The Abolitionist

The Underground Railroad may be defined as the organized effort to assist runaway slaves in their dash for freedom. Since slipping away from one's master was a hazardous step, most runaways required help. The underground railroad was the popular name for the process of receiving these fugitives, hiding them overnight and then conducting them to the next station en route to freedom. In addition to helping runaways, this movement had a decidedly disturbing effect on slavery, making such property all the more risky. Wilbur H. Siebert, the foremost scholarly authority on the underground railroad, came to the conclusion that it was "one of the greatest forces which brought on the Civil War, and thus destroyed slavery." - Benjamin Quarles

White Slavery: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America Another Picture of Slave Life in America Islam's One Million White Slaves Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls or War on the White Slave Trade

The Atlantic Slave Trade in Perspective
Philip D. Curtin says "The Atlantic slave trade," "lay at the heart of a wide net of commerce and production that touched every shore of the Atlantic basin." Known as the South Atlantic System, this complex had its origins in the Mediterranean areas of Europe in the wake of the Crusades when Europeans were used as slaves to produce the system's first and most important crop: sugar.

Abolitionist Movement
From the 1830s until 1870, the abolitionist movement attempted to achieve immediate emancipation of all slaves and the ending of racial segregation and discrimination.

Anti-Slavery Campaign - 1997
A group of American Human Rights activists is urging the Clinton Administration to make total eradication of slavery a foreign policy priority. They are focusing attention on countries like Sudan and Maurktania, where they say slavery lingers on -- despite advances of Democracy throughout the world.

The Emancipation Proclamation
Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: "That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."

Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was born in slavery as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey near Easton in Talbot County, Maryland. He was not sure of the exact year of his birth, but he knew that it was 1817 or 1818.

What the Black Man Wants - A Speech By Frederick Douglass

The Fugitive Slave Act Of 1850
An Act to amend, and supplementary to the Act entitled "An Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping from the Service of their Masters," approved February twelfth, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three.

The Confessions of Nat Turner (1800-1831) The campaign of Nat Turner And about this time I had a vision - and I saw white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle, and the sun was darkened.

Florida's Forgotten Rebels
Rediscovering the most successful slave revolt in American history

Sojourner Truth, Ain't I a Woman?
No formal record of the speech exists, but Frances Gage, an abolitionist and president of the Convention, recounted Truth's words.

History And Geography Of The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was perhaps the most dramatic protest action against slavery in United States history.

Trumpet of Freedom - The Legacy of John Brown
John Brown was the nineteenth century abolishionist who was tried and hanged for treason and murder by the Commonwealth of Virginia after his band of twenty-one black and white militia men raided the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia to end the centuries-old, Constitutionally sanctioned practice of chattel slavery in the US. The program consists of music, poetry, performance and political and historical discussion. YouTube

The History of John Brown
After such bloody encounters as Pottawamie Creek in Kansas, John Brown began to amass arms and make battle plans in earnest for a full-fledged invasion of the South.

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
It was a precursor to the modern civil rights movement, but a meeting of the Niagara Movement 98 years ago is little remembered today, according to John Powell, a park ranger at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

American Anti-Slavery Society, "Constitution," 4 December 1833
Constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Abolitionists: Short Biographies
Frederick Douglass, Levi Coffin, Josiah Henson, David Ruggles and others.

Thomas Jefferson, "Commerce between Master and Slave," 1782
"Some of Jefferson's thoughts on the relations of slaves and masters in America."

Levi Coffin: President of the Underground Railroad Levi Coffin

... with the help of his devoted wife, Catharine, Levi Coffin managed over the next twenty years to offer a safe haven to thousands of Black Americans fleeing slavery's evils on the "Underground Railroad."

"The Blessings of Slavery," 25 February 1837
"Newspaper editorial in response to recent speeches in the Senate concerning slavery (e.g., Sen. Calhoun in defense of slavery)."

John G. Whittier, "The Anti-slavery Convention of 1833," 1874
"Whittier's recollection of the founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society."

Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"
"Meeting sponsored by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, Rochester Hall, Rochester, N.Y."

William Garrison, "The Governing Passion of My Soul,"
Occasion: Speech given at Charleston, South Carolina, only a month after Sherman's march through the state and five days after Lee had surrendered at Appomattox. It happens that Lincoln was shot on the day of the speech and died the following day.

John G. Whittier, American Anti-Slavery Society Anniversaries
"Whittier's letters on the occasion of the anniversary of the initial meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society."

"Sometimes you can become like the wind, if you dream hard enough." -John Brown

Wendell Phillips and the Abolitionist Movement
Wendell Phillips was an important part of the abolitionist movement before and after the Civil War. He was the epitome of the radical wing of political thinking at the time.

Little-Known Black History Fact: Paul Jennings
Paul Jennings was a personal servant to President James Madison in the 1830s during and after the latter's term in the White House.

An Address to the Colored People
An address delivered to the colored people at Galesburg, Illinois, 1867.
- By Robert G. Ingersoll

Slave Narratives
From 1936 to 1938, over 2,300 former slaves from across the American South were interviewed by writers and journalists under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration. These former slaves, most born in the last years of the slave regime or during the Civil War, provided first-hand accounts of their experiences on plantations, in cities, and on small farms

Slave 'Railroad' Buffs Question Museum Site
The lunch crowd was heedless of the runaway slave tunnels beneath the Unionville Tavern, where Debra Laveck poked around, trying to rediscover an old Underground Railroad crawlway to a cemetery across the road.

A Nation Divided
Seminole rift more than a black-and-white issue.

Henry Bibb: Trail would trace slave's path to liberty
History has obscured the important achievements of Henry Bibb, but an effort to honor his work is under way.

Amazing Grace: Whitewashing the History of Abolition
"Until Haiti struck for freedom, the conscience of the Christian world slept profoundly over slavery. Until she spoke no Christian nation had given to the world an organized effort to abolish slavery..... Until she spoke, the slave trade was sanctioned by all the Christian nations of the world, and our land of liberty and light included."

The Irish Slaves That Time Forgot
The Irish slave trade began when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. His Proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies.

The Forgotten Slaves: Whites in Servitude in Early America and Industrial Britain
Up to one-half of all the arrivals in the American colonies were Whites slaves and they were America's first slaves. These Whites were slaves for life, long before Blacks ever were. This slavery was even hereditary. White children born to White slaves were enslaved too.

Who Kept Slavery In America a Secret In The 2Oth Century?
But what if--just if--America's grips on slavery never loosen? What if slavery continued to be reality for African Americans in sixteen states and sixteen counties throughout Mississippi, from Kosciusko, MS the childhood hometown of Oprah Winfrey to the hometown of Morgan Freeman, Clarksdale, MS down to the lonely roads of Money, MS where Emmett Till was murdered in 1955.

Rupert Cornwell: After 150 years, the Civil War still divides the United States
For African-Americans, by contrast, the Confederacy was, and remains, merely a symbol of racial oppression. If the Civil War was a victory for freedom, that freedom would be a long time coming.

Wendell Phillips and the Abolitionist Movement
Wendell Phillips is the epitome of radicalism before, during, and after the Civil War.  Radical ideas were and are an important part of democratic politics.   They provide a direct foil to the complacency that can develop in a government.

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“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

‘Exposing’ Slave Practices of Rothschild Deflects Real Crime

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Church brings to light how slaves worshipped

1786 Slaves' Freedom Site Discovered, Now Doomed By Developer

First lady unveils statue of abolitionist

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200TH Anniversary Of The Abolition Of U.S. Transatlantic Slave Trade Commemorated

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John Brown, 1800 - 1859

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Public Sale of Negroes

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Slavery: Many Apologies, But No Reparations—Yet

Debate on slave trade overlooks role of the gun

Abolitionism:From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The African-American Mosaic

Beyond the River: A True Story of the Underground Railroad

The National Geographic Online Presents: The Underground Railroad

The Life & Legacy of Frederick Douglass

Black History Books

Books on the Abolitionist

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John W. Fields, Age 89 "In most of us colored folks was the great desire to [be] able to read and write. We took advantage of every opportunity to educate ourselves. The greater part of the plantation owners were very harsh if we were caught trying to learn or write. It was the law that if a white man was caught trying to educate a negro slave, he was liable to prosecution entailing a fine of fifty dollars and a jail sentence. We were never allowed to go to town and it was not until after I ran away that I knew that they sold anything but slaves, tobacco, and wiskey. Our ignorance was the greatest hold the South had on us. We knew we could run away, but what then? An offender guilty of this crime was subjected to very harsh punishment." Born in Slavery

Selected Reading Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth Born in 1797, and sold three times by the time she was 13 (and beaten many more times), a tall young slave girl named Isabella grew in her determination to fight the evils of slavery and speak for human rights. At the age of 46, having been a free woman for 17 years, Isabella woke from a dream telling her she must travel the country, conveying to people what it meant to be a slave. On that day, Isabella renamed herself. "It was as though the life she'd known up till then belonged to someone else. A new one was beginning. The old life had become a tale to tell, a story to bring freedom to others. Her old name belonged to her old life. From that day on, she was never called Isabella again. Her name was Sojourner Truth."

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Frederick Douglass stood out among the abolitionists of the mid-nineteenth century.

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