Controversial Women: Black Femininity and Abolition
Walker’s Appeal (1829)
“Most notorious document in American history” that had called for violent revolt against slave masters
Frightened Southerners and Northerners as “gradual abolition” was still practiced in the North until 1847
Robert A. Young, Ethiopian Manifesto (1829)
Less militant than Walker, but invoked religious themes; supported universal freedom
Frederick Douglass (pictured left)
Became hugely popular orator
Used his newspaper to recount the horrors of enslavement
Black Abolitionists
Anti-slavery societies
Approximately 50 black-controlled organizations by 1825
Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society
Robert Purvis, President
Philadelphia Vigilance Committee
Massachusetts General Colored Association
Maria Stewart, member
1830—1st American anti-slavery convention
Black-controlled and operated
Visible and active in interracial societies
1833—American Anti-Slavery Society
African Americans led in fundraising, promoting and organizing for abolition
VERY classist—most visible people were elite and middle class black Northerners
Made a difference in the co-ed quality of the movement, too
Organizers and Activists
Controversial Women: Black Femininity and Abolition
“Cult of Domesticity”
The Home: a virtuous safe haven free from the dirtiness of politics and business that was “men’s work”
Women were responsible for keeping the home, for morality and early childhood education
This is how the temperance movement started—to keep vice out of homes!
Working-class women DO NOT enjoy this idealized style of women’s roles
“Cult of Domesticity” is a middle and upper class white province
Educated women, married to professional men
Middle and upper class BLACK women also espoused these “traditional” values as seen in their reform and welfare work!
ABOLITION is an extension of the “Cult of Domesticity” because it dealt with social welfare!!!
Black Femininity and Activism
Black Feminists, Black Abolitionists
Maria Stewart
Public Speaker, Organizer
Criticized middle class black men for not doing more to help women; criticized working-class black people for social shortcomings
Mary Ann Shad
Journalist, editor
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Intellectual, writer
Sojourner Truth
Freed woman, public speaker—the exception to these middle and upper class women
“Ain’t I a Woman?” speech reflected how white Americans dismissed black womanhood and challenged who had the right to be called “woman”
Black women were largely invisible in the antebellum feminist movement because white feminists splintered over the issues of abolition and possibility of all black men getting the vote over any women
Spreading the Gospel–Print Culture
All abolitionists used newspapers, pamphlets and writing to spread the message of immediate freedom across the nation
The Colored American, The North Star
John Brown Russwurm
Colonization supporter; point of contention among African American intellectuals
Founder of Freedom’s Journal
1st black-owned/operated paper
Published David Walker’s Appeal
1831—considered real beginning of 2nd abolitionist movement
2nd Great Awakening
Bible became number one tool of abolitionists to argue against slavery on moral principles
Abolitionist mail campaign
Terrified Southerners who did not want enslaved people to know of abolition through the “Grapevine”
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Published in 1851; most important piece of abolitionists literature in American history
National Politics
Fugitive Slave Act (1793)
Federal law—Northerners must return “lost property” to Southerners
Irony—”suspects” brought before judges to confirm identity
Late 1830s—free states argue full courts are necessary for this process
More irony—do this under the mantra of “states’ rights”
Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)—fugitive slaves win right to jury trial in federal courts, not state courts
Assorted Crises
Underground Railroad!
TEXAS
1845—secedes from Mexico to join US as slave state
1848—Mexican-American War
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (CA)
Wilmont Proviso
Rep. David Wilmont (PA)—legislation banned slavery in all lands acquired from Mexico
Between 1848 and 1861:
Five free states enter the Union with NO enslaved counterparts
1848
Wow
Such Year
Very Panic
Anti-Slavery?
Much Expansion
Such No
Southern Paranoid?
What Mexico
Guadalupe Hidalgo?
Northern Scream
Wow
Very Loud
All the States
Wilmont Proviso?
White Progressives
Approximately 200K white Northerners belonged to anti-slavery societies
Not as big a number as it seems; 200K of 14 million Northerners
Abolition was NEVER popular in the North
National white supremacy, remember?
Working-class whites feared job and land competition from African Americans
Still….some important white progressives!
William Lloyd Garrison
Editor of The Liberator, BFF to Frederick Douglass
RADICAL abolitionist and FEMINIST
James Birney
Kentuckian, former slave holder
Liberty Party presidential nominee (1840)
Sarah and Angelina Grimké (pictured)
Daughters of South Carolina planters
Became abolitionists after witnessing slavery first hand
Became ardent Quakers and feminists
By 1848, the entire nation cares about enslavement, actually.
Racism in the North
Widespread among elite and working-class whites
Very few progressives; abolitionists are the social minority
But…EXPANSIONISM makes white Northerners very anti-slavery
“Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men”—becomes mantra of working-class white Northerners
Millions of white, working-class Northern men resented their job opportunities and land opportunities being threatened by slavery and by freed African Americans in newly acquired western land as well as at home
Southerners had legitimate fears that their economic livelihoods were being challenged on all fronts.
Who Cares?
Pro-Slavery Arguments: A Variety of Excuses
Scientific Darwinism—strongest intellectual defense by whites for slavery
Black intellectuals combat this by celebrating their own intellectual and social achievements
Pro-slavery advocates stated the institution was necessary for white civilization & economic gain
Planters argued that slavery was a “positive good” for black people because all of their needs were “cared for”
Social moderates said African-descent people had “always” been subordinate to whites
Religious people argued that the “Curse of Ham” was reason enough to keep black Americans enslaved (recall David Brion Davis’ book!)
All of these arguments reflected Southern fears that the nation was challenging the institution in a way that had never been done before; until now most Americans had accepted that slavery was necessary to the economy
Pro-Slavery Backlash
South v. North
The entire South became openly hostile to anti-slavery/abolitionist rhetoric
“The Crackers”: Poor White Southerners and Social Paradox
Poor whites did not want to lose their social position as “not slaves” in the Southern social order
ALSO—did not want to face job competition from freed people; poor Southern whites shared this with working-class white Northerners
The Second Great Awakening split churches regionally decades before the Civil War
1845—First official Southern Baptist Convention held in Richmond, Virginia; Northern Baptists become known as “American Baptists”
Southern universities become resolutely pro-slavery
Ole Miss (1848)—founded as a university and as an example of planter ideology
Southerners also violently lashed out against abolitionist rhetoric
Bounties on black and white abolitionists
Southern abolitionist/anti-slavery sympathizers horribly abused
The Grimke sisters were threatened with jail, rape, beatings and death if they ever came home to South Carolina
Underground Railroad
Existed since 1819, partly as a response to the Missouri Compromise proceedings
Operated by black and white “conductors”
John Fairfield—son of Virginia slaveholders who smuggled people from the Deep South to Canada
Harriet Tubman—former Maryland field hand who made 14 successful trips into the South to help runaways to freedom
Across the South, white mobs attacked post offices to seize & burn abolitionist literature
Especially narratives written by former enslaved people that disproved the paternalist narrative
Southern Hyper-Violence
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