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HAPTER 8

One American's Story

Slavery and Abolition

James Forten’s great-grandfather had been brought from

Africa to the American colonies in chains, but James was born

free. In 1781, the 15-year-old James went to sea to fight for

American independence. Captured by the British and offered

passage to England, the patriotic youth refused, saying, “I am

here a prisoner for the liberties of my country. I never, NEVER

shall prove a traitor to her interests.”

By the 1830s Forten had become a wealthy sailmaker in

Philadelphia, with a fortune rumored to exceed $100,000.

Though some people argued that free blacks should return to

Africa, Forten disagreed and responded with sarcasm.

A PERSONAL VOICE JAMES FORTEN

“ Here I have dwelt until I am nearly sixty years of age, and have brought up and

educated a family. . . . Yet some ingenious gentlemen have recently discovered that

I am still an African; that a continent three thousand miles, and more, from the

place where I was born, is my native country. And I am advised to go home. . . .

Perhaps if I should only be set on the shore of that distant land, I should recognize

all I might see there, and run at once to the old hut where my forefathers lived a

hundred years ago.

”

—quoted in Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia’s Black Community 1720–1840

Forten’s unwavering belief that he was an American led him to oppose the effort

to resettle free blacks in Africa and also pushed him fervently to oppose slavery.

Abolitionists Speak Out

By the 1820s more than 100 antislavery societies were advocating for resettlement

of blacks in Africa—based on the belief that African Americans were an inferior

race that could not coexist with white society. Yet most free blacks considered

America their home, and only about 1,400 blacks emigrated to Africa between

Terms & Names

MAIN IDEA

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

•abolition

•William Lloyd

Garrison

•emancipation

•David Walker

•Frederick

Douglass

•Nat Turner

•antebellum

•gag rule

Slavery became an explosive

issue, as more Americans

joined reformers working to

put an end to it.

The people of the United States

continue to be challenged by

questions of economic and social

inequality.

▼

James Forten, a

wealthy leader of

Philadelphia’s free

black community,

took an active

role in a variety of

political causes.

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Page 1 of 6

1820 and 1830. As one black pastor from New

York angrily proclaimed, “We are natives of

this country. We only ask that we be treated

as well as foreigners.”

African Americans increasingly were

joined by whites in public criticism of slavery.

White support for abolition, the call to outlaw slavery, was fueled by preachers

like Charles G. Finney, who termed slavery “a great national sin.”

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON

The most radical white abolitionist was an editor

named William Lloyd Garrison. Active in religious reform movements in

Massachusetts, Garrison started his own paper, The Liberator, in 1831 to deliver an

uncompromising message: immediate emancipation—the freeing of slaves,

with no payment to slaveholders.

A PERSONAL VOICE WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON

“ [I]s there not cause for severity? I will be harsh as truth, and as uncompromis-

ing as justice. On this subject [immediate emancipation], I do not wish to think or

speak or write, with moderation. . . . I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will

not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—AND I WILL BE HEARD.

”

—The Liberator

As white abolitionists began to respond to Garrison’s ideas, he founded the New

England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832, followed by the national American Anti-

Slavery Society a year later. Garrison enjoyed core black support; three out of four

early subscribers were African Americans. Whites who opposed abolition, however,

hated him. Some whites supported abolition but opposed Garrison when he attacked

churches and the government for failing to condemn slavery. Garrison alienated

whites even more when he associated with fiery abolitionist David Walker.

FREE BLACKS

In his Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, published in

1829, David Walker, a free black, advised blacks to fight for freedom rather than

to wait for slave owners to end slavery. He wrote, “The man who would not fight

. . . ought to be kept with all of his children or family, in slavery, or in chains, to

be butchered by his cruel enemies.”

Many free blacks, more willing to compromise than Walker, had joined one of

many antislavery societies active by the end of

the 1820s. In 1850, most of the 434,000 free

blacks in the South worked as day laborers, but

some held jobs as artisans. Northern free blacks

discovered that only the lowest-paying jobs were

open to them. Recalling his youth in Rhode

Island in the 1830s, William J. Brown wrote, “To

drive carriages, carry a market basket after the

boss, and brush his boots . . . was as high as a col-

ored man could rise.” Frederick Douglass, how-

ever, rose above such limitations.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Born into slavery in

1817, Frederick Douglass had been taught

to read and write by the wife of one of his own-

ers. Her husband ordered her to stop teaching

Douglass, however, because reading “would

forever unfit him to be a slave.” When

Douglass realized that knowledge could be his

“pathway from slavery to freedom,” he studied

even harder.

Reforming American Society 249

Frederick

Douglass, 1851

▼

MAIN IDEA

Synthesizing

What was

radical at the time

about Garrison’s

and Walker’s ideas

on abolition?

▼

William Lloyd

Garrison's

newspaper, The

Liberator, bore

the motto: “Our

country is the

world—Our

countrymen are

all mankind.”

A. Answer

Garrison criticized

churches and the

government;

Walker advocat-

ed armed black

revolt.

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250 C

HAPTER 8

MAIN IDEA

Contrasting

How did the

various antislavery

groups differ in

approach?

MAIN IDEA

Summarizing

Describe typical

work experiences

of rural Southern

slaves.

By 1838, Douglass held a skilled job as a ship caulker in Baltimore. He earned

the top wages in the yard but was not allowed to keep any of his earnings. After

a disagreement with his owner, Douglass decided to escape. Borrowing the iden-

tity of a free black sailor and carrying official papers, he reached New York and

tasted freedom for the first time.

Douglass became an eager reader of The Liberator, which, he said, “sent a thrill

of joy through my soul, such as I had never felt before.” When Garrison heard

him speak of his experiences, he was so impressed he sponsored Douglass as a lec-

turer for the American Anti-Slavery Society. A superb speaker, Douglass thrilled

huge audiences. “I appear before the immense assembly this evening as a thief

and a robber,” he would say. “I stole this head, these limbs, this body from my

master and ran off with them.” Hoping that abolition could be achieved through

political actions, Douglass broke with Garrison in 1847 and began his own anti-

slavery newspaper. He named it The North Star, after the star that guided runaway

slaves to freedom.

Life Under Slavery

After 1830, Americans hotly debated the issue of slavery, but

many African Americans still lived in bondage. In fact, the

population of slaves in America had nearly doubled in the

years between 1810 and 1830, growing from 1.2 million

to roughly 2 million.

The institution of slavery had changed substan-

tially since the 18th century. In those days, most

slaves had recently arrived from the Caribbean or

Africa and spoke one of several non-English lan-

guages. Most of these slaves worked on small farms

alongside people with whom they could not easily

communicate. By 1830, the majority had been born

in America and spoke enough English to be able to

communicate with other slaves. The rise of the plan-

tation in the mid-18th century brought further change

to the lives of the enslaved.

RURAL SLAVERY

On large plantations, men, women,

and even children toiled from dawn to dusk in the fields. The

whip of the overseer or slave driver compelled them to work

faster. Solomon Northup, who was born free and later enslaved,

recalled the never-ending labor.

A PERSONAL VOICE SOLOMON NORTHUP

“ The hands are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morn-

ing, and, with the exception of ten or fifteen minutes, which is given them at noon

to swallow their allowance of cold bacon, they are not permitted to be a moment

idle until it is too dark to see, and when the moon is full, they often times labor till

the middle of the night. They do not dare to stop even at dinner time, nor return to

the quarters, however late it be, until the order to halt is given by the driver.

”

—Twelve Years a Slave

By 1850 most slaves lived on plantations or large farms that employed ten or

more slaves, but many lived on small farms, laboring beside their owners. Others

lived and worked in the cities.

URBAN SLAVERY

By the 1830s the promise of cotton wealth had lured many

Southern whites into farming, thus creating a shortage of white laborers for such

▼

Planters’

children—like

Charlotte Helen

Middleton, shown

with her nurse

Lydia in 1857—

often were tended

by slaves who had

been forced to

give up their own

children.

B. Answer

Some thought

blacks should

be resettled in

Africa; others

believed aboli-

tion could be

achieved with-

out violence.

Still others

thought violence

would be neces-

sary to achieve

abolition.

C. Answer

Most worked

on plantations,

either in the

fields or indoors

as domestic

servants. Others

worked on

farms; a few

lived and

worked in cities.

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Page 3 of 6

industries as mining and lumber. As a result, a

demand arose for slaves as workers in mills and

on ships. Slaves who had developed specialized

skills on plantations were now in demand in

Southern cities. For example, slaves filled skilled

occupations such as blacksmithing or carpentry,

resulting in a new class of skilled black laborers.

Most slaves lived rurally—2.8 million in 1850,

compared with the 400,000 slaves living in

cities. However, enslaved blacks could hire

themselves out as artisans in Southern cities,

often more easily than free blacks in the North,

where racial discrimination prevailed.

Many enslaved women and children worked the same jobs as men in

Southern industry. Slave owners “hired out” their slaves to factory owners. In

return, the slave owners collected the pay of their slaves without having to super-

vise their activities. Thus, urban slaves spent more time beyond the watchful eye

of their slave owners. Frederick Douglass remarked on differences between rural

and urban slavery, noting that “a city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a

slave on the plantation. He is much better fed and clothed, and enjoys privileges

altogether unknown to the slave on the plantation.” Douglass also noted that “a

vestige of decency” in the cities limited the acts of “atrocious cruelty” to slaves

that were common on plantations.

Reforming American Society 251

Skillbuilder

Answers

1. Free African

Americans.

2. Plantations,

because that

was where

large groups

were found.

Southern Plantations

Plantations were virtually self-contained, self-sufficient

worlds over which owners ruled with absolute authority.

Owners established the boundaries that a slave could

not cross without punishment or death. But no bound-

ary protected a slave from the owner’s demands or

cruel treatment.

African Americans in the South, 1860

Sources: 1860 figures from Eighth Census of the United States;

Lewis C. Gray, History of Agriculture in the Southern United States.

Slaves owned in

groups of 10–99

(61%)

Free

African

Americans

(6%)

Slaves owned in

groups of 100 or more

(8%)

Slaves owned in

groups of 1–9

(25%)

SKILLBUILDER

Interpreting Graphs

1. According to the pie graph, what was the

smallest group of African Americans living in

the American South in 1860?

2. Under what conditions did 61% of slaves in

the South live? Explain.

Slave quarters, from a photograph taken around 1865

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Still slaves never lost sight of their goal

of freedom. For some, it was time to take

more drastic and organized action.

NAT TURNER’S REBELLION

Nat Turner

was born into slavery in 1800 in South-

ampton County, Virginia. A gifted preacher,

Turner believed that he had been chosen to

lead his people out of bondage. In August,

1831, Turner judged an eclipse of the sun

to be a divine signal for action. With near-

ly 80 followers, Turner’s band attacked four

plantations and killed almost 60 white

inhabitants before being captured by state

and federal troops.

Though Turner himself hid out for sev-

eral weeks, eventually he was captured,

tried, and hanged. In the retaliation that

followed, whites killed as many as 200 blacks—many of them innocent of any

connection with the uprising. Turner’s bloody rebellion strengthened the resolve

of Southern whites to defend slavery and to control their slaves.

Slave Owners Defend Slavery

In some states, in the aftermath of the Turner rebellion, people argued that the

only way to prevent further slave revolts was through emancipation. Others, how-

ever, chose to tighten restrictions on all African Americans.

VIRGINIA DEBATE

Virginia governor John Floyd wrote of his wish for a “law . . .

gradually abolishing slavery in this State.” By January 1832 the state legislature

was hotly debating that very prospect. “Nothing else could have prompted [the

discussions],” reported the Richmond Enquirer, “but the bloody massacre [Turner’s

Rebellion] in the month of August.”

The debate over the future of slavery in Virginia result-

ed in a motion for abolition in the state legislature. The

motion lost by a 73 to 58 vote, primarily because the state

legislature was balanced toward eastern slaveholders rather

than non-slaveholders in the western part of the state. That

loss closed the debate on slavery in the antebellum (pre-

Civil War) South.

BACKLASH FROM REVOLTS

In addition to forcing the

Virginia debate, whites’ fear of future slave revolts had

another important effect. Most slave owners believed that

education and privilege inspired revolt. Thus, many slave

owners pushed their state legislatures to further tighten con-

trols on African Americans. These controls became known

as slave codes.

In 1833, for example, Alabama forbade free and

enslaved blacks from preaching the gospel unless

“respectable” slaveholders were present. Georgia followed

suit. In 1835 North Carolina became the last Southern

state to deny the vote to free blacks. In some states, free

blacks lost the right to own guns, purchase alcohol, assem-

ble in public, and testify in court. In some Southern cities,

African Americans could no longer own property, learn to

252 C

HAPTER 8

▼

Artist Felix Darley

completed this

tinted drawing in

1863 for a history

book. Nat Turner is

shown (standing)

preaching to his

followers.

HISTORICAL

SLAVE REVOLTS

Armed rebellion was an extreme

form of resistance to slavery.

Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion was

merely the most recent example

of slave desperation.

In 1811, more than 300 slaves

had rebelled in Louisiana and

marched on New Orleans with

spikes and axes before a well-

trained militia with firearms

stopped them. Gabriel Prosser

had hatched a plot to take over

Richmond in 1800, and Denmark

Vesey had led a conspiracy to

control Charleston in 1822. Both

of these conspiracies were

thwarted by the authorities

before larger rebellions occurred.

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Effects

How did

Turner’s revolt

harden Southern

white attitudes

about basic

liberties for

blacks?

D. Answer

The rebellion

was bloody and

frightened slave

owners. Many

Southern whites

believed that

the only way to

prevent such

revolts was to

eliminate by law

any personal

liberties for

slaves.

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MAIN IDEA

2. TAKING NOTES

In a two-column chart, list the major

antislavery and proslavery actions

that occurred from 1820 to 1850.

Which activity do you think was

most effective? Explain.

CRITICAL THINKING

3. SYNTHESIZING

Which do you think was a more

effective strategy for achieving the

abolitionists’ goal of eliminating

slavery—violence or nonviolence?

Why? Think About:

• Garrison’s and Walker’s remarks

• Frederick Douglass’s views

• Southerners’ reactions to Nat

Turner’s rebellion

4. SUMMARIZING

What arguments did Southern

proslavery whites employ to defend

slavery?

5. COMPARING

Compare the similarities and

differences between the situations

of free blacks in the North and

slaves in the South.

Reforming American Society 253

read and write, or work independently as carpenters or

blacksmiths.

PROSLAVERY DEFENSES

Some proslavery advocates

used the Bible to defend slavery, citing passages that coun-

seled servants to obey their masters. Slavery, Southern slave

owners argued, actually benefited blacks by making them

part of a prosperous and Christian civilization. Even

Southern white Christian ministers gradually shifted

toward accepting slavery during this period. Some had

attacked slavery in the early 1800s, but by the 1830s most

white ministers in the South agreed that slavery and

Christianity could coexist.

Slave owners invented the myth of the happy slave, a

cherished addition to the plantation family. To this image

they contrasted that of the Northern wage slave, a wage-

earning immigrant or free black who worked for pennies in

dark and airless factories. George Fitzhugh, a Virginia slave

owner, argued that whereas Northern mill owners fired

their workers when they became too old or sick to work,

Southerners cared for their slaves for a lifetime.

Abolitionists, however, continued to campaign for

emancipation. One maneuver was to swamp Congress with

petitions to end slavery in the District of Columbia.

Southern representatives countered in 1836 by securing the

adoption of a gag rule, a rule limiting or preventing

debate on an issue—which meant that citizens submitting

petitions were deprived of their right to have them heard.

The gag rule eventually was repealed in 1844.

Nevertheless, as abolitionists’ efforts intensified during

the 1850s, some turned to violence. The more clear-sighted

began to sound the alarm: this turmoil over slavery would

lead to a divided nation.

SLAVERY IN THE AMERICAS

Slaves formed a smaller portion

of the total population in the

American South than in the

Caribbean and in Brazil. African

slaves formed almost 80 percent

of the population of Jamaica, a

colony of Great Britain. Because

so many slaves in that colony

died, slave owners demanded a

constant renewal of their supply

from Africa, thus maintaining the

Atlantic slave trade. Slavery ended

in the British empire in 1833.

Brazil also had a large propor-

tion of slaves. During the 1800s

slaves made up more than half

the colonial population of Brazil

and worked primarily on large cof-

fee plantations. Slavery was abol-

ished in Brazil in 1888.

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

PACIFIC

OCEAN

Caribbean Sea

JAMAICA

BRAZIL

SOUTH

AMERICA

•abolition

•William Lloyd Garrison

•emancipation

•David Walker

•Frederick Douglass

•Nat Turner

•antebellum

•gag rule

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

Antislavery

Actions

Proslavery

Actions

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