiment in the North.

The abolitionist movement began as a more organized, radical and immediate effort to end slavery than earlier campaigns. It officially emerged around 1830.

Historians believe ideas set forth during the religious movement known as the Second Great Awakening inspired abolitionists to rise up against slavery. This Protestant revival encouraged the concept of adopting renewed morals, which centered around the idea that all men are created equal in the eyes of God.

Abolitionism started in states like New York and Massachusetts and quickly spread to other Northern states.

Laws Inflame Tensions

In 1850, Congress passed the controversial Fugitive Slave Act, which required all escaped enslaved people to be returned to their owners and American citizens to cooperate with the captures.

Seven years later, the Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision that Black people-free or enslaved-didn't have legal citizenship rights. Owners of enslaved people were also granted the right to take their enslaved workers to Western territories. These legal actions and court decisions sparked outrage among abolitionists.

Famous Abolitionists

Many Americans, including free and formerly enslaved people, worked tirelessly to support the abolitionist movement. Some of the most famous abolitionists included:

William Lloyd Garrison: A very influential early abolitionist, Garrison started a publication called The Liberator, which supported the immediate freeing of all enslaved men and women.

Frederick Douglass: Douglass escaped slavery himself and published a memoir titled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. An instrumental figure in the abolitionist movement, he also supported women's suffrage.

Harriet Beecher Stowe: Stowe was an author and abolitionist who was best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Susan B. Anthony: Anthony was an author, speaker and women's rights activist who also supported the abolitionist movement. She is revered for her diligent efforts in fighting for women's rights to vote.

: Brown was a radical abolitionist who organized various raids and uprisings, including an infamous raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

Harriet Tubman: Tubman was a fugitive enslaved person and abolitionist who was known for helping escaped enslaved people reach the North via the Underground Railroad network.

Sojourner Truth: Best known for her speech, "Ain't I a Woman?," Truth was both an abolitionist and a women's rights advocate.

Rift Widens Between North and South

As it gained momentum, the abolitionist movement caused increasing friction between states in the North and the slave-owning South. Critics of abolition argued that it contradicted the U.S. Constitution, which left the option of slavery up to individual states.

Abolitionism was illegal in the South, and President Andrew Jackson banned the U.S. Postal Service from delivering any publications that supported the movement.

In 1833, a white student at Lane Theological Seminary named Amos Dresser was publicly whipped in Nashville, Tennessee, for possessing abolitionist literature while traveling through the city.

Elijah Lovejoy

In 1837, a pro-slavery mob attacked a warehouse in Alton, Illinois, in an attempt to destroy abolitionist press materials. During the raid, they shot and killed newspaper editor and abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy.

After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was passed, both pro- and anti-slavery groups inhabited the Kansas Territory. In 1856, a pro-slavery group attacked the town of Lawrence, which was founded by abolitionists from Massachusetts. In retaliation, abolitionist John Brown organized a raid that killed five pro-slavery settlers.

Then, in 1859, Brown led 21 men to capture the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He and his followers were seized by a group of Marines and convicted of treason. Brown was hanged for the crime.

The Civil War and Its Aftermath

President Abraham Lincoln opposed slavery but was cautious about fully supporting the more radical ideas of the abolitionists. As the power struggle between the North and the South reached its peak, the Civil War broke out in 1861.

As the bloody war waged on, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, calling for the freeing of enslaved people in areas of the rebellion. And in 1865, the Constitution was ratified to include the Thirteenth Amendment, which officially abolished all forms of slavery in the United States.

Abolitionist Movement Ends

Though the abolitionist movement seemed to dissolve after the addition of the Thirteenth Amendment, many historians argue that the effort didn't completely cease until the 1870 passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which extended voting rights to Black men. Meanwhile, the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including former enslaved people.

When slavery officially ended, many prominent abolitionists turned their focus to women's rights issues. Historians believe that the experiences and lessons learned during the abolitionist movement paved the way for leaders who were eventually successful in the women's suffrage movements.

Abolitionist ideals and traditions also served as a model for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP), which was formed in 1909.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Sources

Abolition and the Abolitionists. National Geographic.
Early abolition. Khan Academy.
Abolitionist Sentiment Grows. UShistory.org.

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Abolitionist Movement - Definition & Famous Abolitionists | HISTORY

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The abolitionist movement was the effort to end slavery, led by famous abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and John Brown.