Abolitionism

discussion of the "infant" feminist cause. Strikingly, he expressed the belief that “discussion of the rights of animals would be regarded with far more complacency…than would be a discussion of the rights of women," and Douglass noted the link between abolitionism and feminism, the overlap between the communities. His life and thought will always speak profoundly to the meaning of being black in America, as well as the human calling to resist oppression. Brilliant, heroic, and complex,…

Angelina Grimke was a white Southern woman who lived during the nineteenth century. During this time, the abolitionist movement was gaining momentum, especially in the North. As a young adult, Grimke left her luxurious life in the South and moved to the North to fight for civil rights. She quickly became one of the most revolutionary abolitionists of the time. Throughout her time in the public eye, she fought on the side of a multitude causes. Grimke was an advocate for civil rights, suffrage,…

During the pre-Civil War era, William Lloyd Garrison steered abolition to a more radical approach through his writings in his newspaper: The Liberator, his creation of the New England Anti-Slavery Society and his extreme anti-Union ideas, which led to a schism in the abolitionist movement. His actions played a major role in the division of the abolitionist movement, and thus helped express slavery as a central ethical issue. William Lloyd Garrison created an abolitionist newspaper called The…

From its opening account of his birth to its closing pages depicting his new-found freedom, Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself is characterized in part by its strikingly fluid, refined, and effective prose style. Despite his masterful control of language a paradoxical problem seems to subtly haunt Douglass's Narrative: the text's memorable prose is perhaps ironically too good. As an ex-slave autobiographer, Douglass was…

Angelina Grimké evoked an amalgamation of criticism and commendation from numerous sources through the composition of her infamous “Appeal to the Christian Women of the Southern States.” In her 1836 appeal, Angelina ardently refuted the South’s biblical argument for slavery by examining numerous biblical laws relating to slavery and servitude. Additionally, Angelina daringly entreated her female peers to educate themselves on the subject of slavery and its monstrous evils. By urging them to…

How is “Clotel” a novel based on mulattos? To answer this question, “Clotel” must be broken down into figurative language, symbols, and history. With criticism by Gerald Rosselot, L.H Welchel Jr, John Reilly, Andrews, Robert S., Levine, Anne Ducille, Paul Gilmore, and John Ernest question the reasons for William Wells Brown purpose in writing the book and identify him as a trickster. It is very important to know what Clotel represents to the African American people and white. This story is…

In the late nineteenth century, America faced one of its biggest downfalls as the Confederates separated themselves from the Union. Tension grew within the country and the Civil War erupted. One major reason why this war began was because the Confederates wanted slavery, and the Union did not. The people who opposed slavery were called abolitionists and they were found throughout the United States. One of the most famous abolitionists was Frederick Douglass. Douglass was a politician, lecturer,…

When examining the nineteenth-century abolitionist movement from a gender perspective, past historians and scholars have primarily focused on the lives and influences of a few, celebrated female characters. For example, abolitionist heroines such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, who authored Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Sojourner Truth have received significant attention and achieved revered status among scholars and non-academics alike. However, few individuals beyond the world of academia have heard of…

The abolitionist movement was not based upon economics. After 1830, almost all abolitionists were in the North. Most of them were middle-class people who had no stake in the conservation or destruction of slavery. Since slavery was a moral offense and not an economic wrong to these people, they came to look upon economics in slavery as a break of the laws of God. Just as the pro-slavery group wrote its arguments for fellow southerners, northern abolitionists took their campaign to their fellow…

Sojourner Truth Isabella Van Wagenen (only later did she adopt the name Sojourner Truth) was a dutch speaking slave born in Ulster County, New York in 1797. As a child Truth was separated from her family, and sold into slavery. Truth fled to New York City with her baby after she endured physical and sexual abuse at the Dumont farm. There she fell into the cult “Prophet Matthias,” but through Truth’s pentecostal preachings she was introduced to abolitionists and women right’s groups. As an…