Abolition and Women’s Rights
The spread of democracy leads to calls for freedom for slaves and more rights for women.
Abolitionists Call for Ending Slavery
- Abolition—movement to end slavery, begins in the late 1700s
- Abolitionists demand a law ending slavery in the South
- William Lloyd Garrison publishes an abolitionist newspaper
- John Quincy Adams introduces anti-slavery amendment
Eyewitnesses to Slavery
- Frederick Douglass speaks about his own experience of slavery
- Publishes autobiography (1845), does lecture tour, buys his freedom
- Sojourner Truth flees enslavement, lives with Quakers who free her
The Underground Railroad
- Underground Railroad—aboveground escape routes from South to North
- Runaway slaves travel on foot, also take wagons, boats, trains
- Henry Brown escapes slavery by being packed in a box, shipped North
- Runaways usually travel by night, hide by day in places called stations
Harriet Tubman
- People who lead runaways to freedom are called conductors
- Harriet Tubman is a famous conductor
- Escapes slavery (1849), makes 19 journeys to free enslaved persons
• Enemies offer reward for her capture, is never caught