this lecture continues looking at slavery but the focus shifts to the development of an organized abolition movement in the 19th century these themes and terms relate to organizing a movement they speak to what worked and also how the movement had its own internal divisions my slavery sentiment had existed throughout the colonial period in the 1700s it was heightened by the influence of the great awakening we also see certain denominations first quakers and then the new denomination of methodists condemning slavery and refusing to have slave holders amongst its congregants slavery as an institution also seemed at odds with republican ideals particularly the natural rights of individuals those ideas that undergird the republic's founding so we have both religious and political philosophical thinking pushing individuals to condemn slavery and for the first time in 1785 we have a formal organization albeit a local one created to push for the end of slavery that's the new york manumission society manumission is a formal term for freeing one's slaves to manumit them two of the founding fathers alexander hamilton and john jay were also founding fathers of that manumission society another association of republicanism with anti-slavery sentiment comes in the area of education so these same individuals who advocate for the peaceful manumitting of slaves would also argue for educational support to those freed individuals the idea being that the republic will only survive because of an educated populace the american colonization society was the first national organization dedicated to the end of slavery that means there were chapters of the american colonization society in every state in the union including southern states now they were dedicated to the peaceful end of slavery their methodology was to raise funds to compensate owners for freeing their slaves those funds would also go to resettle the freed slaves back in africa this colonization society did not have a solution to the problem of what to do with freed slaves in other words american racist sentiment ran high and wide so that while slavery was viewed as immoral integrating the freedmen into american society did not seem like an option either hence the goal of overseas resettlement now freed slaves had the choice of whether to resettle or to stay in the country and frankly you can see not a whole lot took the option of african return though enough do to enable the creation first of the territory of liberia which was under the control of the american colonization society itself and then the independent state of liberia in 1847. the american colonization society however floundered following the fallout from the nat turner rebellion of 1831. the idea of freeing slaves ran into the buzzsaw of fear of violence associated with the freeing of slaves after that the american colonization society began a slow and steady decline now anti-slavery sentiment will continue but it will be formulated in a different way and new organizations will take up the cry we see the influence of the second great awakening on abolition in the 1830s the second great awakenings emphasis on reform and creating a more perfect world migrates over into and infuses the abolition movement at its most radical extreme perfectionists believed that the entire system of slavery must be destroyed as part of that reform crusade william lloyd garrison will come to represent the radical wing of the organized abolition movement he doesn't start out that way he works with others in the early 1830s to start a an abolition newspaper and to create the american anti-slavery society there are wealthy individuals in america who underwrite these kinds of activities but garrison increasingly becomes radical in his language and in his endorsement of the means to achieve the end of slavery he condemns the american system of government as a co-conspirator in maintaining slavery that the constitution must be destroyed if that's what it's going to take so he is an advocate for disobedience to law and to societal norms all in the interest of the objective of ending the institutional slavery that existed he would not countenance moderate means or the slow growth of abolition sentiment rather he confronted abolition in a sort of war-like atmosphere garrison's radicalism had its positive side he employed a strategy of using new voices to argue for abolition that would be women and free blacks who became agents or public speakers on behalf of abolition this brought a lot of curiosity seekers to these speeches and got new converts to the movement but his emphasis on the any means possible and the immediacy of ending slavery combined with criticisms of american government alienated moderates after 1840 the movement splits apart and there is a rival organization formed both are dedicated to the end of slavery but there is that other wing that is more moderate in its means and will accept a slower more gradual pace towards abolition garrison's radicalism also has an effect on the south it is the radical language of garrison that helps push the south into its radical defense of slavery that we looked at in the last lecture critics of garrison also argue that his radical language lent cover for increasingly violent abolition activity we're going to see the increasing violence culminate in the raid at harpers ferry in 1859 just before the civil war more than garrison the movement needed a unifying symbol some something that could pull both wings of the movement back together that symbol is going to be found in the fugitive slave fugitive slaves are mostly thought of as runaways individuals who take themselves from bondage and physically transport themselves to the northern states or more ideally to canada where slavery was outlawed there are though fugitive slaves in the sense that they escape their bondage because they have such light skin they do not transport themselves physically necessarily even out of the south but they spend their lives passing or presenting themselves as whites in society runaways were most often men and younger men largely it was because the travel the journey to freedom was so long and difficult it was made all the harder by geographic ignorance that's partly a consequence of slaves being confined to their farms or plantations not gaining much sense of the geography of the outside world the underground railroad will attempt to remedy some of this it will be a series of paths of roadways northward with specific stops along the way where the escaped slave might be able to hide and rest we'll talk more about that later it's not so much the existence of the fugitive slave that becomes the unifying symbol but rather than narratives that are written either by the escaped slaves or by others about the escaped slaves number of escaped slaves did not have the ability to read or write and so their narratives are are told as told by someone who wrote it down and as it says on the slide it is the dignity the story of their escape where and their ability to tell how cruel slavery actually is by personal experience and to show the potential of the freed slave to add to society that makes the slave narrative such a compelling genre of literature particularly run in the run up to the civil war the underground railroad was both highly developed and a major secret that was the way it could survive no one knew an entire route conductors would guide escaped slaves for part of the route and then give them off to another conductor who would take them along the next section the conductors on the railroad ran the gamut from abolitionists to free blacks to even native americans or free fugitive slaves themselves who would go back once they had traversed the underground railroad to free relatives and friends we'll talk about harriet tubman later who did exactly that the route was dangerous because of the pursuit of the fugitive slave by federal marshals after 1850 when the federal government put its weight behind the recovery of escaped slaves and also bounty hunters who made a lucrative living off of chasing down fugitive slaves so the secretive nature was absolutely essential and as you can see the number of escaped slaves who traversed the underground railroad is significant underground railroad routes through new york state were very active partly because of new york's lengthy border with canada and that new york was an important site for the abolition movement many prominent abolitionists much abolitionist energy was concentrated in upstate new york finally there was a free black community of significant size in the state so a black moving through the state would not immediately be presumed a fugitive slave the map gives you some stops along the underground railroad most of them in central new york going up to the great lake and then by ship going over lake ontario into canada the other two images represent the markings that a fugitive slave might find along a route maps if you will guide posts that were there for someone pointed in that direction to find this particular stone had carvings in it it the only thing that's visible present day is the 1841 date but historians have put together what were the other images on that map on that rock it was guiding escaped slaves to fort ann and then to the coastline of lake champlain so that they could go across to canada frederick douglass was the most famous fugitive slave he also became the most respected black voice in the abolition movement after his own escape from slavery in 1838 at first douglas joined forces with the garrisonian wing of the movement he became a paid agent which meant he spoke about his personal experiences and the evils of the institution of slavery around the country he did this at great personal risk for technically he was still an escaped slave he was encouraged to write his experiences down and they became the very famous autobiography of frederick douglass in 1846 douglas accepted an offer by english women to purchase his freedom to get rid of that sword hanging over his head this offer precipitated a simmering disconnect with the garrisonian wing garrison thought douglas would be more effective as an abolition voice who was also a fugitive slave rather than a friedman who was now an abolitionist over time disagreements at about the way the movement was progressing and about douglas's lack of opportunities to lead in the garrisonian wing of the movement prompted douglas to break with garrison and to essentially create his own black abolition movement most specifically he became a newspaper publisher an abolitionist newspaper publisher the first of his ventures was the north star the second was several years later when the north star merged with a another very prominent black abolition paper to become the frederick douglass newspaper these newspapers along with the douglas autobiography along with douglas's continued speaking around the country were profoundly influential in generating anti-slavery ascent sentiment across the north frederick douglass chose rochester new york as his base of operations both of his newspapers were published there upstate new york ended up becoming an attractive end location for important minority figures and it was also the initial home of another individual who inadvertently found himself thrust into slavery both harriet jacobs and harriet tubman were escaped slaves who ended up living in rochester post escape harriet jacobs came from north carolina her incidence in the life of a slave girl is the most eloquent slave narrative detailing the female experience including physical and sexual harassment by her white owner harriet tubman was an escaped slave who became a symbol of resistance by going back 19 times between 1850 and 60 to lead people along routes of the underground railroad north to freedom she even worked as a guide during the civil war for the union one of the prominent abolitionists in upstate new york william seward sold tubman let tom tubman land near his home in auburn new york solomon northup was an individual from saratoga a free black who is tricked into enslavement by fugitive slave catchers ends up spending 12 years as a slave in the deep south it is his ability to read to write and to convince someone a white individual that he was not from the south that he knew way too much about the north for that which set in motion legal proceedings to free him a judge in the north and a lawyer from upstate new york used the law to free solomon northup in 1853. uncle tom's cabin was equally important in the public relations campaign to build anti-slavery sentiment the characters created by harriet beecher stowe conveyed the humanity of the slaves as individuals and the inhumanity of the institution it also carried a message about the dangers to the white community that the soul of the white community could be lost if slavery continued uncle tom the adult black male slave was central to the story his belief in god remained steadfast throughout the cruelties he experienced in the story at one point he saves a beautiful young blonde child from drowning in the river they develop an amazingly close friendship and the little girl ava represents the purity of the white community that friendship softens her parents towards uncle tom and makes them better individuals but tom doesn't get to stay with that family he is sold because of debt to an evil slave owner simon lagree lagree ultimately beats uncle tom to death because uncle tom will not reveal where an escaped female slave has gone tom ends up the book a martyr in the cause of telling the world about the evils of slavery by the 1850s anti-slavery literature is everywhere it permeates american life including a child's first spelling book abolition organizations media campaigns are all on the outside of the state pressuring government to make changes ultimately government action will be required to address the question of slavery in the 1840s we see the first efforts to build political coalitions around the issue of slavery the liberty party was short-lived and it was really a northeast phenomenon the creator garrett smith was another upstate new yorker the free soil party in 1848 will have broader reach largely because the anti-slavery question gets reframed as a question of free soil as the debate about slavery starts to move towards the question of the extension of slavery into the american territories the argument is made that those new areas should be open to americans as free soil areas individual farmers should not have to compete with slave owners and their slaves in order to make a success free soil free labor free men is really still about anti-slavery even though it is using different words neither the liberty party nor the free soil party sticks around very long but they are precursors to what will be the arrival of the republican party a permanent party dedicated to the end of the expansion of slavery