AMERICAN PAGEANT CHAPTER 16

Frederick Douglas

(1817-1895) American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. Wrote a moving autobiography and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North Star.

American Anti-Slavery Society

Abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison, who advocated the immediate abolition of slavery. By 1838, the organization had more than 250,000 members across 1,350 chapters.

Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World

Abolitionist tract advocating the violent overthrow of slavery. Published by David Walker, a Southern-born free black.

The Liberator

Antislavery newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison, who called for the immediate emancipation of all slaves.

Harriett Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin; an abolitionist fictional story explaining the terrors of slavery.

William Wilberforce

British statesman and reformer; leader of abolitionist movement in English parliament that led to end of English slave trade in 1807.

John C. Calhoun

Congressman from South Carolina-served as vice president- argued in favor of states' rights and slavery-opposed the Missouri Compromise- Nullification Crisis

Mason-Dixon Line

Originally drawn by surveyors to resolve the boundaries between Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia in the 1760s, it came to symbolize the North-South divide over slavery

Mason-Dixon line

Originally drawn by surveyors to resolve the boundaries between Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia in the 1760s, it came to symbolize the North-South divide over slavery.

abolitionists

People who wanted to end slavery in the us Minority in the north; used fierce arguments (Garrison's Liberator), helping slaves escape (Underground RR), and violence (Nat Turner, John Brown at Harpers Ferry)

75%

Percentage of population that did NOT own slaves- white subsistence farmers (by 1860)

Gag resolution

Prohibited debate or action on antislavery appeals. Driven through the House by pro-slavery Southerners, the gag resolution passed every year for eight years, eventually overturned with the help of John Quincy Adams.

American Colonization Society

Reflecting the focus of early abolitionists on transporting freed blacks back to Africa, the organization established Liberia, a West-African settlement intended as a haven for emancipated slaves.

Black telt

Region of the Deep South with the highest concentration of slaves- it emerged in the nineteenth century as cotton production became more profitable and slavery expanded south and west

Grimke sisters

Sisters from Charleston who wrote and lectured vigorously on reform causes such as prison reform, the temperance movement, and the abolitionist movement.

Amistad

Spanish slave ship dramatically seized off the coast of Cuba by the enslaved Africans aboard. The ship was driven ashore in Long Island and the slaves were put on trial. Former president John Quincy Adams argued their case before the Supreme Court, securing their eventual release.

Sojourner Truth

United States abolitionist and feminist who was freed from slavery and became a leading advocate of the abolition of slavery and for the rights of women (1797-1883)

planter aristocracy

Very small number of families that owned more than 100 slaves each- wealthy plantation owners that ran huge plantations- created a large gap between upper and lower class.

Nat Turner's rebellion

Virginia slave revolt that resulted in the deaths of sixty whites and raised fears among white Southerners of further uprisings. Led to stricter slave codes to control emerging violence and unrest.

Liberia

West-African nation founded in 1822 as a haven for freed blacks, fifteen thousand of whom made their way back across the Atlantic by the 1860s