HIST 376 African American History to Civil War

Intersectionality

"Black Women's Condition" - Suffer double oppression of racism and sexism. Oppressed by both masters and mistresses, their male counter parts, and sexual violence from both white and black men.

"What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" - Black Masculinity

"The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write."

George Moses Horton

(ca. 1798-1883) was a slave in nearby Chatham County who taught himself to read and write. When his master permitted him to rent his own time, Horton earned money by writing poetry for university students who wanted to impress their lady friends. Horton hoped to earn enough to buy his own freedom but did not succeed. A book of his poems, The Hope of Liberty, appeared in 1829 and was the first book ever published by a southern African American.

Labor and Femininity

- "They plough, drag, drive team, clear wild lands, work on the highway, and so forth." Not only did these women work like men, Northup testifies, but endured the same punishments as men, typically administered by men. As overseer for Epps for eight years, Solomon himself was compelled to beat men and women regularly without distinction."

How did African Americans enslaved in the Confederacy undermine the Southern cause during the Civil War?

- "While many African Americans met the enemy directly in combat, those held in bondage in the Confederacy also managed to mount their own subtle, indirect, and surreptitious offensives. Their actions and their desire for freedom not only weakened the Confederacy but also helped redefine the purpose of the war from restoring the Union to abolishing slavery." - They fled the South, denying the Confederacy valuable economic resources, including chiefly their labor. - They "stole" other slaves and encouraged still others to run away. - Because slaves knew their territory, they made excellent guides for Union troops in the South. - For the same reason, they made excellent spies. - They aided Union prisoners of war and Confederate deserters.

Civil War and Masculinity

- Belief that emancipation and citizenship depended on how black men contributed to the war - Their sacrifice would force country to recognize their citizenship

Resistance and Femininity

- Couldn't run away as easily with children so had to find other ways to resist - Resisted violence through murder, violent struggles, marrying other men, and suicide. - Treated as property within plantation society, slaves found ways to manipulate their situations, thus exerting influence over their environments. - bringing into question the passivity associated with slave women when viewed in terms of plantation imagery. * women's history does not merely add to what we know; it changes what we know and how we know it. We often study the runaways and revolts, but since women were not able to run it is important to study the subtler forms of res

"What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" -Speech Criticism

- Douglass never mentions the fact that many of the fathers were slave owners. - Some will say the omission weakens Douglass's argument because it straightforwardly refutes his case. How can he say that the "fathers" sided "with the oppressed against the oppressor" when many of them were themselves oppressors? - Other students may argue that this omission does not weaken his case. Despite being slaveholders, men like Washington and Jefferson did, in fact, establish a nation built on the ideals of justice and freedom. - Thus in this part of the speech Douglass argues that just because the "fathers" did not fully embrace justice and freedom in 1776 does not mean that his listeners should not in 1852. - Also its a young nation still figuring out how to live up to these values

Military Service

- Freed more slaves than revolts and fleeing - Patriarchal society sanctions the use of violence in war and a way for a man to prove his manhood (not given to women) - Black men were motivated by individual freedom, not freeing colonies - British took about 20,000 slaves and a few thousand went to Nova Scotia

"A Question of Manhood"

- Hine & Jenkins - Black male behavior in response to the dynamics of slavery and racial oppression. - Despite slave owners efforts, black men were able to establish a sense of black manhood. Masters suppressed signs of aggression and self assertion form slaves. - Freedom, equality, and masculine pride were values for a man to pursue. Used white definition of power, independence, and freedom - Active resistance, military action, and work, Running Away: Since it did not often work out for slaves and the punishments were harsh, it is seen as more an expression of manhood. - Elements of black manhood contributed to freedom - Fredrick Douglas describes fight with Covey as assertion of manhood - This is often overlooked, but it is important to see how the social norms at the time shaped slave self

State vs. Mann Case (1829)

- In 1829 Elizabeth Jones, hired Lydia out for a year to John Mann. Lydia was unhappy with the arrangement, and at one point Mann decided to punish her, by whipping her. But Lydia escaped during the punishment, and began to run away. Mann shouted to her, ordering her to stop, but Lydia continued to run. Mann then shot and wounded her. First Trail: Judge said that the punishment Mann inflicted was "cruel and unwarrantable, and disproportionate to the offense committed by the slave that, in the law the Defendant was guilty" -Ruffin said it was a hard position for a man and a judge, but he sided with Mann

Mistresses and Black Women Post-Civil War

- Once violent white women had to learn how to be employers in the free labor market. - White women found it demeaning and loss of status - Black women learned to create a value and rate for their domestic work and make agreements with white women - The end of slavery also took away the privacy of homes. Black women had the ability to move on to other employers and discuss the charter of their employers and gossip. Lessened the abuses that were possible. Mobility-accountability

UNC Trustees

- The university's antebellum trustees were typically large slaveholders. Of the original forty trustees appointed in 1789, at least thirty owned slaves. Among them, Benjamin Smith of Brunswick County owned the most with 221. - Very political/powerful - Served as govs & signed state constitution - University trustee Paul Cameron was North Carolina's largest slaveholder in 1860 and one of the wealthiest men in the South. He owned 12,675 acres of land and 470 slaves in Orange County and more plantations in Alabama and Mississippi.

Female Gentility

- Were expected to be docile and loving - It's true, white women lacked the agency of their husbands, fathers and brothers, so their hand in slavery did not extend to the buying and selling of human chattel - Many mistresses were the opposite and enjoyed sadistic punishments of their slaves. - Harriette Benton: WPA interviewee said that her mistress would beat slave "just to hear 'em holler." - Mary Armstrong remembers her nine-month old sister being killed by her mistress, because the mistress was sick of hearing the child cry. (55) - Lizzie Williams remembers watching her mother stand in three feet of sleet and snow to do the laundry only three days after giving birth.

Relations between Black men and women

- White argues that these relationships were neither patriarchal nor matriarchal because many aspects of the work black men and women did was not distinguished by gender. - Female slaves worked in the fields and did back breaking labor along side their male counterparts. - Black men had no power to provide for or protect their women. Black women could not rely on them for income or safety. For similar reasons black men could not depend on black women. White asserts that this atmosphere fostered mutual relationships rather than ones based on subjugation.

Work and Masculinity

- Work and Self Made Man - men had more opportunities to be training and loaned out - Being an agrarian slave was emasculating in that culture - When slaves were freed and entered wage jobs they were forced into the lowest paying and level jobs. Black men learned to value performing one's job well regardless of pay/status

African Americans' Military Service

- between 180,000 and 200,000 African Americans served in the Union Army and Navy. - They included escaped slaves like those in the First South Carolina Volunteers, which in 1864 became the 33rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment, and free African Americans like those in the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. - Henry Jarvis - went to join union and they told him it was not a black man's war in 1861. He said by the end it will be.

State vs. Mann Case Significance

- the importance of the decision can be found in its rhetoric more than in the case itself. - In his decision, Ruffin maintained that "the slave, to remain a slave, must be made sensible that there is no appeal from his master" In asserting "that the power of the master must be absolute to render the submission of the slave perfect," - The ruling took society's ability to interfere with the relationship between owners and slaves. Ruffin tempered his decision by acknowledging his "sense of the harshness of the proposition" and the "struggle ... between the feelings of the man and the duty of the magistrate" (p. 1). Abolitionists, including Stowe, seized upon Ruffin's apparent admission that he detested the role that he was forced to play in upholding the South's peculiar institution in order to demonstrate the extent to which the plague of slavery had infected the South. They contended that southern law forced all men, even upright ones such as Ruffin, to swallow their pride and support slavery despite their awareness of its malignance.

"To Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors After the Civil War"

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Freedom

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How did American politics promote slavery?

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Northerners who were anti-slavery were not necessarily pro-abolition

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Time and Place Slavery

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The Study of Black History during Jim Crow

...➢ Journal of Negro History article on the need for "Negro history" in school curricula inspired Virginia third grade to have a year long course on black history. ➢ Fewer than 1% of black students attended secondary school. In 1910, fewer than 3% of eligible blacks enrolled in high school - schools were so dilapidated that they didn't have much to gain ➢ It was not until the 1930s, that black teachers had equal credentials to white counterparts ➢ Black historians wanted to establish their legitimacy, but were given fewer opportunities for research

Black Responses to Freedom

...➢ Union victory at Appomattox in the Spring of 1865 ➢ Moved to urban cities, especially Atlanta, bc the military was there for protect. Most destroyed by Sherman's march so there were few places to live. Shanty town. ➢ Because the government did not have the money nor the desire to dedicate more money to poor blacks, blacks had to create own fundraisers, hospitals, and mutual aid groups. ➢ A select few had own businesses, grocery stores, were teachers or ministers. Black women were not hired by small manufactures like white women, left to domestic work or piece-work. ➢ Valued education and achieving literacy. Sabbath schools in churches. Public edu

14th Amendment had five main clauses:

1. A clause defining who are citizens. 2. A clause providing protection against state abridgements of "the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." 3. A clause forbidding the states to deny to any person life, liberty, or property without due process of law. 4. A clause imposing a duty on states not to deny "equal protection of the laws" to any person within their jurisdictions. 5. A provision granting Congress the power to enforce the amendment.

Frederick Douglass's "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" Speech

1845 in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Douglass sought not only to convince people of the wrongfulness of slavery but also to make abolition more acceptable to Northern whites. - By calling attention to the fact that a slave has been invited to speak on freedom, he employs irony, a strategy he will use throughout the speech to emphasize certain themes. - Looking back on America's revolutionary past, the narration, through implied comparison, condemns America's slave-holding present. Moreover, it enshrines radical resistance to government policy and revolution in the face of bondage as venerated parts of the mainstream American political tradition. - it equates the abolitionists of 1852 with the patriots of 1776, each group denounced in its day as "plotters of mischief, agitators...rebels, dangerous men." - The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. Emphasizes "your" not his Hypocrisy -- Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent.

"What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" - Religion and Politics

45. Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the American slave-trade, sustained by American politics and America religion. - Describes the sales of humans (notes)

Thomas Ruffin

A UNC trustee - served on the North Carolina Supreme Court, where he wrote one of the most important decisions in the law of American slavery. In the case of State v. Mann (1829), he banned the prosecution of masters for mistreating slaves by ruling that "the power of the master must be absolute to render the submission of the slave perfect." Harriet Beecher Stowe used this decision as a centerpiece in her attack on slavery in the abolitionist novel Dred (1856). Ruffin served on the board of trustees from 1813 to 1831 and again from 1842 to 1868. In 1922, the university named a residence hall for him and his son.

Slave Narrative Thesis

African American women's experience of slavery differenced from their male counterparts, because women simultaneously experienced race and gender oppression. Women's dual oppression led to unique burdens of self protection, reproduction, and child care. Through female solidarity and gender specific forms of resistance, enslaved women were able to counter and cope with the burdens of their experience. Slave narratives help demonstrate how women developed their own forms of resistance in response to their unique experience.

Black Masculinity

Asks the questions of how can a black be strong, independent, and protective when he is a slave. "Boy" or "uncle" either childlike or savage In Africa - Patriarchal authority was the norm -Gendering is a social process - gender socialization was complicated for black men - At the time masculinity was seen has power over other men, women, and children. In that period slave men did not meet those standards. "Self Made Man" model excluded "others" by denying employment and education. Definition of manhood that was only to the privileged white. - White men said slaves natural instinct was savagery and the civilizing nature of slavery controlled that - Authors are saying we have to look at masculinity outside that definition.

David Walker's Appeal - Simple Summary

Audience - o Walker targeted his emotional tract most specifically to free black northerners and southern slaves, but he also addressed northern whites and slave masters who would likely read the subversive pamphlet out of curiosity. True Abolition - o Walker pushed for immediate emancipation rather than the gradualist approaches or colonization schemes of white anti-slavery groups such as the North Carolina Manumission Society. (True abolition/abolish) Violence - o Walker saved his most incendiary rhetoric, however, for his southern audience. He urged slaves to rebel en masse, posing the question: "had you not rather be killed than to be slave to a tyrant?" (p. 30). Walker's publication terrified already paranoid white masters, and about them Walker notes "if they do not have enough to be frightened for yet, it will be" (p. 37).

Freedom, Violence and Masculinity

David Walker advocated for open confrontation and violence as the only path to freedom and manhood for slaves. Violent overthrow of slavery was seen as ultimate challenge of white men's authority Not everyone equated violence with masculinity Fredrick Douglas, but he did support military service - The use of violence to assert manhood reinforced white stereotypes of slaves as "brutish African nature" only restrained by slavery

The Abolition Movement

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

Black Matriarch

Stereotype of Slave Women - She controls and dominates her family and is a terrible mother to her children. - She emasculates her husband at every turn (if she has one) and refuses to allow him to express his own masculinity - is the total opposite of the white mother of the cult of true womanhood, who is loving and kind to her children, and submissive to her husband.

Masculine Primitive/Restrained Savage

Masculinity in 19th Century - More physically aggressive ideal, based on the natural tendencies of man's most primitive state, and violence was the confirming feature. - Harnessing the energy of the primitive male and savagery - Violence in defense of honor. Behaviors believed necessary for managing the slave system. - Claimed that savagery was the natural tendency of slaves needed violence to contain them and also they were not gentlemen because they could not contain their savagery.

Christian Gentleman

Masculinity in 19th Century - Refined gentility - Religious revival that blossomed under the Second Great Awakening. - Stressed self-restraint and Christian morality. - These men were not expected to be passive. Aggressive action was okay in the name of moral values and self-sacrifice. - Major white hero in Uncle Tom's Cabin/Master Ford in 12 Years a Slave

Elisha Mitchell (1793-1857)

Mitchell believed that slavery was beneficial for African Americans because they were a "race of inferior moral and mental endowments."

Reproduction and Femininity

Pressure/Incentives - Worth was determined by ability to have children - Received better care, easier labor and rations - Avoid families being divided - During pregnancy they were all put together. Sewing, weaving, spinning, cleaning. Surrounded by other pregnant or elderly women who couldnt work in field Control - Masters thought it was helping them, but it can be argued that women had children to keep husband, wife and children together - really done in own interest - Childbearing women were not sold as often (Kept them and their parents/sibs together) - Masters estimated that "at least 5 to 6 percent of their profit would accrue from natural increase"

Jezebel

Stereotype of Slave Women - is hypersexual, seductive, and vulgar. She exists to entice men into sexual activities, and she cannot be raped because Jezebel always wants sex.

Slave Escape

Required lots of planning and scheming (humanity) Motivations: freedom, reunite with family, economic reasons, extreme abuse from masters, etc. Men - Most important factor was to reestablish family ties/not be sold away (often what kept women from running)

Mammy

Stereotype of Slave Women - Docile and asexual and therefore "safe" in the eyes of mistresses. - She was also happy with her position in life; whites could point to the Mammy character to show that slavery was not all bad. - Mammy was also tirelessly devoted to the master's family and gave little to no thought to her own family. (happy to do it) - is in service of white femininity and therefore is subordinate.

Slaves' Roles at UNC

The economic fabric of the south - slavery's role within the south - The first slaves associated with the university were construction workers. They helped raise the first university building, Old East, in 1793, and every other building erected before the Civil War. - slaves prepared food, cleaned buildings, and tended fires. The university did not own these workers directly, but hired them by the year from local masters. - Students, faculty, and trustees also owned slaves, but after 1845, the trustees forbade students to bring their own slaves to campus. - "escheats," or property that reverted to the state when owners died without heirs. - The university's antebellum public spaces, streets, and buildings carry the names of whites, many of whom were slave owners. However, the graveyard near the new Playmakers Theatre contains a monument dedicated to three slaves, including November and Wilson Caldwell. Unsung Founders, Bond and Free

Resistance

The myriad of ways in which slaves and free people kept the will to survive and kept their humanity intact. Flight, revolt, sabotage, destruction of property, feigning illness, manipulation, self-mulitation, suicide, and even killing children. Slave women and men's determination to maintain families

black masculinity

The ways in which black men are constrained by race and class, and the ways they attempt to overcome these constraints via various forms of expression

"What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" - Arguments and counter-arguments

They put forth their arguments and refute those of their opponents. To win over an audience, they may appeal to their listeners' reason by laying out a logical case, or they may seek to win their trust by impressing them with sound sense or high moral character, or they may appeal to their emotions. Par 35 - the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting.

White Women and Civil War

White Women's Status as Slaveholders ➢ Link between fighting for slavery and white women's place in society "Out of the House of Bondage" ➢ Had trouble controlling the slaves they worked directly with in their households. ➢ Started to become aware of the facts that slaves were not happy in their current lives and plotting their freedom. ➢ Keziah Bervard - "I am now and then awakened to the fact that they hate me." Mistresses started to think/care what slaves thought about them. ➢ Some women resorted to using more violence to controlling plantations. Master Sims did not want his wife to beat the slaves to protect their family from Union

19th Century Slave Narratives

Works published in the three decades before the civil war and meant to further the abolitionist cause. Have always incorporated resistance as a major theme, but in some early works open expression of resistance or protest was too dangerous for the first black writers to document.

Black Femininity

complicated by enslaved women's inability to fulfill many traditional expectations of women - black femininity existed in a very constrained environment and neither gender was able to fully participate in the prescribed systems of patriarchy and ideal womanhood - Unlike white women, black women were not afforded protection by their husbands and partners; they were often subjected to sexual violence In Africa - had ability to pass down culture and was matrifocal, but did not grant women significant social, eco, or poli power. Held by men - Did the same agricultural labor as men, but were also expected to care for slave quarters and children (second shift) -Ellen applying his mistresses perfume and toiletries, "transgressed feminine beauty rituals that were only intended for white women."

Negro History Week

➢ Built on the long-established tradition of black commemorative celebrations, they launched the week-long celebration. Feb week of Lincoln's & Fred Douglas's bdays ➢ Unlike Emancipation Day, this new celebration was formalized and signified national recognition of black history. Inject black history into schools. ➢ He sent packets and course preparation to teachers

Black Responses to Civil War

➢ "However small and symbolic this friction may appear, conflicts and renegotioations over the meaning of slavery and freedom increased as the war progressed, with prolonged consequences for all Southerners" - To Joy my Freedom - Hunter. Ellen using mistresses toiletries - Hope ➢ "African Americans articulated objections against the system of human bondage more consciously and openly than ever before." ➢ Atlanta -- The sudden and dramatic population growth and commercial expansion during the war helped to secure slavery's demise. Urban Slavery: Had unique freedoms, were able to live more independently and interact with more free and unfree people. Socialized in markets, stores, churches.

WPA Slave Interviews

➢ 1936 - 1938 the Federal Writers Project of the Works Project Administration, a New Deal agency, sent field workers, most of whom were white, into 17 states to interview former slaves about their lives in bondage. They compiled over 2,000 accounts, which now reside in the Library of Congress. ➢ For many years scholars discounted their reliability as historical evidence. They were, of course, subject to the lapses and biases that distort all memories. Moreover, scholars suspected that the particular circumstances of their collection made them especially susceptible to concealments and evasions. Would elderly African Americans, who passed from slavery to Jim Crow, be completely forthright with white strangers asking probing questions about a painful subject?

Slave Women In Civil War

➢ Afforded little protection against unwanted sexual advances and exploitation of their reproductive capabilities, many black women who resisted were beaten, mutilated, sold, or killed. ➢ During the Civil War, Union and Confederate soldiers took advantage of their positions of power and authority to rape slave women, in front of families who were helpless. ➢ Many unmarried women moved to Atlanta, because planters did not want to negotiate labor with women.

The Fourteenth Amendment

➢ Although the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Thirteenth Amendment ended slaves, these acts did not end the right to discriminate against former slaves. ➢ The first memorable attempt to end discrimination was in the Fourteenth Amendment. A key provision in the amendment guarantees all persons naturalized in the US 'equal protection under the law.' (clause) ➢ Southern states initially refused to pass the amendment and were put under military rule. During this period, slaves were able to vote and hold office, sue whites, and attend schools, because they were protected. When the military rule ended, southern governments started adding Jim Crow laws that challenged the equal treatment provision.

Ku Klux Klan

➢ An anti-black terrorist organization founded by former Confederate soldiers in 1866 ➢ Became dominated by Democratic Party officials bent on preempting black participation in the electoral arena. ➢ They wanted to get economic and political power from the governing Republicans in order to restore it to antebellum planters elite and democrats. ➢ Harassed registered voters, independent landowners, tormented Republican sympathizers. Wanted to halt the free labor system ➢ Horrible things the Klan did - Whites accused black men of raping white women, but did not talk about the attacks they did to black women "rape" and "black women"

Black Women's Responses to Political Freedom

➢ Asserted their political freedom by attending parades, rallies, conventions, and voting in mass meetings. Openly wore pins, took work off to attend meetings and go to ballets to make sure their husbands were protected as they voted.

WPA Slave Interviews - Importance

➢ Despite such concerns, contemporary scholars have come to realize the value of the interviews. 1. First, they are, in the words of the Library of Congress's website, "highly impressionistic." (centers on the thinking and feelings of the characters and allows the reader to draw his or her own interpretations and conclusions about their meaning.) 2. Second, they yield insight into only certain aspects of the slave experience. LOC, "if one wishes to understand the nature of the 'peculiar institution' from the perspective of the slave, to reconstruct the cultural and social milieu of the slave community, or to analyze the social dynamics of the slave system," then the WPA narratives "are not only relevant; they are essential." (Why?) 3. Third, the interviewers transcribed oral testimony and used words and punctuation that sometimes seem to reflect their own expectations rather than the way people actually spoke. In some cases the spelling and punctuation reveal more about the interviewer than the interviewed. (Can still be a tool for studying the dynamics of whites and blacks in the 1930s.)

"The War Within"—slavery during the Civil War

➢ Helped Erode Human Bondage o Saved money to rescue captured Union soldiers, cooked, washed, and spied for Union troops, those who remained on plantations, but refused to accept uncompensated labor. o They set the stage for the renegotiation of labor and social relations in the years to come. ➢ Not all slaves helped the Union. Some pitied masters who were losing money and faced plundering. Bought Confederate bonds, hid valuables, and donated savings.

Improper Text Books

➢ Need for vigorous rebuttal of white interpretations of black history o In 1891, a NC teacher, Edward Johnson, said that if you teach state text books students will learn that they belong to the most inferior race on earth and fail to learn a single great thing done by a negro. o Don't touch subject of racial issue in the South ➢ Nurturing the highest potential of each student was an essential contribution to racial uplift.

Black Codes

➢ Southern state legislatures began passing repressive laws in 1865 to obstruct black laborers' full participation in marketplace and political arena. ➢ Some black laborers frequently quit as they were enjoying their freedom- annoyed whites ➢ 1866 - Atlanta City Council tried to stop the movement of household workers by passing law that required employers to get recommendations from previous jobs to decide if they were "worthy" or "worthless." ➢ Other laws included blacks had to attend separate schools, could not marry whites, had to work or they were fined

David Walker's Appeal

➢ The first indication of the spirit of abolitionism with the appearance an appeal to the colored citizens in 1829. ➢ He was a free black man, the appeal called for black Americans to mobilize abolition by force if necessary, and warned whites that the nation faced divine punishment if it did not mend its sinful ways. "America is as much your country as it is yours." ➢Walker boldly attacked the fundamental values of the United States society by revealing the hypocrisy of having the institution of Chattel Slavery in a self-proclaimed republic and "Land Of The Free." ➢ References the Haitian rebellion and how those men proved their manhood by rebelling o The use of violence to assert manhood reinforced white stereotypes of slaves as "brutish African nature" only restrained by slavery

Development of the Abolitionist Movement

➢ Tracing the development of the abolitionist movement from the 1770s to the 1830s, focuses on its transformation from a conservative lobbying effort into a fiery grassroots reform cause. ➢ Pennsylvania as an elite movement espousing gradual legal reform began to change in the 1820s as black activists, female reformers, and nonelite whites pushed their way into the antislavery movement. ➢ These new reformers demanded immediate emancipation, and they revolutionized abolitionist strategies and tactics--lecturing extensively, publishing gripping accounts of life in bondage, and organizing on a grassroots level. Their attitudes and actions made the abolition movement the radical cause we view it as today.