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Transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau

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The Second Great Awakening took place from the 1790s to the 1830s. It expressed and asserted religion in those who were believers. It began in rural areas and spread to the cities in the...

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Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, philosopher, and ...

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The abolitionist movement was an organized effort to end the practice of slavery in the United States. The first leaders of the campaign, which took place from about 1830 to 1870, mimicked some of the same tactics British abolitionists had used to end slavery in Great Britain in the 1830s. Though it started as a movement with religious underpinnings, abolitionism became a controversial political issue that divided much of the country. Supporters and critics often engaged in heated debates and violent - even deadly - confrontations. The divisiveness and animosity fueled by the movement, along with other factors, led to the Civil War and ultimately the end of slavery in America.

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.

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.
READ MORE: When Did African Americans Get the Right to Vote?
Sources

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

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The abolitionist movement was an organized effort to end the practice of slavery in the United States. The first leaders of the campaign, which took place from about 1830 to 1870, mimicked some of the same tactics British abolitionists had used to end slavery in Great Britain in the 1830s.

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On Aug. 1, 1863, Frederick Douglass wrote a letter in his newspaper announcing his refusal to continue recruiting black troops for the Union Army. "When I plead for recruits, I want to do it with all my heart," he wrote in Douglass' Monthly. "I cannot do that now," he said, because "colored men have much overrated the enlightenment, justice and generosity of our rulers in Washington." Among other things, he said, black soldiers were not being paid as much as whites and were being sent on menial or dangerous missions without adequate support. Even worse, Confederate forces that captured black soldiers often either executed them or sold them into slavery.

Douglass addressed his letter to George Stearns, a Massachusetts industrialist and army major responsible for a national recruiting network for black troops. Stearns was a member of the "Secret Six" abolitionists who had supported John Brown, and he almost certainly shared Douglass's frustration with the administration's apparent reluctance to ensure that the Union's black troops be accorded the same protections and pay that its white soldiers enjoyed. (Given the slow rate at which news spread in those days, neither man could have known that the Army's Adjutant General's Office had just ordered that "for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works.") Rather than lose the recruiting services of one of the nation's most visible black leaders, Stearns urged Douglass to visit Washington and share his views with the president.

And so, on Aug. 10, Douglass went to the White House, accompanied by Samuel C. Pomeroy, the Radical Republican senator from Kansas. First they stopped at the War Department to meet with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Like most people, Douglass found Stanton "cold and business-like," but nonetheless sympathetic. Over the course of a half-hour meeting, Stanton offered his assurance that he favored equal treatment for the United States Colored Troops, particularly regarding the inflammatory issue of equal pay, and that he had put forth legislation, rejected by Congress, to remedy the inequity. Stanton also offered Douglass a military commission so that he might assist Gen. Lorenzo Thomas in his efforts to recruit blacks in Mississippi. (Nothing came of this offer; some historians suspect that Lincoln killed the idea.)

After the visit with Stanton, Douglass and Pomeroy took the short walk east to the White House. As he noted in his autobiography 30 years later, Douglass had misgivings about the meeting. "The distance then between the black man and the white American citizen was immeasurable," he wrote. "I could not know what kind of a reception would be accorded me." His misgivings were not without good reason, for he was a persistent, often outspoken critic of the president.

In April 1861, for instance, Douglass had labeled Lincoln's inaugural address "a weak and inappropriate utterance" that announced "complete loyalty to slavery in the slave States" and denied "all feeling against slavery." And in September 1862, when writing about the president's August 1862 meeting with black clergyman from Chicago, during which Lincoln had aggressively promoted colonization, Douglass wrote that the president "seems to have an ever increasing passion for making himself appear silly and ridiculous."

Upon arriving at the White House, Douglass found "the stairway was crowded with applicants ... and as I was the only dark spot among them, I expected to have to wait at least half a day." But within two minutes he was ushered into the president's office, where he found Lincoln seated "in a low armchair with his feet extended on the floor, surrounded by a large number of documents and several busy secretaries." Lincoln immediately put his visitor at ease. "I know who you are, Mr. Douglass; Mr. Seward has told me all about you," the president said. "Sit down. I am glad to see you."

When Lincoln asked Douglass to "state what I regarded as the ... most disheartening feature in our present political and military situation," the black abolitionist responded, "It would be the tardy, hesitating, vacillating policy of the President of the United States." As Douglass recalled the exchange, Lincoln allowed that he might seem slow, but that he could not be accused of vacillation. "I think it cannot be shown that when I have once taken a position, I have ever retreated from it." Douglass later recalled that he regarded this "as the most significant point in what he said during our interview."

Lincoln's responses to what Douglass identified as his primary concerns - the inequitable pay for black soldiers, the need for retaliation against Confederate policies toward black troops and the need for policies guaranteeing promotion for meritorious service by black troops - cannot have been immediately reassuring to the abolitionist.

Lincoln began with the claim that "the employment of colored troops ... could not have been successfully adopted at the beginning of the war." Although the wisdom of enlisting colored troops was still untested and was a "serious offense" to popular prejudice, the president argued, colored troops "had larger motives for being soldiers than white men" and "ought to be willing to enter the service upon any condition." The fact that they received lower pay was a "necessary concession to smooth the way" and one that would ultimately be corrected.

Lincoln also defended the pace at which he had moved to ensure black troops equal protection: "the country needed talking up to that point," the president contended, but he was confident "that the preparatory work had now been done." Remember, he reminded Douglass, "that Milliken's Bend, Port Hudson and Fort Wagner are recent events; and that these were necessary to prepare the way for this very proclamation [the Order of Retaliation] of mine," referring to battles in which black soldiers had participated. Finally, Lincoln answered the third of Douglass's concerns with a masterful evasion, saying simply that "he would sign any commission to colored soldiers whom his Secretary of War should commend to him."

The impact of the meeting between Lincoln and Douglass was largely personal. Douglass was "not entirely satisfied with his views," but "was so well satisfied with the man ... that I determined to go on with the recruiting." And the audience with the president had provided further proof of his status as a leading voice in the black and white antislavery community. Four months later, when relating his experience to the delegates at the American Antislavery Society in Philadelphia, he exclaimed, "I tell you I felt big there!"

But the meeting had little immediate impact on the most vexing issue that Douglass had raised: unequal pay. White Union privates received $13 per month, $3 of which was to pay for uniforms. When Stanton ordered Gen. Rufus Saxton to organize the first 5,000 black volunteers at Port Royal, S.C., in the spring of 1863, he authorized a rate of pay equal to that received by white troops. Then he made a mistake. When the Bureau for Colored Troops was established a month later, Stanton asked the War Department's solicitor, William Whiting, to review the question of the pay rate for black troops. Whiting ruled that the only legislation in effect, the 1862 Militia Act, clearly stated that "persons of African descent, who under this law shall be employed, shall receive ten dollars per month and one ration, three dollars of which monthly pay may be in clothing" (//www.freedmen.umd.edu/milact.htm).

The primary justification for the pay differential was that black troops were initially to serve as garrison, not front-line, troops. Just as important, many Union leaders argued that pay equity would inflame the prejudices of white troops. As The New York World editorialized, "To claim that the indolent, servile negro is the equal in courage, enterprise and fire of the foremost race in all the world is a libel upon the name of an American citizen. ... It is unjust in every way to the white soldier to put him on a level with the black."

The strategy of paying black troops less pleased no one: the whites it was meant to appease saw it for the sop it was, while both the black troops and their white supporters resented it. Gov. John Andrew of Massachusetts thundered: "For fear the uniform may dignify the enfranchised slave, or make the black man seem like a free citizen, the government means to disgrace and degrade him, so that he may always be in his own eyes, and in the eyes of all men, 'only a nigger.'" When Andrew sought to make up the difference in pay for the 54th and 55th Massachusetts regiments from state funds, a regimental spokesman condemned the offer for advertising "us to the world as holding out for money and not from principle - that we sink our manhood in consideration of a few more dollars." As captured in the film "Glory," the Massachusetts regiments refused time and again to muster to receive pay.

Either Stanton or Lincoln might well have reversed or disregarded the opinion of the War Department's solicitor in the spring of 1863; they surely showed no reluctance to override other, more well-established policies. But they chose instead to leave the issue of rectifying the pay inequity in the hands of Congress. Not until June 15, 1864 did legislation equalize pay and make it retroactive to January 1. It also enabled black troops to collect back pay for 1862 and 1863, but hedged the entitlement with qualifications that spawned a whole new round of controversies not resolved until the war's end.
Follow Disunion at twitter.com/NYTcivilwar or join us on Facebook. Sources: David Blight, "Frederick Douglass' Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee"; Dudley Taylor Cornish, "The Sable Arm: Black Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865"; Luis F. Emilio, "A Brave Black Regiment: The History of the 54th Massachusetts, 1863-1865"; Philip S. Foner, ed., with adaptation by Yuval Taylor, "Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings"; Joseph T. Glatthaar, "Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance between Black Soldiers and White Officers"; James M. McPherson, "The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted during the War for the Union and "The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction"; James Oakes, "The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics"; Brooks D. Simpson, ed., "The Civil War: The Third Year Told by Those who Lived It"; and Noah Andre Trudeau, "Like Men of War: Black Troops in the Civil War, 1862-1865." Rick Beard is an independent historian and exhibition curator, and co-author of the forthcoming National Park Service publication "Slavery in the United States: A Brief Narrative History."

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On Aug. 1, 1863, Frederick Douglass wrote a letter in his newspaper announcing his refusal to continue recruiting black troops for the Union Army. "When I plead for recruits, I want to do it with all my heart," he wrote in Douglass' Monthly.

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Frederick Douglass sits in the pantheon of Black history figures. Born into slavery, he made a daring escape North, wrote best-selling autobiographies and went on to become one of the nation's most powerful voices against human bondage. He stands as the most influential civil and human rights advocate of the 19th century.

Perhaps his greatest legacy? He never shied away from hard truths.

Because even as he wowed 19th-century audiences in the U.S. and England with his soaring eloquence and patrician demeanor, even as he riveted readers with his published autobiographies, Douglass kept them focused on the horrors he and millions of others endured as enslaved Americans: the relentless indignities, the physical violence, the families ripped apart. And he blasted the hypocrisy of a slave-holding nation touting liberty and justice for all.

He wanted to rouse the nation's conscience-and expose its hypocrisy

Douglass's voluminous writings and speeches reveal a man who believed fiercely in the ideals on which America was founded, but understood-with the scars to prove it-that democracy would never be a destination of comfort and repose, but a journey of ongoing self-criticism and struggle. He knew it when he lobbied relentlessly to abolish slavery. And he knew it after Emancipation, when he continued to battle for equal rights under the law.

Indeed, Douglass knew, as he argued so ardently in his famed 1852 July Fourth speech,that for democracy to thrive, the nation's conscience must be roused, its propriety startled and its hypocrisy exposed. Not once, but continually and for the good of the nation, he argued, we must bring the "thunder."

Douglass's extraordinary life and legacy can be understood best through his autobiographies and his countless articles and speeches. But they weren't his only activities. He also published an abolitionist newspaper for 16 years...supported the Underground Railroad by which enslaved people escaped north...became the first African American to receive a vote for President of the United States during roll call at the 1888 Republican National Convention...and even was known to play America's national anthem on the violin.

Underpinning it all was his relentless process of self-education-a theme that runs throughout Douglass's life story.

Education, abuse and escape

Born in Maryland in 1818, Douglass, like many enslaved children, was separated from his mother at birth; he resided with his loving maternal grandmother until he turned seven.

At the age of eight, he became a servant in the home of Hugh Auld in Baltimore. In defiance of the codes that explicitly forbade teaching enslaved people how to read, Mrs. Auld taught Douglass the alphabet, unlocking the gateway to education-which he would extol the rest of his life. Over time Douglass surreptitiously continued to teach himself to read and write, all the while strengthening his resolve to escape the confines of slavery. He defied the law in not only learning to read and write, but in teaching other enslaved people to do so. As he observed: "Some know the value of education by having it. I know its value by not having it."

In the early 1830s, Douglass was shipped to the plantation of Hugh's brother Thomas. In an effort to break his spirit, Thomas loaned Douglass to Edward Covey, a sadistic local slave master with a reputation for cruelty. Covey mercilessly beat and abused the teenager until one day Douglass decided to fight back, knocking Covey to the ground. Covey, tempered, never mentioned the encounter, but he also never laid hands on him again.

As for Douglass, he called the battle with Covey "the turning point" in his life as an enslaved person: "It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me my own sense of manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free."

In September of 1838 Douglass, disguised as a sailor and with borrowed free papers, managed to board a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. He continued on to New York and ultimately, New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he settled, a free man. He married Anna Murray, a free woman of color who he had met and fallen in love with while in bondage in Baltimore. The couple had five children. The Douglasses made a commitment to eradicating the evil of slavery.

The authoritative voice of Abolition

After speaking at an anti-slavery meeting in 1841, Douglass met William Lloyd Garrison, one of the leading proponents calling for an immediate end to slavery. The two became friends and with Garrison's support, Douglass became one of the most sought-after speakers on the abolitionist circuit, not only for his searing testimony but his powerful oratory. In time, he lent his voice to the emerging women's-rights movement as well. He once reflected: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

In 1845, Douglass committed his story to print, publishing the first of three autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, with the support of Garrison and other abolitionists. The book gained international acclaim, confounding critics who argued that such fluid writing and penetrating thought could not be the product of a Black mind. Nevertheless, the Narrative catapulted Douglass to success outside the ranks of reformers, stoking fears that his celebrity might result in attempts by Auld to reclaim the man he had enslaved. To avoid this fate, Douglass traveled to England, where he remained for two years until a group of supporters there successfully negotiated payment for his freedom.

Back in the United States, Douglass navigated the tumultuous decade of the 1850s, steering a course between extremists like John Brown, who believed the only way to abolish slavery was through armed insurrection, and old friends like Garrison. Douglass published his own newspaper, The North Star. On the masthead, he inserted the motto "Right is of no sex-Truth is of no color-God is the Father of us all, and we are brethren," incorporating both Douglass's anti-slavery and pro-women's rights views.

On the eve of the Civil War, Douglass used his fame and influence to petition the Lincoln Administration to press for emancipation. As he remarked: "The thing worse than the rebellion is the thing that causes the rebellion." He further demanded that the Union allow Black men to enlist and aided the war effort by promoting recruitment.

Without struggle, he learned, there is no progress

Despite the hope engendered by the passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery following the war, Douglass remained cautious, observing: "Verily, the work does not end with the abolition of slavery, but only begins." Over the course of the next few years, he remained a strong voice advocating for the passage of additional legislation to ensure absolute equality for Black people. By the end of the decade, however, he was also painfully aware of the mounting efforts to suspend Reconstruction and return Black people to a state of quasi-slavery-measures he continued to fight. His experience had taught him: "Without a struggle, there can be no progress."

Douglass died on February 20, 1895. While his life mapped the triumphant journey from slavery to freedom, the seeds of division had already been sown on the eve of his death. Three years earlier, Homer Plessy challenged Louisiana's law that required "all railway companies [to] provide equal but separate accommodations for the white, and colored races," leading to the landmark 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision upholding racial segregation. In spite of the failure of Reconstruction and the assault on Black equality, Douglass had still remained hopeful of a different outcome.

Of all the inspiring things to be recovered in Douglass life, his work in pursuit of social justice remains the most compelling. An uncompromising critic of American hypocrisy rather than American democracy, his critique was anchored much more in what could be.

Far from "slandering Americans" as he called it, Douglass appealed to them to remember the oppression that led to revolution, the desire for liberty that fueled its leaders and the vigilance necessary to maintain freedom. He warned against the denial of the most basic of human rights and the betrayal of revolutionary values in thoughts and actions.

That, today, is perhaps the most important lesson to be gleaned from Douglass's life. We would do well to acknowledge his daring escape from slavery, powerful oratory, leadership on civil and women's rights. But we shouldn't separate that from his ultimate message, which compelled us to be better-and more vocal-in the messy, ongoing process of pursuing social justice and perfecting our democracy. That, he believed, is what would make America great.
Yohuru Williams, an American academic, author and activist, serves as Distinguished University Chair, Professor and Founding Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas.

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Why Frederick Douglass Matters | HISTORY

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He kept America focused on hard truths because he believed it necessary to a strong democracy.

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The Foundations Reform were religious movements that swept across the country. Many movements were caused by this including the Second Great Awakening which was the revivial of religious feeling and belief. Another movement was transedentalism which was the belief in the goodness of man. They believed that a self reliant man cou reform society.
One of the leaders of transidentalism was Henry David Thoreau. He suggested that laws that are considered unjust should not be followed to protest against them. This was known as Civil Disobedience. Some of the other leaders in the movement were Nathaniel Hawthrone a poet, Walt Whitman a poet, and Ralph Waldo Emerson another poet.

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Abolitionists were people who opposed slavery and it was made up of white men and former slaves. Abolitionists showed the whole north what was actually happening to the slaves down in the south. This caused major outrage in the north which led to the Civil War.

One of the major abolitionist leaders was Frederick Douglass. He was a former slave that escaped from the south and wrote the newspaper named the North Star. He was one of the major reasons the north found out about what was happening to slaves in the south by writing about it in his newspaper. Another leader of the Abolitionists was Harriet Tubman. She also escaped the south but she used the underground railroad. She then made many trips back to the south to rescue slaves trying to escape to the north using the Underground Railroad.