The Abolitionist Movement Essay examples

Back in the nineteenth century men and women were not treated equally as they are now. Women did not have as much freedom as the men did and that caused a national movement. Not only were the women segregated from the men, but the discrimination against the African American race was a huge ordeal as well. With both movements combined, it led to a controversial development at that time. Not only were women fighting for equality, they were also fighting for the prejudice to end amongst the different races. The beginning of the Women’s Rights Movement and the Abolitionist Movement was not only a historic development, but it changed the world forever.

Throughout the history of the United States there have been many reform movements that have molded the culture we live in today. The rights that we as Americans enjoy today can be credited to the people who fought for more rights and a better way of life. Two reform movements that have changed America for the better are the Abolitionist Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. Around the 1820’s the feeling of legal slavery was changing in the United States.

After the North’s democratic victory over the slaveholding South, President Abraham Lincoln shook the hand of the writer Harriet Beecher Stowe with these words: “So, you are the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!” (The Cambridge Companion to Harriet Beecher Stowe 1). Uncle Tom's Cabin had a significant impact on culture and politics, convincing many readers of the evils of slavery. The work shows a large number of problems in slave society, providing a complete picture of the lives of slaves and the lives of their masters. Its publication greatly encouraged the abolitionist movement and helped rebuild public opinion in favor of abolishing the institution

In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published the startlingly truthful and heart-wrenching novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She was angered by the new and stricter Fugitive Slave Law and created this novel, emphasizing the cruel separation of families in order to inflame the North. She owed the creation of it to God and said “her anti-slavery sentiments lay in the evangelical religious crusades of the Second Great Awakening.” Stowe’s novel sold millions of copies, transformed into plays and opened the eyes of American people, to the injustice of slavery. Arguably, this novel even helped the North win the Civil War: It was read by a profuse amount of youth in the 1850’s who would inspired to fight because what Uncle Tom’s Cabin portrayed. Additionally, it was an impetus for people up North to not enforce the Fugitive Slave Law. Five years later to when this novel was published Hinton Helper’s novel, The Impending Crisis of the South made its debut. Helper was a non-aristocratic white in the South and his novel utilized statistics in order to help prove that the non-slaveholding whites were the real victims of the Peculiar Institution. This novel was banned from the South, however countless copies were sold in the North. This novel, as did its former, reduced the South’s ability to live under the same roof as their anti-slavery brothers up North.

Throughout the history of mankind, slavery has existed in one form or another. Since the times of ancient civilizations to modern era subjugations, there have forces who feel strongly of its necessity and purpose, while others have devoted themselves to seeing the ideas and acts of slavery abolished. America is not an exception to the concept of slavery and during the nation’s early history, parties from both sides have been made famous for their beliefs in the continuation or the denouncement of slavery in the United States. To understand the contrasting views of pro-slavery advocates versus abolitionists in antebellum America, a comparison of the individual positions must be made to further understand the goals of each party.

   Frederick Douglass was arguably the most prominent African American abolitionist during the mid-19th century. He established his notoriety through his narrative entitled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave published in 1845. Frederick Douglass also produced an African American newspaper, Frederick Douglass' Paper, which highlighted the reception and critiques of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Frederick Douglass praised Uncle Tom's Cabin through not only his writing but in the critiques and letters contained in his newspaper. It is important to look at these reviews to understand Douglass' intentions. However, C.V.S. from the Provincial

The abolitionist movement was when many people during the 1800’s sought their way to abolish slavery in the United States. Abolitionists were people against slavery, and they thought it was not right for people around the country to own slaves. Slavery was a major problem in history, and it is still going around today but in various forms. There’s about 21 million people that are enslaved worldwide today. But during the 1800’s it was much worse. As many as 1,000 Africans at a time were shoved onto a ship and were sent to “The Americas” to furthermore, become a slave. Overall there was over 20 million Africans that were put on a slave ship

Three very impactful leaders enter the minds of every American when discussing the abolition of slavery. Henry Highland Garnet, Wendell Phillips and the man who funded it all, Gerrit Smith. These men were undoubtably the most hardworking and well known voices of the abolition. The abolition movement began in the early 1830s and finally ended in the 1870s. The objective of the movement was to instantly put an end to slavery, discrimination and segregation against all African American people (“Abolitionist Movement).

Many agreed that we must start to feed on a more substantial diet than that of proslavery politics and start infusing the spirit of liberty into all of our systems of commerce, agriculture, manufactures, government, literature and religion (Doc E). Many slaves soon revolted and started to speak out against the horrors of slavery. Some gave speeches, others wrote books and plenty listened. Like when the famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published 135,000 sets, 270,000 volumes were sold according to Document F. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe and this book attributed to laying the ground works for the Civil War. Through this many Northerners started to see the true colors of slavery and realized how greatly slaves suffered from violence, abuse, separation, depression, labor, rape, nightmares, the threat of death and death itself. This only proved and increased the disgust toward slavery. Even politicians were greatly involved such as the Free Soil Party and organized bodies started to form like, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the American Colonization Society and the New York Manumission Society. The North declared that all men were born free and equal.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s most influential novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, struck the world. It was published in book form in March 1852. In the first year of U.S. Publications, it sold a total of about 300,000 copies. The real reason for the publication of this book was to make the northern people realize the terrible things slaves go through with cruel masters. Stowe wanted people to see how wrong slavery was and the unfairness to African Americans. (“Stowe’s Life and Uncle Tom’s Cabin”) Abraham Lincoln greeted Stowe at the start of the American Civil War as the “little lady who started a

The abolitionist movement at first wanted better treatment of slaves. When the abolitionist movement began they wanted slaves to learn how to read. Some members started secretly teaching the slaves how to read using the Bible. Then more people wanted freedom of slaves. Harriet Tubman and several others started the Underground Railroad. Technically it was highly illegal to help slaves escape, since it was considered stealing of property. They helped anyway even though they could get caught and hung. Members started advocating more and more for slaves to be freed. In the north they got rid of slavery all together. Now, at this point the tension between the North and the South is very high.

Firstly, the book was inspired by already established abolitionist movements, particularly Northern churches.The abolitionist movement in the North started as early as the 1830s when Lloyd Garrison began to publish ‘The Liberator’ one of the most important tool of the anti-slavery movement. Two year later in 1833, The American Anti-Slavery Society. This part was the most important piece in the denouncement and public detestation toward slavery in the North throughout the mid 1800s. Abolitionist began to build antislavery churches, created school for African American, help slaves to escape to the North, and fought for freedman rights.( ) Long before “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was published in 1852, abolitionists have already been changing people’s view on slavery with their relentless spirit for justice and equality. Calling “Uncle Tom's Cabin” the foundation of the Civil War is even a bigger assumption as many other factors also lead to the Civil War such as the Southern states secession, Abraham Lincoln's victory, states’ rights, and economic differences between the North and the South. This concept of literature being a small cause alongside many other larger causes appear in many other example of literature changing the

Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe ten years after her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published. When he met her he told her that she was the little women “who wrote the book that made this great war.” Abraham Lincoln was not lying. Many few novels had grabbed the public spotlight and cause an uproar like the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In the north, people understood slavery in a more personal level. In the south, they were outraged about this book. Her story advanced the cause of Abolition north of the Mason- Dixon line and “promoted sheer indignation in plantation America. Her brother was Henry Ward Beecher. He was an outspoken Abolitionist. By the mid-1850, there “would become the driving force behind aiding the Free- Soil cause in Bleeding

In my experience, many of the anti-slavery advocates are also strong supporters of Women’s rights, and I am not excluded from this group. For example, William Lloyd Garrison printed The Liberator which was the primary means of advocating for abolition of slavery and women’s rights. In 1831, Garrison had founded the American Antislavery Society which argued for “no Union with slaveholders” (Newman). It is not a coincidence that it is the leaders from the North, usually from religious families, that are more progressive in implementing social change for racial justice and equality of the sexes (Larkin). Prominent feminists during this time also spoke out against slavery . Some examples include Sarah and Angelina

African American slaves throughout the early history of America never had a voice, nor a way to tell their story; leaving a void and lack of understanding of the population of America and to that of the world, of the lives, culture, and the evils that human slavery had set for the damned age of African descent. Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of the many abolitionist, set to demonstrate those evils that slavery created and the way of life for many slaves in southern America to the pro-slavery readers. She does this by projecting the calamity that slavery confined to the families and the relationships of slaves and slave owners, the religious folklore of slaves in contrast to slave owners, and the conviction of non-slave owning citizens in opposition to that of slave owning families. Of which all took place during a time of mutual evils, and is proclaimed in her book-Uncle Tom’s Cabin.