Visit Website. A "transformative moment in history that stems from actions of ordinary individuals. Explore the story of the abolitionist movement in America through our interactive map. Why We Made The Abolitionists A "transformative moment in history that stems from actions of ordinary individuals. What could be more apt than that they should encounter John Brown, careless of his own safety and determined to fill the ungodly with the fear of the risen Christ?
Every Cavalier should meet such a Roundhead. After Pottawatomie the swagger went out of the southerners, and after the more conventional fighting at Osawatomie, and Brown's cool-headed raid to liberate a group of slaves and take them all the way to Canada, they came to realize that they were in a hard fight. Furthermore, their sulfurous reaction to this discovery, and their stupid tendency to paint Brown as an agent of the Republican Party, made it harder and harder for the invertebrate Lincolnians to keep the issue of slavery under control.
In his work in Kansas, and his long toil on the Underground Railroad, Brown was essentially mounting a feint. He knew that subscribers and supporters in New England would give him money, and even arms, for these limited and shared objectives. But he wanted to divert the money, and the arms, to the larger purpose of making any further Lincolnian retreats and compromises impossible.
For years he had been studying the keystone town of Harpers Ferry, situated at the confluence of the Shenandoah and the Potomac, and handily placed for the potentially guerrilla-friendly Allegheny Mountains. Reynolds shows that the strategic design was not as quixotic as one has often been led to believe. This northwestern portion of Virginia was generally sympathetic to abolition and to the Union indeed, its later cleaving into the new free state of West Virginia, in , is the only secession from that epoch that still survives.
The fall months were the harvest season, when disaffection among overdriven slaves was more general. And the national political climate was becoming more febrile and polarized. Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry failed badly, of course, but the courage and bearing he demonstrated after his humiliating defeat were of an order to impress his captors, who announced that far from being "mad," their prisoner was lucid and eloquent as well as brave.
The slander of insanity was circulated by the weaker members of the anti-slavery camp, who cringingly sought to avoid the identification with Brown that the southern press had opportunistically made.
By falling for its own propaganda, however, and in the general panic that followed the botched insurrection, the South persuaded itself that war was inevitable and that Lincoln who had denounced Brown in his campaign against Douglas and in his famous speech at Cooper Union was a Brown-ite at heart.
The history of the six years after is the history not so much of Brown's prophecy as of the self-fulfilling prophecy of his enemies. As Reynolds hauntingly words it,. If this does not vindicate Brown's view that all had been predestined by the Almighty before the world was made, it nonetheless does do something to the hair on the back of one's neck. As do the words finally uttered in Lincoln's Second Inaugural, about every drop of blood drawn by the lash being repaid by the sword, and the utter destruction of the piled-up wealth of those who live by the bondsman's toil.
The final reckoning with slavery and secession was described by Lincoln himself as one great "John Brown raid" into the South, and was on a scale that would have brought a wintry smile to the stern face of Oliver Cromwell. The "Marseillaise" of that crusade "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," which first appeared, as did many other important documents of the Brown-Emerson alliance, in the pages of this magazine was an adaptation of the foot soldiers' song about Old Osawatomie Brown.
One reserves the term "quixotic" for hopeless causes. Harpers Ferry was the first defeat, as it was also the seminal victory, of a triumphant cause, precisely because it sounded a trumpet that could never call retreat. So much for the apocalyptic and, if you like, "transcendental" influence of Brown. Reynolds, building on the earlier work of Merrill Peterson, traces another, gentler influence that may be no less consequential.
Almost all whites in that epoch feared almost all blacks. And many blacks resented the condescension of anti-slavery organizations—most especially those groups that wanted to free them and then deport them to Africa. John Brown shared his life with slaves, and re-wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution so as to try to repair the hideous wrong that had been done to them.
The uprising ultimately led to the ending of slavery there and the creation of an independent country Haiti in In this time Toussaint had become the leader of history's largest slave revolt, and later one of France's military commanders. In while at war with France, Britain tried to capture St Domingue, but L'Ouverture's army won and the British troops had to withdraw. This showed British officers what determined military opponents enslaved people fighting for their freedom could be, and helped to change the view people had of Africans as weak or not equal to white people.
L'Ouverture actions also indirectly helped bring an end to slavery in Britain too. It had previously been argued that if Britain abolished slavery then its main rival, France, would take over its trade routes. But after the French empire fell and slavery was abolished in France in , this was no longer a concern. James Somerset was brought to England from Jamaica in , but he escaped and used the British courts against his owners, to stop him being sent back to Jamaica.
In , year-old James and his lawyer Granville Sharp called for an area of law called 'Habeas corpus' to be applied to James. This means a prisoner has to be brought before a court so it can decide if that person's imprisonment is lawful.
At this time, the slave-trade was legal in the UK and there were 15, slaves in England, but because James had been put in chains to be transported back to Jamaica Mr Sharp argued he was a prisoner.
This proved to be a big test case in the courts, with Sharp challenging the law to see slaves as human beings, rather than property. Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice - the highest judge in the country - agreed and granted James Somerset his freedom, saying that slavery was so "odious" the English courts could not accept it.
Many people saw this judgment as outlawing slavery in Britain and it helped many other slaves also get their freedom. However, although attitudes were changing it was still legal to own slaves, and they were still widely seen as 'property' rather than people. Mary Prince was born into slavery in around , on Bermuda, off the coast of the United States, and was taken away from her family at the age of ten.
For years she was forced to work on several West Indian islands, making salt. The work was hard and caused sun blisters on exposed parts of the body and painful boils and sores on the legs. Slavery was still legal in the West Indies, but not in Britain, so when she reached London she left the Woods and joined a group called Anti-Slavery Society, whose aim was for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
She told her life story to supporters of abolition and they helped her publish a book in , called 'The History of Mary Prince'. People were shocked to read about the treatment she had suffered, and it helped gain support for the anti-slavery movement at a time when there was a powerful, and ultimately successful, campaign to get freedom for all people who were slaves under the British Empire. Frederick Douglass was an African American slave who managed to escape from slavery at the age of After he escaped in , he got married, changed his surname, and joined the anti-slavery movement.
He quickly became one of the most well known campaigners of his time, with a talent for public speaking, as he travelled around telling people about life as a slave.
He also wrote two books about his experiences, and travelled to Ireland and the UK where he was impressed by how much more freedom black people had, compared to in the United States.
When he returned to the United States in , Douglass began publishing his own anti-slavery newsletter, the North Star, and also became involved in the movement for women's rights. Slavery came to an end following the American Civil ar , but Douglass was disappointed that ex-slaves still weren't allowed to vote. He carried on campaigning for this as well as turning his attention to fighting racial prejudice. Harriet was born into slavery in Maryland, in the United States in , and grew up working in the cotton fields.
In September , when she was 27 her owner died, and she escaped - along with her two younger brothers, leaving her husband behind. After three weeks her brothers were scared and decided to go back, so Harriet continued on alone travelling almost 90 miles to the city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania - a state where slavery was illegal. She got a job as a servant in a house but when she found out some family members were going to be sold to her former owners, she realised she needed to help others escape too.
Along with a network of helpers known as 'The Underground Railroad', Harriet helped more than 70 slaves find freedom in other states or in Canada, including her brothers and her parents.
By doing this she was taking enormous risks with her own freedom, and used in a variety of elaborate disguises to avoid being recognised and caught. She also joined efforts to end slavery during the American Civil War, working as a scout and a spy, collecting information for the Union government, who were fighting against slavery. In , she led Union forces in a raid which liberated more than slaves in South Carolina.
After the war, Tubman also gave speeches in support of women's right to vote, drawing on her own experiences in the fight against slavery.
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