| Essential Question
Did militancy help or hinder the abolitionist movement?
Materials
Document Excerpts (pdf)
Abolition Timeline (pdf)
Background
Although the original Constitution of the United States
did not mention the word “slavery” in its
text, it recognized the existence and legality of this
institution. It protected the rights of slaveholders
with regard to the return of runaway slaves, and by
increasing representation for slaveholders through the
three-fifths compromise, even the slave trade would
be continued for twenty years (until 1808). As the United
States developed so did the national debate over slavery.
The belief that slavery would gradually disappear in
the decades after the American Revolution decreased
as cotton production increased, and the nation became
more reliant on the textile industry. Westward expansion
and the settlement of new lands only fueled the growing
debate over slavery.
By the 1830s, many Southerners who had once defended
slavery as a “necessary evil” now asserted
that it was a “positive good.” An increasing
number of abolitionists, on the other hand, came to
believe that slavery was a grave sin and an evil institution
which should be ended immediately. In his denunciations
of slavery, William Lloyd Garrison called the Constitution
“a covenant with death” and “an agreement
with hell.” In response, Southerners used their
influence to pass a “gag rule” in Congress
which prohibited antislavery petitions, restricted antislavery
speech, and censored the U.S. mail by prohibiting abolitionist
literature from being sent to Southern states. As both
the abolitionists and the supporters of slavery became
more entrenched in their positions, tempers flared,
emotions heightened, and the fabric of the nation frayed
into threats of secession and clouds of disunion.
Did the agitation and activities of the abolitionists
advance or defeat their objective? The “essential
question” posed as the aim of this lesson presents
students with an open-ended, thought-provoking historical
issue for their analysis and assessment.
Objectives
As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Analyze the methods and goals of the Abolitionists
in their crusade against slavery.
- Compare and contrast opinions of supporters and
opponents of abolitionism.
- Evaluate the extent to which militancy helped or
hindered the abolitionist cause.
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