spirituals

http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/query/S?ammem/lomaxbib:@field%28SU BJ+@od1%28Spirituals%29%29

Class 35 Religion, Abolition, and Reform

Opening question: What is this picture?

What is this picture?

What is the picture?

1. A group of settlers moving west. 2. Slave quarters. 3. An outdoor religious meeting. 4. A new town being settled in California.
45%

26% 20% 9%

1.

2.

3.

4.

 Last class we took a closer look at the communities of slavery. Today we will finish that up but focus more on abolition and reform The Ante-bellum period was a time of great change and religiosity Second Great Awakening

Announcements
F Apr 4 NO READING Historical site/museum visit one-page report

M Apr 7

GML, CHAPTER 13, A HOUSE DIVIDED

W Apr 9

ATF, CHAPTER 7, THE MADNESS OF JOHN BROWN

GML, CHAPTER 14, A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: THE CIVIL WAR NO READING NO READING TEST 3

ATF response opportunity (you can do a maximum of four of these for credit)

F Apr 11

M Apr 14 W Apr 16 F Apr 18

Test 3

Test practice: Katie Darling

1. Married into a southern plantation family and noted that the slaves and owners looked like one family (because they were). 2. Described her work as being marked by bells in a southern textile mill. 3. Told about how she would let the calves do the milking for her early in the morning.

42% 37%

21%

1.

2.

3.

Culture and African influences

By this point the majority of slaves did not remember Africa But they had created an African-American culture especially on the larger plantations

Religion

Resistance

Resistance: Runaway
Harriet Jacobs Frederick Douglas

Resistance: Violence Nat Turner

Deeply religious Fasted and prayed People thought he was intended for some great purpose Ran away for 30 days First vision Told to return Has a second vision

1822, second vision

"... while laboring in the field, I discovered drops of blood on the corn, as though it were dew from heaven, and I communicated it to many, both white and black, in the neighborhood; and then I found on the leaves in the woods hieroglyphic characters and numbers, with the forms of men in different attitudes, portrayed in blood, and representing the figures I had seen before in the heavens."

And a third vision -- 1828

"I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first... And by signs in the heavens that it would make known to me when I should commence the great work, and until the first sign appeared I should conceal it from the knowledge of men; and on the appearance of the sign... I should arise and prepare myself and slay my enemies with their own weapons."

August 1831: Rebellion

Eclipse Final sign, sun appears bluegreen Turner and six of his men killed Travis family sleeping Turners force = 40. Killed = 55. Militia captures him Nov 11 -- Tried, Hanged, and skinned 55 executed others banished 200 black people killed by white mobs.

Contemporary Controversies around depictions of slavery

William Styrons Nat Turner

Depicting Slavery Today: Back of the Brick House Smithsonian Exhibit: 1995

John Michael Vlach

Should the Smithsonian have closed the exhibit?

1. Yes 2. No
78%

22%

1.

2.

Kara Walker, Whitney Museum 2007

The Abolition Movement

Immediatists v. Gradualists

1816 American Colonization Society

Supporters: Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John Marshall Response 3000 Africans assemble in Philadelphia and assert that they are Americans

Liberia, Monrovia

Militant Abolitionism: 1829 David Walkers Appeal

Antislavery society, 1833 William Lloyd Garrison

The Liberator, 1831
adulterous and perverse generation, a brood of vipers.

Black abolitionists: Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth

That man over there says women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And arnt I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed, and planted , and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And arnt I woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a manwhen I could get itand bear the lash as well! And arnt I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen them most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mothers grief, none but Jesus heard me! And arent I a woman?

Theodore Weld Slavery was sin

Lane Seminary

Oberlin founded
In all its features this Institution is opposed to Slavery; and is a practical and standing exhibition of the great doctrine of immediate emancipation, producing its legitimate and beneficent results; youth are admitted to all its privileges, without regard to colour, or nation, and there is a department for the instruction of females. It is thoroughly evangelical in its spirit and character, is free from all sectarian partialities, discards the prejudice of caste in its various and disgraceful forms, and has already become a terror to the slave-holder, and a shield and a solace to the victim of the white man's tyranny.

Opposition to Abolitionists
Burn abolitionist literature (SC) Riots at anti-slavery conventions (including Lowell) Murder of Elija Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois

The Underground Railroad

Harriet Tubman Returned to VA and MD 20 times

The Underground Railroad

Abolitionists petitions to Congress

1.End slavery in the District of Columbia - under federal rule, not a state - state's rights arguments don't apply

2. Abolish slavery in the territories

3. Prevent inter-state slave trade to slow the movement of slaves from upper to lower South 4. Petition against annexing Texas - fear this would disrupt balance of slave vs free states in Senate 5. Against new slave states being admitted

Gag Rule, 1836-44 House refuses to consider antislavery petitions to congress (Senate refused to consider considering the petitions)

From Abolition to Womens Rights: Antislavery Convention, London 1840

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Lucretia Mott
The women sat in a low curtained seat like a church choir, and modestly listened for twelve of the longest days in June.. Stanton I can take no part in a convention that strikes down the most sacred rights of all women. Garrison

Single objective reform movements

Abolition Womens rights Temperance Social services Health care Education

The Seneca Falls Convention, 1848 Declaration of Sentiments

List of grievances
He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice. He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men both natives and foreigners. He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.

Aftermath of Seneca Falls Convention

Conventions and legislative petitions begin to create changes More property rights for women Divorce settlements and child custody more favorable to women 1869 Territory of Wyoming first to grant women the right to vote